British Army Censors World War Two

[Neil Williams]

Folks

Pardon if I've overlooked this, but are there any articles(s) or publications which attempt to put locations to the army numbered censor marks?

Interpreting the attached Airletter is a case in point: the datestamp is EA APO 77, which I understand to be at Addis Abeba. The sender's correspondence address is Aden Command (M) - the correspondence indicates he's been located at (M) for over 6 months, so he's not in transit. As Addis Abeba was never under Aden Command, a reasonable possibility is that location (M) is somewhere in the various Somalilands which were part of Aden Command, but whose mail may well have gone to Addis for handling.

If I knew where 9192 was, it would help immensely!

Neil W

[Ross Debenham]

Neil, I wonder if the sender of this letter was in point of fact a member of a transport squadron based in Aden, that flew between Aden and East African Command in Nairobi, and stops in between. I know of an engineering officer based at SORE in Nanyuki, who on a inspection tour of "northern" units also included a job that was being carried out in Aden. Although I don't possess it, I have seen on EBAY a letter from that officer in Aden.

[Michael Dobbs]

Sorry Neil - I cannot help.  I thought I could as I had a recording of that censor number, but then realised it was from the very same cover as yours which I noted came from the late Alistair Kennedy.

Mike

[Ross Debenham]

A bit more information Neil, A600 9192 has previously been observed used at APO 77 on 20 November, 1944. It may be of interest that A600 9191 has also been observed used at the same post office on 18 July, 1944. Maybe you may be able to get a clue to the unit through 9191. Further investigation has determined that 9192 was used at Addis Ababa airfield, where the British Mission was located at this time, along with APO 77. I'll even speculate that it was used in the Signals section, but that may be stretching it a bit. If this is so, that is how a member of the RAF members letter was censored using it.

[Neil Williams]

Ross, Mike

many thanks for the replies. As the AL is addressed to the Radio Society of Great Britain, and is complaining about the non-arrival of the Society's Bulletin, the sender is clearly a radio man, amateur or professional, so a tie-up with the Signals Section at Addis does seem a good possibility. And the endorsing/censoring officer is a Captain.. in 1945 most likely Army, and not South African Air Force.

Well, well, another example of a correspondence address being somewhat of a red-herring! And still no closer to cracking the Aden Command location code letters!

Neil