East African Air Mail Letter Cards

[Nick Guy]

I am curious about an apparent discrepancy in the availability of these for service personnel in 1941.  Bill Colley, in the second edition of The Airmails of East Africa to 1952 (East Africa Study Circle: 2009, ISBN 09515865 7 2) reprints two Kenya Government Notices relating to the introduction of these.  The first, dated 13 June 1941, gives the rate of postage for them addressed by "members of His Majesty's Forces of the United Kingdom serving in the Colony to persons in the United Kingdom."  The second, dated 23 January 1942, gives them for "members of His Majesty's Forces serving in the Colony."

The main Army presence in Kenya in June 1941 was the King's African Rifles, the West African Brigades and the South Africans although it would soon only be the KAR. Did British personnel posted to them retain the status of being "Forces of the United Kingdom?"  As I understand it (correct me if I'm wrong) the Europeans serving in these units (who made up the officers and a proportion of the NCOs and specialists) were a mixture of locally recruited and personnel posted from the UK; it's difficult to imagine a Kenyan with relatives in the UK being denied the privilege of writing AMLCs to them when someone serving alongside him but posted from the UK was allowed it.  So were the KAR (and the West African Frontier Force) "His Majesty's Forces [b]of the United Kingdom[/b]?"  If not, perhaps the lawyers(?) drafting the Notice had failed to grasp the intention of the originators.

Following on from this, I have an AMLC postmarked 13 December at APO 75 (Harar), where the sender gives his return address as 2594475 Sig D Clayton, 46 W/T 2 Coy. 25 A Corps Sig, c/o APO EA Force and is writing to his mother in the UK.  I seem to recall from earlier forum posts that service numbers contain information about the status of their bearer; does this confirm what seems likely, that Sig Clayton was posted from Britain rather than locally recruited.  And is "25 A Corps" 25 African Corps?

[Neil Williams]

Nick

I can't comment on the army number of Signalman Clayton. However, there's never been an African Corps within the British Army - the two Corps involved with the East Africa Campaign were I and IV. The only usage of XXV as a Corps during WWII was as a fictitious  formation based on Cyprus during 1941 as a deception.

Could you post a scan of this ALC ?

Neil W

[Michael Dobbs]

Oh dear, I may have to disagree with you Neil but cannot be certain as this is far outside my area of knowledge / expertise!  However, looking on The Natiuonal Archives website  I came across several War Diaries relating to different aspects of 25 Corps (XXV Corps) in the WO169 class (British Forces Middle East War Diaries):

• WO 169/4024 1942 Apr.- July 25 Corps: G. Branch (XXV Corps)
• WO 169/4025 1942 Apr.- Dec. 25 Corps: AQ Branch (XXV Corps Adjutant and Quartermaster)
• WO 169/4026 1942 Sept.- 1943 May 25 Corps: HQ Cyprus Volunteer Force (XXV Corps)
• WO 169/4027 1942 Apr.- June, Nov. 25 Corps: RE (XXV Corps Royal Engineers)
• WO 169/4028 1942 Nov., Dec. 25 Corps: DCRE (XXV Corps Deputy Commander Royal Engineers)
• WO 169/4029 1942 May- Dec. 25 Corps: Signals (XXV Corps)
• WO 169/4030 1942 July- Dec. 25 Corps: DADPL (XXV Corps Deputy Assistant Director Pioneer and Labour)
• WO 169/4031 1941 Nov-1942 Dec 25 Corps: Hiring Service (XXV Corps)
• WO 169/8634 1943 Jan.- Dec. 25 Corps: Headquarters: GS (XXV Corps Gneral Staff)
• WO 169/8635 1943 Jan.- Dec. 25 Corps: Headquarters: Adjutant and Quartermaster (XXV Corps AQ)
• WO 169/8636 1943 Feb.- Dec. 25 Corps: Headquarters: Chief Engineer (XXV Corps CE)
• WO 169/8637 1943 Jan.- Dec. 25 Corps: Headquarters: Deputy Commander Royal Engineers (XXV Corps DCRE)
• WO 169/8638 1943 Feb.- Dec. 25 Corps: Headquarters: Engineer Company Cyprus Volunteer Force (XXV Corps)
• WO 169/8639 1943 Jan.- Dec. 25 Corps: Headquarters: Signals (XXV Corps)
• WO 169/8640 1943 May- July 25 Corps: Headquarters: Dvr. and Mech. School (XXV Corps)
• WO 169/8641 1943 July- Dec. 25 Corps: Headquarters: Infantry Battalion Cyprus Volunteer Force (XXV Corps)
• WO 169/8642 1943 Jan.- May 25 Corps: Headquarters: Deputy Assistant Director Pioneer and Labour (XXV Corps DADPL)
• WO 169/8643 1943 Jan.- Dec. 25 Corps: Headquarters: Cyprus Regiment Base Depot (XXV Corps)

If this was a deception corps would there be so many potentially detailed war diaries?

This may not, of course, have anything to do with Nick's original query!

I also checked "2594475 Sig D Clayton" on the Forces War Records website but nothing came up, which is surprising considering there is a regimental number available.

If this response serves no purpose then please ignore it!

Mike

[Ross Debenham]

Can I suggest that it was not 25 Corps that this signal man was attached to, but actually headquarters of 25 (EA) Brigade that was in Ethiopia at the time. Normally mail from this brigade would pass through East African APO 55, but as APO 75 was a Lines of Communications PO office the mail would have been picked up by them. With regards to the service numbers the soldiers retained his service number but was attached to the East African forces usually with a substantive rank. With regards to the Letter Cards I haven't got a clue, but I believe some were printed in East Africa later in the war. Hope this helps.

[Neil Williams]

re-25 Corps : A read of the following link might be of interest. Not that wikepedia is always right, but this appears to be on the basis of reputable sources.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_deception_formations_in_World_War_II

Some activity under the Corps label would be required to maintain the deception.

coming back to the ALC ... it has just occurred to me that Clayton would be a member of the (Royal) Corps of Signals....  it would still be helpful if Nick could post a scan.

Neil W

[Nick Guy]

Hello all and thanks for your thoughts.  I apologize for not getting back to this earlier - I had a major family celebration and other things have slipped!  I have attached scans of the AMLC front and the message - the back when sealed is entirely blank. 

Regarding the date of introduction of AMLCs, since posting I have been informed by a fellow member of the East Africa Study Circle that the East African Army Postal Service announced the AMLC service on 21 July 1941, formular AMLCs were distributed to EA Forces later in the month and the commencement of the service officially announced in the Nairobi Press on 11 August 1941 for Kenya and Southern Ethiopia.  Between that and the postal notice, the range of dates seems to be accounted for, and I imagine as a postal service it legally had to be approved by the civilian authorities and the later dates of Army announcement reflect that it then had to be processed through the military bureaucracy.  Since no-one has commented on the point about the forces covered by the Postal Notices, I will have to stick with my guess that the earlier notice was sloppily worded - perhaps just lifted verbatim from a notice for an area like Egypt where (home) British Army troops were deployed.  If so, the later Notice which expanded the range of AMLCs from just the UK to the Dominions and Empire presumably also gave an opportunity to clarify the intention.

Regarding Signalman Clayton, as his mother was living in England it seems likely that he joined the forces in the UK and was posted - but he could have moved to Kenya before 1939 and joined up there, I suppose.  Moyse-Bartlett records that in 1938 the war establishment of a first line KAR battalion was set at 35 British Officers, 43 British Warrant Officers and NCOs and 562 African Ranks. There were S&T (Supply and Transport in this context, I imagine) and Signals Sections.  Some of the British were posted from the UK - I know that the Army Lists include officers of British Regiments seconded to the KAR.  On the other hand, the Kenya Regiment (at that time an all-European Territorial Regiment) members were called up and, according to Guy Campbell's [i]The Charging Buffalo[/i] sent off to the KAR (initially as officers and senior NCOs).  The Regiment served as a depot and training unit and Guy Campbell states that there was no "branch, arm or service which was not provided with officers, NCOs or men from the Regiment."  That seems to include the possibility of a Signalman being locally recruited.  If so, service records do not appear to have been held in London - at least, I cannot find locally recruited KAR Officers in the Army List (for example, I cannot find Lieutenant, later Captain Yorke Davis, who appears to have farmed in the Kinangop area and whose correspondence forms such a large part of the surviving material, in the Army List).

Ross's suggestion that the 25th is the Brigade makes more sense than anything I have been able to come up with, but would mean that Signalman Clayton was serving on some sort of detached duty as 25 Brigade had a major role in the Battle of Gondar (Gondar, in Northern Ethiopia, is some 1100 km from Harar, in the East of the country, by road) which lasted until 27 Nov, then, according to Moyse-Bartlett, completed the evacuation of prisoners and stores before concentrating at Gura (a major Italian base in Eritrea, North of Ethiopia) for embarkation - presumably from Massawa (though in the end they were dispatched to Kenya by road).

 

[Michael Dobbs]

I meant to add in my response that his service numnber (2594475) fits in with the block allocated to the Royal Corps of Signals.
[url=http://www.researchingww2.co.uk/army-numbers-british-army-ww2/]http://www.researchingww2.co.uk/army-numbers-british-army-ww2/[/url]

Which would confirm he joined in England and was a British soldier.

Mike

[Nick Guy]

Hello Mike

Thanks for that - that seems a valuable webpage.

Another point occurs to me - when specialists were deployed in East Africa would they always be posted to East African Units or were any specialist units deployed to East Africa as such - that is, there were, as I mentioned, EA Signals and S&T sections and I know there were East (and West) African batteries serving in the Abyssinia campaign.  These would undoubtedly have had a substantial British component, but the prevalent attitudes at that time meant that skilled personnel were in short supply and I am wondering if the specialists that had to be sent out to East Africa were always posted to the local units?

[Neil Williams]

Thanks to Nick for posting the ALC.

some further internet digging: see
https://www.britishmilitaryhistory.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/124/2019/11/Fire-in-Kenya-1944.pdf

strongly indicates the unit information to be 46 W/T (section), No 2 Company, 25th (African) Corps Signal Unit, formed in Kenya in late 1940 with British Royal Corps of Signals personnel, as corps troops of Advanced HQ East African Command (or Force), prior to the invasion of Italian East Africa. As would be normal practice, parts of a Corps Signal Unit would be attached (not posted) to subordinate formations and locations.

I note the ALC is datelined Harar 15 Dec 41, which is nearly 9 months after Harar was liberated, so I would think this section was then probably supporting Line of Communication or garrison troops. He's clearly bored!

Neil W

[Michael Dobbs]

Neil

Thank you so much for your continued 'digging' in trying to resolve the issues raised by Nick.  I was convinced that 25 A Corps Sigs [i]WAS NOT[/i] 25th Brigade but could not prove it!  You have done so and as a result I have come across this web site:
[url=http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol125cl.html]http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol125cl.html[/url]

This shows that East African Signal Corps (EA Signals) was a Corps in its own right formed on 1 September 1939 (not part of the British Army but an East African organisation) albeit it was staffed by (British) Royal Signals personnel: British Army Royal Signals personnel arrived from the United Kingdom to augment the fifty from Palestine to form the headquarters portions of 11 and 12 (A) Divisional Signals, 25 (A) Corps of Signals for advanced headquarters at Carissa, and a line of communications signal unit.

Mike

[Nick Guy]

Hello Mike and Neil

Thank you for your help and for pointing me to some fascinating resources on the web (there is so much useful information that I still have difficulty locating).

Nick