AFRICAN AUXILLIARY PIONEER CORPS, MIDDLE EAST.

[Ross Debenham]

I attach 2 scans of a recently acquire cover which I believe is from a Nigerian member of the AAPC in the Middle East. As can be seen it is post marked st FPO 293 on 20 November, 1943 in French Cameroons. I was censored upon arrival in French Cameroons.  The questions I have for members is where in the Middle East was FPO 293 on that date and were troops from French Cameroons enlisted in the Nigerian army.

[Neil Williams]

Ross

Proud's FPO book states 'Egypt' for FPO 293 at this time. Not precise!

My understanding would be that people in the British Cameroon could enlist in the Nigerian elements of British West Africa forces, whilst people in French Cameroon would normally join  the Free French Forces. However, I expect few of the non-European populations would have had id papers, so they could be taken on wherever they presented themselves to enlist. 

The address looks to have been written by an educated English-speaker - an officer or SNCO perhaps.

Neil

[Ross Debenham]

Thanks Neil, looks like it might have been a private, but whether he was ex-pat or native it a little hard to know from the name on the reverse of the cover. I have attached a scan of the reverse of the cover.

[Neil Williams]

Ross

It does look like a native name, and definitely a Private.

I admit I'm stumped by his army number, as I don't know what the NA stands for. If somebody can crack that, you'll be a lot further forward!

Neil

[Ross Debenham]

Neil, I can assure you that NA was  the prefix for Nigerian troops during WW2. I have other covers from Nigerian forces in India/Burma as well as from West Africa. I know that GC was the prefix for Gold Coast troops, as I have a couple of them. I believe that S may have been the prefix for Sierra Leone troops but I might be wrong there. I haven't seen any from Gambian troops, so I haven't got any idea what the prefix was for them. This practice doesn't seem to have carried over into East African troops and mails from them don't seem to have any prefix, but then again, I haven't seen many covers from East African native troops. The search continues.

[Neil Williams]

Ross

perhaps I should have guessed what NA was! Useful to know.

Neil

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hi Ross / Neil

Looking at this one to drop into the Spring Journal, unusual subject and worth exploring further.

Showing my ignorance here on WW2 matters, what does AAPC stand for? 

Only thing I can think of is 'African Army Pioneer Corps'

Chris

PS Think I need to visit Spec Savers,  Missed the wood for the trees.  :(

[Nick Guy]

Hello

Wandering off - regarding number prefixes for East Africa, I've a couple of covers from East African Pioneers in the North African Theatre (where they were not allowed to operate as combat troops). Both identify themselves "U.M.L. (No) nnnnn" - I've not worked out the significance of U.M.L.  Sergeant Yalon from Uganda, however, writing in Swahili through an East African APO (number unfortunately off the cover) with IND 102 and 160/2 censor marks so with the movement of KAR troops to Burma (where they were allowed to fight) - so possibly in India and Ceylon as well - just has "N. 8913".

"AAPC" - African Auxiliary Pioneer Corps (incidentally the Wikipedia entry for the AAPC seems to imply it only recruited in the High Commission Territories, but that is not the case).

May I take advantage of this thread to ask  - I have a vague recollection of a publication naming (some of) the Pioneer Companies serving in North Africa but haven't been able to spot it in FPHS J - was there an article about them more or less recently, please?

Nick

[Ross Debenham]

Nick, with regards African forces in India/Burma, I have a AMLC from a Rhodesian sergeant who was serving at 136 (Ind) Base Hospital, at New Forest in India. His service number, according to the letter was CR2599. Now as I have another cover from the same gentleman post marked at APO2 in Nairobi, I wonder if the East African forces did have alpha prefixes.

[Nick Guy]

Ross

I'll have to keep my eyes open as I write up/move around EA material, though any conclusions I come to will be confounded by a couple of factors - first, that most of the time they were not allowed to put return addresses on the outside of mail so very few covers have numbers, and, second, if they are Europeans, I have always assumed there was a fairly good chance that they were British Army (recruited in the UK) on attachment but presumably keeping their original service number.

Just to add to the general merriment, I attach a couple of scans of covers and wonder where they take us on the presence/absence/origin of alpha prefixes.  Did Sgt Clarke - who is clearly Northern Rhodesian - join up at home and acquire the LF prefix there, or was it when he was attached to the Ethiopians?  And was Sgt Billson South African or Northern Rhodesia or South African and where did he join up, since he does not give a prefix?

[Neil Williams]

Ross, Nick

Certainly there were secondments/attachments from British Army and Indian Army units of officers and SNCOs, but I understand that many 'local-Europeans' were either in colonial militias/reserves, or rapidly volunteered or were otherwise soon involved in their local regiments and or other services.

I think my point is (!) the apparent ethnicity of a name is not always a good guide of origin...

Neil 

[Ross Debenham]

Thanks Nick and Neil, The gentleman with the CR prefix was not a native member of the forces, as he moved to Sydney in Australia after working for the Smith Government in Salisbury. Whereas we see a lot of mail from West African troops in SEAC, I don't think I have ever seen mail for East African native forces there.

[Michael Dobbs]

Nick

Your query on an article in our Journal struck a cord with me as well.  However, despite a long search twice over in our online index and physically looking through individul issues going back to 1982 I didn't come across "Pioneer Companies serving in North Africa" but I did come across an article by Alistair Kennedy on "Indian Ocean and East African Pioneers" in FPHS Newsletter (now Journal) N0 251 (Spring 2002).  This related to Royal Pioneer Corps (RPC) Empire units in the Middle East - mainly Mauritian and Seychellois RPC units numbered 2037 to 2064 and 2201 to 2225.  Hope it helps!

Mike  :)

[Ross Debenham]

Thanks Mike, Malcolm Page in his non-philatelic book "Kings African Rifles - A History" tells a story of an East African officer in London for the Victory Parade after the war, running into a group of East African pioneers who had been taken prisoner when Tobruk fell. Very interesting area. I have a cover from Mauritius to a Mauritian member soldier in the Middle East, and addressed to 1505 Company. I don't know if the recipient was a active serviceman or a pioneer. Date of postage 1 August, 1942.

[Nick Guy]

Thanks to Mike for his effort on my behalf.

Native (Askari) mail from anywhere is "difficult" in my experience - and so is any sort of Pioneer Corps stuff!  I suppose that's half th fun.

Nick