"PRISONER OF WAR"

[Ross Debenham]

Incoming letter to a member of C Company, 1st South African Irish Regt, captured at the Battle of Sidi Rezegh on 23 November, 1941. The regiment was part of 5 South African Brigade the vast majority of whom were captured in the battle. Has a very interesting rectangular cachet on it and post marked at SA APO 32 at Helwan using EPP37. Unfortunately some of the prisoners were lost when the ship transporting them to Italy was torpedoed.

[Peter Harvey]

Hi Ross,

Nice cover, maybe one of the greatest battles for the Eight Army and certainly the early North Africa campaign material is the most difficult to locate. I don't thing the POW cachets have ever been tied down to location of use, there are no leads to go on as normally they were not signed or initialled. But I would assume either a Base or Home APO cachet?

Peter