Cover of The Day 20 Due 2020 - RAF Intelligence SOE Operations WW2

[Peter Harvey]

Attached picture of a plain cover - to reverse addressed from a Fred Ziegler Haslemere, writing to his brother, paid 2.1/2d inland letter rate cancelled HASLEMERE 5 Aug 1943.

Cover is addressed to a Squadron Leader Ziegler c/o W/C V. J. Sofiano MBE, Air Ministry A.1. I.C. King Charles street Whitehall.

Opened and resealed plain brown tape tied PASSED BY CENSOR AT HEAD OFFICE with Air Ministry receiving/redirection cachet (not sure).

A few facts: Sqn Leader H.K. Ziegler - was working with 'Special Duties' Branch throughout out WW2, after the war he was mentioned in the King's Birthday Honours and Decorated by the Czech's, some internet references refer to him be a translator - interpreter (so that would fit with the Czech connection.

You can find references to Wing Command V. J. Sofiano all over the Internet, he is mentioned in a number of post war intelligence books. He was awarded his MBE before the war, the 1938 Air Force List has him working with the Deputy Directorate of Intelligence. As early as 1919 I have found references to this young RAF Officer working with the inteligence community in Palestine. In early WW2 he was engaged in organising clandestine flights with the SIS (MI6) into Norway and as the war progressed with the SIS SOE acting as liaison with the RAF and clandestine/ partisan flights into France, Italy and Eastern Europe. His RAF records show he retired after the War as a 'Medical Officer' clearly not true, in 1961 he was awarded a CBE which Pricipal Executive Officer with the Foreign Office.... he picked up a U.S. Bronze Star for something as well.

Questions:

1. Does anyone know what department Air Ministry A.1. I.C. refers to?
2. The Censor cachet is somewhat unique - I would guess this was a departmental censor for the Air Ministry ?

The cover has a crossed through Addis Ababa note and marked London - this could simply be desks within the Air Ministry.

Any comments welcome:

[Michael Dobbs]

Peter

A very nice cover with some interesting history.

The Air Ministry department as w ritten on the cover is A.I.1.C (you have the I and 1 the wrong way round).

I have carried out some researches on The National Archives website and I believe that A.I = Air Intelligence (i.e. Air Ministry, Directorate of Intelligence).  I'm not sure what the 1.C is but I have seen refences to A.I.1(k) and A.I.1(e) as well as references to A.I.2.

These are all part of the AIR40 class under which it is stated:
Air Ministry, Directorate of Intelligence and related bodies: Intelligence Reports and Papers
This series consists of various intelligence reports, narratives, photographs and surveys of enemy capabilities and reports of operations carried out against the enemy and of interrogation of prisoners of war.

Whether any of these files will give you the full answer, I don't know.

Mike

[Peter Harvey]

Hi Mike,

Thank you very much for that, I appreciate the information.

The links to intelligence are clear and you have added to this, appreciated.

Peter

[Nick Colley]

Hmm, wrt the censor mark, the obvious conclusion is that it was applied somewhere inside the RAF. However, the obvious conclusion isn't always correct. However, I'm not sure we have any clues, really, about where else on its travels the mark could have been applied (NOT, presumably, Addis Ababa!), so we could assume the obvious until any further examples are reported. What do you think, chaps? (If anything  :D).

chrs
N

[Michael Dobbs]

To me its clear that it was censored somewhere in the UK - posted in UK and addressed to the Air Ministry and redirected initially to Addis Ababa then to London, but there is no evidence that it actually went to Addis Ababa.

The other datestamp has (I believe) LON(DON?) on the top left hand corner, then RECEIVED / WITH .... ENCL, then NO(?) with the date 6 AUG 1943

The other boxed initials are A.M. (for Air Ministry?).

The PASSED BY CENSOR / AT HEAD OFFICE is in a different colour to the above datestamp.  I would suggest that it was applied at a different office or location.

I would suggest that the cover stayed in the UK and was censored at a "Head Office" in the UK - could this be the 'Special Duties' Branch?

Mike

[Peter Harvey]

Thanks Nick & Michael,

This cover has been sold at auction before with notes stating this is the only known copy of the cachet - I think that may still be the case. The Head Office reference is a hard one, GC & CS (Government Code & Cypher School I think was set up at Bletchley Park in 1938 with the bulk of the intelligence community moving there during the Munich Criss, as these numbers were so large (1800 I recall) and the infrastructure built up quickly around them, they stayed there, other than the then references to moving back to a number of Head Offices in central London. In fact that intelligence community kept the title 'Head Office' instead of headquarters, in much the same way as their operations were called 'productions' during WW2.

Both the SIS history and the A-Z British Intelligence by Nigel West refer to Head Office at 54 Broadway, St James Park, clearly the 'head office' of the SIS and then SOE operations. So the censor mark may have been applied by the intelligence services ?

Other comments or additions most welcome.