MIDDLE EAST WW2 CENSOR HANDSTAMP USAGE

[dtrapnell]

POW mail from the Middle East in WW2 was often handstamped by the censor (boxed or unframed) PW MIDDLE / EAST/ number - see attached sample.
The same handstamp may be found on POW mail from Kenya & India.
Please would anyone who has one or more examples of this handstamp be so kind as to send image(s) to me PLUS the date of sending?  I think the date may be important.
MANY THANKS.

[Nick Guy]

Is it any number you are interested in?  I collect EA POW camps so have a range of numbers but not this one. 

Sorry to be obtuse.

[dtrapnell]

How kind of you.
This is a completely new topic for me. I am not interested in the numbers so much as where the handstamp was applied. Did the "P/W MIDDLE EAST" h/s get applied in transit through the Middle East or was it actually applied in E Africa?
If applied in the latter, what mail got P/W ME and what got P/W EAST AFRICA? How do we know?
I got interested because some (but a small proportion of) POW mail to & from India got the same sort of handstamp.
Are there books which answer my question? I have not found any.
Thanks. Looking forward to your reply,
David

[Chris Weddell]

David,

        I wanted to reply sooner but but i mislaid my cover. My cover was sent to German POW at the Helwan camp. I am interested in German POW's in the Middle East who were members of certain regiments. I hope this will help.

                                                              Regards

                                                                Chris  :)

[Chris Weddell]

I should have put this scan first !!

              Chris  :-[

[ehall]

Not sure if this helps. Camps in Egypt are

# 304 Heluan
# 305 Tell El Kebir
# 306 Fayid/Bitter lake
# 307 Fanara/Bitter lake
# 308 Fayid/Bitter lake (former Heluan)
# 309 Fayid (?)/Bitter lake
# 310 Gineifa/Bitter lake
# 368 Fayid/Bitter lake
# 379 Quassassin
# 380 Fanara/Bitter lake
# 381 El Daaba
# 382 El Daaba
# 383 El Daaba

[dtrapnell]

Thanks, Edmund.
I have that list.
My study is progressing.
DT

[dtrapnell]

MANY THANKS TO CHRIS WEDDELL FOR HIS INTERESTING COVER FROM GERMANY TO A GERMAN POW IN CAMP 304 (AT ALEXANDRIA) AND MANY APOLOGIES FOR NOT REPLYING SOONER.
YOUR COVER IS VERY INTERESTING IN THAT IT SHOWS NO SIGN OF BRITISH CENSORSHIP. DO YOU KNOW IF IT WAS EVER DELIVERED?
IT WAS VERY UNUSUAL FOR POWS OF DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES TO BE MIXED IN ONE CAMP. SO THE DATE OF THIS LETTER IS PROBABLY SIGNIFICANT. I HAVE A LETTER FROM AN ITALIAN POW IN CAMP 304 IN DECEMBER 1943.

[b]ANY MORE COVERS TO OR FROM GERMAN POWS IN WW2 WILL BE MUCH APPRECIATED. [/b]

RENEWED THANKS
DAVID

[Chris Weddell]

Charles,

          I do think the cover was delivered to the P.O.W. I know of a number of German P.O.W. camps which housed P.O.W.s of different nationalities. I can also think of a few P.O.W. camps here which held P.O.W.s of different nationalities as well.

                                                            Regards

                                                            Chris

[dtrapnell]

Thanks, Chris.

I am concerned with [i]British[/i] POW camp practice. In UK & India (and the Middle East as far as I can tell) separation of nationalities was the norm in POW camps (but not in civil internee camps). Germans often followed Italians in a camp after the war.

If yours was delivered, why does it have no British "MIDDLE EAST" censor h/s? Most unusual.
Thanks again.
David

[Chris Weddell]

David

          I have had a very good look at the cover again and if you look at the second photo you will see the cover was opened by the German censor then resealed with their censor tape and then the cover was opened and then resealed with 'prisoners of war censorship, middle east' censor tape which I would think was done at the camp. The censor tape has been opened so i would say this mail got to the P.O.W. and to the camp.

                                                     Regards

                                                     Chris  ;D

[dtrapnell]

Thanks, Chris. You may well be right.
I suspect that the censorship took place in the Cairo Middle East censorship office rather than the camp. But that it was opened [i]again[/i] probably shows it got to the addressee.

D

[Nick Guy]

David

It has taken me rather a long time to put together this reply to your query, for which I apologise.  It's been a busy summer and when I was able to look at my material as you'll see various avenues opened up. 

Uploading 40 or 50 scans to the Forum did not seem to be a practical approach so what I have done is upload a pair of documents for Middle East and East African marks with a listing of my holding and some notes.  I've probably provided much more information than you can use as these have effectively become my notes on my collection, but I hope you can extract the information you need without too much trouble.  If you would still like to see scans I'll be happy to provide them, but if you want more than a small sample, perhaps we had better go direct!

You ask about books that answer your query.  I am not aware of any that do so fully, but three make relevant (but brief!) comments -

[b]Italian P.O.W. and Internees in Africa[/b]
Migliavacca, G
[i]Pavia, Italy: 1980, Giorgio Migliavacca, 42p. (ISBN 88 85047 00 9)[/i]
I have seen citations of a 2nd edition of this published in 1983, which I have not seen, and the publisher has said (in Camp mail etc below) that he intends to publish a 3rd - unless someone can tell us differently, this does not appear to have been published yet.

This comments:
"Censorship was performed far from actual POW Camps.
Malta was also chosen as a "censor office" since the Maltese knew Italian language pretty well.
POW mail was forwarded through Sudan and Egypt and it is possible that some of the following Censor Marks were applied in transit.  Type A - C - E - were certainly applied in Cairo. This is proven
by the fact that P.O.W. mail from Egypt shows the very same censor marks."

(His types A, C & E are the ones I refer to as ME-III, ME-V & ME-I, ie some of the "P/W MIDDLE EAST ..." types.  I find it difficult to imagine mail actually being taken to Malta for censorship during the war – though the idea of Maltese serving as censors recurs and seems reasonable.).

[b]East Africa: World War II[/b]
Henning, H F
[i]UK, 1996, East Africa Study Circle, 122p (ISBN 0 9515865 2 1)[/i]

This comments under "P/W EAST AFRICA" marks that "It is not known where these were applied and it is impossible to identify these marks with specific camps."
Under "P/W MIDDLE EAST" marks he goes on to say "A similar series of marks bears the inscription "P/W MIDDLE EAST" followed by the number of the censor officer. It is not known exactly where these were applied but as some of the mail was forwarded through Sudan and Egypt, they could have been applied anywhere in transit. They are, however, reported to be similar to other censor marks known to have been used at Cairo. "

[b]Camp Mail of Italian Prisoners of War & Civilian Internees in East Africa, 1940-1947.  New Millennium Edition incorporating new illustrations[/b].
Weisbecker, W G.  Addenda & update: Migliavacca, G
[i]St Thomas VI, USA: 2006, 159p (ISBN 88 85047 09 2)[/i]
This is the second edition of a book first published in 1981 - the 2006 addendum consists of 24 pages of illustrations of additional covers.

This comments:
"Censorship of mail to and from Italian P.O.W. and civilian internee camps in East Africa ... was undertaken by the East Africa Command at Nairobi, Kenya, and the British Middle East Command at Cairo, Egypt, each of which used its own rubber-stamp markings and printed labels."
and also:
"It is of passing interest to record that a number of the censors, in particular those employed by the Middle East Command, were Maltese who, as British subjects then, were also fluent In the Italian language."


I assume the reference in Weisbecker to each Command using its own markings means the MIDDLE EAST types were used at Cairo and the EAST AFRICA types were used at Nairobi but he does not cite the source of this information, is he just making a "reasonable assumption" about how the markings were distributed?  Harry Henning made his comment after seeing the 1st edition of Weisbecker which has the same text.

I confess I had never questioned my assumption that MIDDLE EAST would have been used in that theatre, probably in Egypt, and EAST AFRICA somewhere in Kenya or possibly the adjacent territories until you raised the issue.  One possibility that occurred to me when you did was that the MIDDLE EAST types could have been used or introduced in Kenya before East Africa was made a separate command in September 1941 but since Weisbecker records "P/W EAST AFRICA" from May 1941 and "P/W EAST AFRICA" from July 1941 throughout the War, I don't think that will fly.  If POW mail from East Africa was taken to Cairo for censorship, it would not be a unique arrangement – much civilian mail from Tanganyika has Northern Rhodesian censorship, for example.  It would hardly be surprising if East Africa resources were stretched – with over quarter of a million Italian troops in Italian East Africa and Ethiopia all of whom except those who died during the campaign would become POWs and Italian civilians who were interned or evacuated all entitled to regular correspondence, a staff of 50 or 100 censors sounds quite plausible to me.

Incidentally if you are looking for a pattern, the 2006 edition of Weisbecker (which includes the 24 page addendum of cover illustrations not in the 1981 edition) will give you around 60 or so more data points to analyse.

Nick Guy

[dtrapnell]

Nick,
Thanks SO much for your kind and detailed reply.
The 3 books. 1. I suspect that Giorgio Migliavacca, who wrote the 1980/3 book, would not suggest Malta now. My current work certainly does not support that idea.
2. After my question on Forum, I obtained a copy of Henning's book. He does not "nail down" what I wanted to know. As my study progresses, I am increasingly sure that [i]all [/i]mail stamped with the MIDDLE EAST censor h/s had this done in Cairo. Obviously, I will publish my findings when they are completed.
3. Weisbecker's observation about Maltese censors in Cairo may well be correct. Independent  contemporary evidence of this would be very welcome.

Where were the EAST AFRICA h/s applied? I agree with you that Nairobi (or near) must be the likely place. My present study does not attempt to address that issue but I will probably advance a hypothesis which can be tested by you (& me) later. My theory is consistent with your suggestion about POW mail.

Alas, I cannot find how to view your attached images! Someone will tell me, I'm sure

Renewed thanks
David

[Chris Weddell]

David

        I was going through my covers to be mounted pile and found this one. It is from a Dr in Germany to a German POW who was a Dr . The cover was posted to Camp 305, Tell El Kebir via the POW Censor Centre Middle East. There are not any other cachets or cancels on the cover apart from the German cancel or the pencil script.

                                              Regards

                                              Chris  ;D