FORCES POSTAL HISTORY SOCIETY JOURNAL Whole ......Forces Postal History Society Journal No 325 Autumn 2020 275 Captain (later Major) Albert Burton Gresham, Winnipeg Grenadiers Alan

FORCES POSTAL HISTORY SOCIETY

JOURNAL

Whole Number 325

Autumn 2020 Vol XXXIV No 7

ISSN 1752-0975

© Forces Postal History Society and Authors

From the Forum

Sinking of HMS Curacao: See Page 327

Forces Postal History Society Journal No 325 Autumn 2020

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Contents

Captain (later Major) Albert Burton Gresham, Winnipeg Grenadiers: Alan Baker. 275 - 276 Feed Back ; HMT 602: Colin Tabeart 276 The Falklands War and the RAF Detachment at Dakar, Senegal: Marc Parren 277 – 278 Editorial Correction: Kinmel Park Military Camp: Chris Grimshaw 278 British Submarines in WW2: Colin Tabeart 279 - 291 The Battle for Lake Tanganyika in WWI: Tony Walker 292 – 301 Army Post HD A.3 Cancels: Patrick Frost 302 – 303 Napoleonic Wars1803 – 1815: John Cowlin 303 - 304 Bermuda WWII Censored Mail: Ryan Epps 305 - 307 Malta. W.W.I Naval Censor. GOULD 3B47. “Wilkinson”: David Ball 308 - 309 Rhodesia’s Oil boycott: The RAF Operational Base in Majunga, Marc Parron 210 - 313 Madagascar: Life on the Western Front, Royal Naval Division, June 1917:Colley, Schofield & Baker 314 - 316 Feedback : Query: 396 reply by Phil Schreiber. A follow up: Colin Tabeart 316 Query : 400 : Indian Soldiers on the Rhine : Konrad Meyer 317 Query : 401 : The Royal Air Force in the Azores – May 1945: Peter O’Keeffe 318 - 319 Query : 402 : A Submarine P.O.W. From U12 ? : Dean. Mario 319 Feedback :Query: 399. Journal # 324 Page 260 Messer’s Taeart, Gould, Entwistle 320 Request for Information and help. : John Scott 320 Feedback Journal # 324 Page 235-236 DAYNES EA B4 : Dean Mario 321 From the Forum “Cover of the Day” Various 322 - 330 From Beef Tea to Battleships : A Review by Colin Tabeart 331 - 332 Editorial This Autumn Edition once again brings a wide range of articles showing the range and diversity of members collecting interests. In these troubled and unknown times much of our hobby has been placed on hold, No Live Meetings, Stamp Fairs and Exhibitions to attend. On line meetings are starting up and appear to be popular with those on line and having the expertise and technology to participate. The “Cover of the Day” project on the Forum has now concluded, some including myself might say too early. I show an interesting selection of material taken from the Forum and would encourage all able to log on and hopefully post something. Hopefully in these troubled times we are all keeping safe and have cracked down on our ongoing research projects. This brings me to a subject close to my heart, “How do we record our researches” Traditionally this has taken the form of the written word, tables or spreadsheet’s etc with a small (usually) number of illustrations. A paper format of publication, book, study paper or such like has been the accepted norm. However with the growth in cheap, easily usable scanners and the Internet publishing online is almost without limit. I’m currently engaged is a study of the Type 7 Censor marks as previously mentioned. The plan is to show all I can, one number per page, illustrated, with a relevant write-up I’m also aware of a study of WWI Naval Cachets which hopefully will follow a similar format. Editor’s contact details:

Chris Grimshaw, 11 Warwick Gardens, Hinckley, LE10 1SD

Email [email protected] Tel 07892 861240

mailto:[email protected]


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Captain (later Major) Albert Burton Gresham, Winnipeg Grenadiers

Alan Baker

Albert Burton Gresham was actually born in Perth, Australia in 1905, but emigrated to

Winnipeg, Canada with his parents in 1910. He was educated at St John’s High School and the University of Manitoba. His main interest was in ornithology and he became a renowned bird photographer. He worked for many years for the Winnipeg Free Press and contributed articles on nature matters, illustrated with his own photographs.

On the outbreak of war, he joined the Winnipeg Grenadiers and rose to the rank of Major. On 27th May 1940, a battalion of the Winnipeg Grenadiers arrived in Jamaica to take over garrison duties, relieving the British force of this duty. The Canadian force received the designation “Y” Force. Captain Gresham was one of the officers of this battalion and wrote frequent letters home to his wife and mother in Winnipeg. Initially, this post bore a censor stamp giving the name of the unit and the censoring officer. In due course, this was replaced by a general “Y” Force censor stamp. The numerals 3 and 4 were used by the Winnipeg Grenadiers, although other numbers are known from later garrison units.

Figure: 1. Letter to his wife with unit censor stamp. Self-censored

In September 1941, the battalion was relieved by the 1st Battalion, Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders of Canada as garrison force and was sent to Hong Kong as part of “C” Force to


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assist in the defence of the colony against Japanese invasion. On 19th December, Gresham, now promoted Major, was killed during a Japanese attack. Other members of the battalion were taken prisoner and some died in prison camps. He is commemorated on Sai Wan Memorial, Hong Kong.

Figure: 2.

Roughly opened letter to his mother, bearing Military Censor stamp Y Force No. 4

*************************************

Feedback

HMT 602

Colin Tabeart

I would like to comment on Tony Walker’s article in FPHS Journal #324. Page 227 - 230

Referring to Tony Walker's fine article on HMT 602 in the Summer Journal, the RFHMS / NCTBR on Fig 5 is likened to Gould RA32 of Harwich. There is no way this letter would have gone anywhere near Harwich en route Plymouth-Aberdeen. It is undoubtedly a Plymouth stamp.

Handstamps with this wording in practically identical format were issued to many of the major ports in the UK as recorded by me in Robertson Revisited. I have not seen one this early for Plymouth, where I record N6, proofed in March 1919. I noted: "There must have been an earlier version of this marking for such a major naval port." So here we have an example, thanks to Tony's article.


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The Falklands War and the RAF Detachment at Dakar, Senegal

Marc Parren

When Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in April 1982, the British government

assembled and sent a task force (TF 317) down to the South Atlantic to liberate the island group. Because of the distance involved, the RAF was tasked with establishing an air supply route down to the nearest airfield to the Falklands which was Wideawake Airport on Ascension Island some 6,000 km from the UK. RAF Hercules airplanes were used on this supply route. However, they could not cope with the long distances involved, so from Lyneham they were routed to Dakar (Senegal) and sometimes Gibraltar, depending on the weather and the headwinds.

These aircraft would stage down to Dakar where they would take on a fresh crew and

enough fuel to fly on down to Ascension and back to Dakar without using any of the precious reserves on the island; another crew would then bring the aircraft back to Lyneham (Evans 2003).

The squadrons involved were Nos. 24, 30, 47 and 70 (Bennett 2018). Already John

Wilson (1983) mentioned that BFPO 630 had been allocated to an RAF detachment in Dakar, as a letter he sent June 1982 was sent in error to BFPO 630 (Dakar) and next brought to Ascension before being delivered to the Falklands. Here I now can report that this service lasted at least until April 1984 and Flight Lieutenant L.T. Chamberlain confirms that the given address was BFPO 630 and that it did not have its own forces post office. Outgoing mail was either posted at Dakar (Fig. 1) using the Senegalese civil postal services, or was carried by RAF aircraft to Ascension where it was handled by BFPO 677 and cancelled by FPO 777 (Fig. 2). Personnel manning the detachment was accommodated at the Meridien Hotel in Dakar..

Figure: 1.

Cover of a member of the RAF Detachment based at Dakar, Senegal posted 25 April 1984 at Dakar-Yoff, Senegal.


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Figure: 2. Cover of a member of the RAF Detachment based at Dakar, Senegal flown and posted 25 April 1984 at FPO 777 (Ascension).

Figure : 3.

Reverse of Cover References

1. Bennett, Clive (2018). C-130 Hercules in the RAF. Amberley Publishing, Stroud, UK.

2. Evans, Clive (2003). RAF Lyneham and the air bridge. RAF Historical Society Journal 30: 47-52.

3. Wilson, John (1983). Some more philatelic notes on the Falklands campaign. FPHS Newsletter

175: 69-72.

Kinmel Park Military Camp and the riot of 1919

Alan Spencer

Summer Journal No 324: Page 218 - 226

A Correction

The “Gremlins” and my proof reading struck in this article resulting in

incorrect numbering of the illustrations. Readers may wish to correct their

copies, re-numbering the illustrations consecutively from No 1 onwards.

Editor.

Kinmel Park Military Camp and the riot of 1919

Alan Spencer

Summer Journal No 324: Page 218 - 226

A Correction

The “Gremlins” and my proof reading struck in this article resulting in incorrect

numbering of the illustrations. Readers may wish to correct their copies, re-

numbering the illustrations consecutively from No 1 onwards.

Editor.


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British Submarines in WW2

Colin Tabeart

The German Kriegsmarine started the war with many fewer boats than Doenitz wanted,

but the Type VIIs and Type IXs were of modern design and well fitted for their operational role – the blockade of the United Kingdom. The Royal Navy, on the other hand, began with a motley collection of WW1 designed H and L class boats, now realistically only of use in a training role, supplemented by a few boats of inter-war design. Thankfully the disastrous K Class had all been scrapped – those that had not already been sunk by own forces or mechanical malfunctions.

The main fighting capability of the Submarine Service during the war was delivered by

three newer classes of boat, the S, T, and U classes. Their main characteristics are listed below, taken from Ref 2:

Parameter S Class T Class U Class

Surface displacement, average 715 1090 540

Surface/Underwater speed (max) 14/9 15/8 11/9

Range at 10 knots 6000 8000 3800

Torpedo tubes 6 bow 1 stern 10 bow. Later 8 bow 1 stern 4 bow

Reload torpedoes 6 6 4

Guns 3 inch + AA 4 inch + AA 3 inch

Deep Design Diving Depth 300 300 200

Complement 48 60 31

The S class were good boats and had some notable successes. The T class were a botched

design that tried to cram in as much as possible in a smaller hull so that more could be built under the total tonnage constraints of the various Washington Conventions. The earlier boats were very difficult to handle because of the external torpedo tubes mounted in a bulbous bow, tending to push the bows up; once they were removed the boats handled better when dived. The U Class was initially designed as a pure training submarine – it must have been somewhat cramped, not to say odiferous, to take another 20 trainees to sea in a boat with only room for 31 crew! Nevertheless their small size was ideal for operations in the clear waters of the Mediterranean; they could dive in 20 seconds, quicker than any other British boat, and they achieved immortality operating as part of the “Fighting Tenth” from Malta against Rommel’s supply lines.

None of these boats had a decent surface speed to allow them to get to their patrol areas

in a reasonable time, in particular for the long distances required in the Pacific War. The 15 knots claimed for the T Class in the Table above could only have been achieved under full power trial conditions, completely unsustainable over long distances. The T class boat I served in was never pushed beyond 12 knots surfaced, even after modernisation. Compared with the 18-20 knot surface speed of contemporary US Navy and German U-boats ours were grossly underpowered.

Eventually these speed limitations were recognised in the design of the A Class, the last

WW2 design, with a service surface speed of 18 knots, but only two of these boats became operational before the war’s end.


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Early Dispositions.

At the beginning of the War available boats were disposed of as follows according to

Ref 1: 1st Flotilla, Mediterranean. Depot ship Maidstone, with escort destroyer Douglas.

Submarines: Clyde, Severn, Salmon, Sealion, Shark, Snapper. 2nd Flotilla at Rosyth. Depot ship Forth. Submarines: Cachalot, Narwhal, Porpoise, Seashore,

Starfish, with escort destroyer Mackay. 4th Flotilla, China Station. Depot Ship Medway, with escort destroyer Westcott. Submarines:

Odin, Olympus, Orpheus, Otus, Pandora, Parthian, Perseus, Phoenix, Proteus. 5th Flotilla at Gosport, based on the shore establishment HMS Dolphin, the Alma Mater

of the Submarine Service, with escort destroyer Winchelsea. Submarines: H43, L23, L26, Seal, Seawolf, Starlet, Sunfish, Thistle, Triton, Triump, Undine. The last 7 boats were modern recently completed submarines.

6th Flotilla at Portland with escort destroyer Achates. Submarines: H32, H33, L27, Spearfish, Sturgeon, Swordfish, Unity, Ursula.

Reserve Flotilla at Portland. Depot ship Alecto. Submarines: H28, H31, H50. If the reference is correct a quick tally suggests we started the war with 42 operational

submarines, of which 9 were obsolete H and L class boats, of limited operational capability, and normally used for training new personnel and first commands for newly-qualified Commanding Officers. Another 10 to 15 boats would have been in refit, and of course a few more would have been on the building slips at the various shipyards.

It may seem a little incongruous that the China flotilla was so strong in August 1939, composed of relatively modern large boats, but the concept was apparently that the submarines would hold off a Japanese naval invasion long enough for capital ships badly needed elsewhere to gallop over the horizon to the rescue.

Flotillas that had a seagoing depot ship could easily be moved from one command to another. The depot ship carried all the administrative records for her boats – pay, promotions, record cards, the all-important Next-of-Kin records for when a boat was lost, etc. She could also carry out fairly major repairs, refuel and re-arm the boats with torpedoes and shells for the gun(s), and give the crews some home comforts such as mail, fresh bread, fresh vegetables, a comfortable bed, space to exercise, and a hot bath when the boats were alongside, none of which were available on patrol. Such flexibility was nicely demonstrated when the China flotilla with depot ship was moved en masse to the Mediterranean in May 1940 in anticipation of Italy entering the war on the Axis side.

Wartime Activities

In a short article it is not possible to give any detail – there are literally hundreds of

books on the subject. Perhaps the greatest strategic impact that the boats had was the serious disruption of supplies to the Afrika Corps by the boats operating from the “Fighting Tenth” from Malta, under the command of the famous Captain “Shrimp” Simpson, using mainly the small U-class boats, originally envisaged as training boats only. During the fierce aerial blitzes on Malta these boats had to dive alongside during daylight hours to surface at night to carry on being repaired and re-armed ready for the next patrol. Some of the larger boats, such as the minelayers, helped to keep Malta in the fight by ferrying supplies of fuel, ammunition, spares etc in the so-called “magic carpet” runs from Gibraltar.

After Italy had surrendered it became possible to release more warships to east of Suez, initially based on Ceylon, from whence the 4th Submarine Flotilla conducted patrols off Malaysia,


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Burma, and Indonesia. In April 1945 the flotilla was moved to Fremantle, Western Australia, where at one stage over 150 submarines were based, primarily American, some British, plus the few Dutch boats that got away in 1942. The long passages needed to arrive at a patrol area at the previously noted very poor surface speed of the British boats, meant shorter times could be spent actually on patrol. There was also a shortage of targets, as by then American submarines had virtually annihilated the Japanese merchant marine, so little was achieved.

As in WW1 most British submarines recorded their successes on a Jolly Roger flag, flown

on return from patrol, with various emblems representing warships sunk (red bar), merchant vessels sunk (white bar) and a variety of other symbols representing cloak-and-dagger ops, bombardments etc.

The crew of HMS Trident proudly display their Jolly Roger on return from patrol. Copyright IWM A21029

Losses The submarine service paid a heavy price. Ref 2 records the loss of 74 boats. As with all

submarine losses in most cases fatalities were 100% - there was no chance of getting out of a boat depth charged whilst dived, unless she had sufficient reserve of buoyancy to blow herself up to the surface, in which case a few of the crew might have been rescued. Very occasionally a


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boat was captured on the surface, when survival chances were better. Of the 74 British boats lost 3144 personnel died, with only 360 made POWs.

Reference 3 Appendix T records 90 British submarines lost, but that total included boats lent to Allied navies such as Poland and Norway. Of the ninety 30 were reportedly sunk by surface ships, 5 by U-boats, 7 by aircraft, 29 by mines, 5 by own forces, 4 in collisions, and the remainder unknown. Whilst the allocation of sinking’s due to most causes is probably fairly accurate, many or most of the “unknowns” were probably due to mines, making the mine the most deadly enemy of all to British submarines.

Collecting

British submarine WW2 covers are extremely difficult to find compared with American

and German submarine mail. This may be partly due to censorship – the Germans do not seem to have censored their U-boat mail at all whilst the British did. Of course we had fewer boats than either the Germans or the Americans, hence a scarcity index applies. What follows is a snapshot of some of the few WW2 British submarine covers I have been able to collect in over 30 years of looking.

H and L class boats alongside at HMS Dolphin. Obsolescent by 1939. The few that remained were primarily used for training.

References

1. https://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-3908-01RNships.htm

2. Padfield, Peter: War Beneath the Sea; Submarine Conflict 1939-45: London, 1995

3. Roskill, Capt SW, DSC, RN: The War at Sea 1939-1945: Imperial War Museum 1961

https://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-3908-01RNships.htm


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This cover illustrates some of the difficulties of finding letters from British submarines. Fortunately it is endorsed inside the envelope “Hunter, Sturgeon”. The censor’s initials do not coincide with those of any of the boat’s officers, so presumably censored in the depot ship. The S class boat was commissioned in 1932. At the time of this letter she was part of the 6th Flotilla, based at Blyth, with Titania as depot ship. She patrolled mostly off Norway and scored the first sinking of an enemy ship by a British submarine in Nov 1939. Loaned to the Royal Netherlands Navy and re-named Zeehond. Returned at the end of the war and scrapped.

The S Class boat Storm returning to HMS Dolphin at the end of the war.


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Built during WW1 but not fully commissioned until 1930, L27 was one of only three L class boats to serve during WW2. At the time of this letter she was part of the 6th Flotilla, based at

Blythe, depot ship Titania. She undertook several war patrols in the North Sea without confirmed success before being relegated to training duties.

A rare cover to her 1st Lieutenant, with the scarce censor marking Daynes N453, known to have

been used at Blyth. The envelope probably contained his mess bill from Titania.


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Letter from Leading Seaman Frank Seaton from his Italian POW camp. One of the lucky ones, Seaton was a crew member of HMS Oswald, Lt Cdr Fraser. Having recently torpedoed an Italian tanker she was caught on the surface and rammed by the Italian destroyer Vivaldi off Cape Spartivento on 1 Aug 1940. Badly damaged, Fraser ordered “Abandon Ship” and scuttled her. 52 survivors of the crew of 55 were picked up by the Italians, medically checked at Taranto, and imprisoned.

The “O” class were built in the 1920s for service in the Far East. They were too big, and

too slow to dive for Mediterranean conditions, which may have been her undoing. Of the six that served in the Mediterranean only two survived.

HMS Oswald


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The tiny size of the U Class can be judged from this photo.

Below.

Letter from Lt Anthony Daniell, DSO, DSC, CO of HMS Unison, written from his hospital bed in North Africa. The boat was part of the escort of a convoy from Bizerta to Malta when, on 2 Aug 1943 she was fired on by the rearmost US merchant ship of the convoy, killing the 1st Lt and seriously injuring Daniell and the 2 lookouts. Unison was escorted back to Bizerta by the Polish destroyer Slavak, where Daniell spent the next six months in hospital. He did not recover fully and was invalided out of the Royal Navy.


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Air letter from HMS Varne. One of the later U class (presumably names beginning with “U” had been exhausted) she was commissioned on 30 Jul 1944, Lt IG Raikes, DSC, in command. She conducted anti-U-boat patrols off Norway, but without success. Survived the war and was scrapped in 1958.

Lt Raikes rose through the ranks and as Vice Admiral Sir Iwan Raikes was Flag Officer Submarines 1974-76.


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July 1944 letter from HMS Spiteful, operating from the 8th Flotilla based at Trincomalee. She conducted 3 patrols off Malaya before the flotilla was ordered to Fremantle. The letter was written just after she returned to Trincomalee from her second patrol, during which she sank a large junk by gunfire. The letter reads in part: “…We had a crack at the little yellow … “

HMS Adamant, depot ship for the 8th Flotilla, is shown below with most of her flock.


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1943 cover to Signalman Ernest Charles Britton. Always known as “Gus”, Britton served

on several submarines during and after the war. On retirement he became the archivist for the Royal Naval Submarine Museum at Gosport and was always helpful when asked for information. Tribune, built by Scotts of Greenock, was commissioned in 1939, serving mainly in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theatres without significant success.

The torpedo stowage compartment (Forends) of a T Class boat. Left arrow shows rear doors of No 2 and 4 torpedo tubes, No 6 is below the removable deck boards. Tubes 1, 3, and 5 are on the starboard side, hidden behind the slung hammock. Right hand pointers show reload torpedoes. On the deck three rolled-up hammocks – half the seamen of the crew slung their hammocks in the forends wherever they could find a space. For the first few days of a patrol sacks of fresh fruit and veg would also be hanging from the deck head.


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Immediate post war registered cover from the British Consul at Maranhao to Lt Ian Mackintosh, DSO, DSC, MBE, commanding HMS Sceptre.

Born in Melbourne, Mackintosh decided to join the Royal Navy in 1938. Early in the war

he was a passenger aboard a ship torpedoed off West Africa and found himself in charge of a lifeboat full of 82 survivors. With no charts, no oars, and very few rations he manged to navigate the boat to Brazil with the 36 who survived the ordeal, for which he was awarded the MBE. After serving in Porpoise for a while he was appointed to Thrasher, where he was awarded the DSC. Having passed the very difficult submarine commanding officers’ qualifying course (aptly named “The Perisher”) he became CO of Sceptre in 1943. She went on to sink over 15,000 tons of enemy shipping, the best performance by a British submarine in home waters, for which he was awarded the DSO.

Sceptre was also used to tow X Craft across to Norway to attack German shipping

there, particularly the battleship Tirpitz. Mackenzie became known as “bring ‘em back alive Mackenzie” as he managed to bring home all three of the X craft he “mothered”, the only boat to bring all her charges home again. Post war he rose through the ranks, becoming Vice Admiral Sir Ian Mackintosh, KBE, DSO, DSC. He died in 2003 aged 83.


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THE BATTLE FOR LAKE TANGANYIKA IN WWI

Tony Walker

For the purist postal historian where the specific properties and features of the cover are

paramount, you will find this piece somewhat disappointing, partly because it relates a fascinating episode of Boys Own naval endeavour by the British Navy, but also because it is reported by Pennycuick only 15 items of mail have been recorded from this action. However three of them are illustrated here, one from Nick Colley’s collection, one from mine and a third from an Argyll Etkin auction catalogue. Many if not most of you will not have heard of this battle, but you might have read CS Forester’s book ‘The African Queen’, which was based on this action or even seen the film of the same name starring Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, directed by John Huston.

Lake Tanganyika is the longest freshwater lake in the world, and the second oldest, deepest and voluminous. At the time of WWI it was situated between German East Africa on the east, the Belgian Congo on the west with a small border to the south with British Rhodesia see Figure 1 below.

Figure: 1. Lake Tanganyika in geographic context

The German colony had been established back in 1885 culminating in an area of 384,180


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square miles now represented by Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania, with a population of around 7.5 million governed by a mere 5,300 Europeans. A popular concept in the German press pre-WWI was the alliance between the Central Powers in Europe and the invasion of the Belgian Congo, one of the largest colonial landmasses in the world which would link German colonies in the east with those of German South West Africa (see later Figure 8). Fortunately for the Allies however, the German colonial forces like their counterparts in many territories, had second-grade armaments with men spread thinly over vast areas and incapable of mounting quick offensive actions. The Allies wanted to capture German East Africa, but they had to capture Lake Tanganyika to do so which was dominated by the SMS Graf von Goetzen supported by two converted steamers SMS Herrmann von Wissmann and Kingani (Figures 2 and 3). The steamers were small and lightly armed but they harassed British positions on the shore. The British could push westwards from the coast, but the Germans were able to move troops along the lake and redeploy behind the British lines, effectively thwarting any invasion. The Herrmann von Wissmann had been armed with four pom-poms and reinforced by seamen from the SMS Königsberg scuttled in the Rufiji Delta on 11 July 1915, who salvaged guns and equipment from the ship and transported them by rail to Kigoma on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. However prior to this she had raided the Belgian port of Lukuga and sunk the sole Belgian armed steamer Alexandre Delcommune, and later the British steamer the Cecil Rhodes. A further raid on Northern Rhodesia was repelled.

Figure: 2. The SMS Herrmann von Wissmann Figure: 3. The SMS Kingani

First Sea Lord Henry Jackson (Figure 4) was in charge of bringing the war to Germany’s colonies, but he needed ships and men with a boat on the lake to fight the Germans. He had been made aware of the imminent launch of the Graf von Göetzen in April 1915 when John R Lee, a big game hunter and veteran of the Second Boer War in Africa visited the Admiralty. Lee said he had discovered the German Navy was assembling this large steamer to join the two smaller gunboats on the lake.

This would enable German forces to dominate the 420 mile long lake and rapidly move

troops to attack targets in the Belgian Congo and Northern Rhodesia. Lee also argued that a general rising of natives north of Zambesi may take place unless the natives be duly impressed with the power of the Empire. He contended that if the Admiralty could get two fast motor launches onto the lake it would be enough to solve both problems.


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Figure: 4.

First Sea Lord Sir Henry Jackson when Admiral of the Fleet

Sir Henry Jackson, was sufficiently impressed to underwrite Lee’s ambitious project which involved the transportation of two gunboats in an epic journey from Twickenham on the River Thames to Tanganyika in Africa. Documents and photographs at the National Archives reveal the trials and tribulations of the naval expedition. The shipbuilding firm John Thornycroft and Co. on the River Thames had constructed two gunboats for the Greek Government before the war, and these were requisitioned by the Admiralty. Meantime Jackson appointed the wildly eccentric commander, Geoffrey Basil Spicer-Simson to command the mission. John R Lee was despatched to Africa to plan and prepare for the land-based 3,000 mile journey following the intended 10,000 nautical miles trip from England. Geoffrey Basil Spicer-Simson (Figure 5) was the Navy’s only spare officer, described ‘at best peculiar, at worst downright dangerous’. He was born in Tasmania in 1867 and entered the Royal Navy aged 14. By the time war was declared his vainglorious boasting had caused most officers to give him a wide berth, and a long career of misjudgements had left him high and dry as the Navy’s oldest lieutenant commander.

Figure: 5.

Lieutenant Commander GB Spicer-Simson (IWM photo)

During manoeuvres in the Channel he had dragged a line between two destroyers which nearly sank a submarine. When testing Portsmouth Harbour’s defences he managed to drive his ship


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onto the beach – for which he was court-martialled. Another court martial came from smashing his destroyer into a Liberty boat and sinking it. He commanded HMS Niger in 1914, which he could clearly see from the Ramsgate Hotel where he was entertaining his wife – even as the Germans torpedoed the ship. With hindsight it may have been a fortuitous appointment as no sane officer would have taken the command. However Spicer-Simson spoke fluent French and German, and his extraordinary insistence on wearing a short skirt rather than naval dress and taking every opportunity to show off his many tattoos attracted him to the ferocious local tribe, the Holo-holo who began producing fetish statues of the ‘Navyman God’. All very useful when the two boats on board the SS Llanstephan Castle (Figure 6) arrived at Cape Town on 2 July 1915, having left the Thames on 15 June with special slings and trailers, stores and guns all properly crated for rail transport in Africa, plus 27 men from the RNVR. Not a large force. The sea journey from England was uneventful, and the 40 foot long (12m) boats were small enough to be carried by rail. In England Spicer-Simson had applied to name them cat and dog, which was rejected by the Admiralty, so he suggested Mimi and Toutou instead, surprisingly agreed by the Admiralty.

Figure: 6 . SS Llanstephan Castle In addition to Robert Lee who had proposed the operation in the first place, and Spicer-Simson, another officer Lieut. AE Wainwright RNVR was in the party together with Asst. Paymaster W Eastwood RNVR. The cover illustrated in Figure 7, from the collection of Nick Colley (thanks Nick) has been machine cancelled in London on 20 March 1916 and would have been mailed several weeks before that when the force had arrived at Lake Tanganyika. The 90mm x 15.5mm boxed censor mark PASSED BY CENSOR / NO. 25. is not recorded in Michael Gould’s handbooks. The cover has been sent by Lieut. Wainwright to HMS President, a shore establishment on which the personnel details of the men were carried, and the censor’s initials are those of Asst. Paymaster Eastwood, a manager in an office of Thomas Cook prior to volunteering.


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Figure: 7. A cover posted from the expedition.

The ships and all the stores and equipment were loaded onto railroad flatcars at a dock in

Cape Town for the three week 4000km journey north across Bechuanaland, Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia to Elizabethville (Figure 8), completed without mishap. It was the next overland section into the Mitumba Mountains and across the Mitumba Plateau (Figure 9) which posed the greatest challenge, a distance of some 240km, with the boats in the specially built cradles hoisted onto wagons that were hauled by steam tractors, assisted by teams of oxen. The seamen of the expedition aided by hired native workers had to hack a path through the forest, fill ravines, construct some 200 bridges (Figure 10) and chop countless quantities of firewood for the steam boilers.

In addition water had to be brought by brigades of native women from waterholes for the thirsty boilers, in one instance 8 miles distant (Figure 11). The men were pestered by ticks, mosquitoes and tsetse flies, sickened by malaria, dysentery, hyperthermia and snow-blindness from the mica-rich soil, and all in the moist and humid climate that preceded the rainy season before which they had to reach their destination.

Figure: 9. MS Mimi being hauled up a plateau Figure: 10. Bridging a river bed

Note: Figures shows thus for layout. Ed


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Figure: 8. The journey from Cape Town to Lake Tanganyika.


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Entry from Spicer-Simpson’s detailed notes of 5 September 1915 : ‘…was the record day of the trip, no less than 14.7 miles being covered and the foot of the Manika Plateau

being reached. Unfortunately the motor lorry broke the coupling at the rear end of the torque shaft and split the shaft, through dropping through a bridge, about 150 yards from the place chosen for camp…’

Figure: 11. Women carrying water for the boilers

Meanwhile back at the ranch, oops! I mean lake, the intelligence delivered by John R Lee

to First Sea Lord Sir Henry Jackson in April 1915 when he proposed the expedition was proven correct, with British Intelligence reporting the Graf von Götzen (Figure 12) had been launched in the fortified port of Kigoma on the lake on 8 June for trials, just a week before the SS Llanstephan sailed from the Thames.

Figure: 12 . SMS Graf von Göetzen

The Graf von Göetzen had been partly built in the shipyard at Papenburg, disassembled and conveyed by rail in 5000 crates from Dar-es-Salaam to Kigoma. She was 67m long and 1,575 tons, dwarfing any other vessel on the lake. This was a major operation, hence John R Lee’s proposal to carry small but fast and powerful gunboats which did not have to be reassembled at destination. But it was hard graft getting them to the lake in that condition. However after the difficulties of the land traverses, the gunboats arrived at Sankisia and transferred to railroad flatcars for the short 30km journey to Bukama on the Lualaba River, which was running low, necessitating Mimi and Toutou having to be paddled 90 km upstream frequently grounding on


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sandbank, 14 times in just 20km which Spicer-Simson wryly speculated was probably a record for HM Ships. On 2 October 1915 the gun boats were hoisted yet again onto flatcars for their final 280km rail trip from Kabalo to Albertville on Lake Tanganyika, arriving there at the end of the month.

Considering the land-locked nature of the lake and the relatively under-developed

communities around it through which British mail could be carried, transit times were probably very extended. The cover (Figure 13) from an Argyll Etkin auction in 2019 has the ARMY POST OFFICE / 2 / NORTHERN RHODESIA cds dated 20 November 1916 and backstamped at Kasama on November 25. At this time many of the men had completed their task and were en route back to England. Seven of the fifteen covers recorded by Pennycuick showed this A.P.O. cds. Only four of these covers had the violet crowned oval handstamp.

Figure: 13. Cover from the expedition dated 20 November1916.

The Belgians had a steamer, the Baron Dhanis larger than either the German Kingani or

Wissmann, stored in parts on its berth, but fearful of German raids it was never assembled. The Kingani, on a routine patrol on 1 December to check the status of the Belgian steamer which if launched could cause considerable damage to the German ships if caught in port, saw the new harbour at Kalemie where the British boats were being prepared. Commander Rosenthal of the Kingani swam ashore one night and venturing inland saw Spicer-Simson’s camp. Unable to find the Kingani to escape, he was captured by a Belgian sentry and made prisoner. A message he smuggled out took many months to arrive. Mimi and Toutou were launched on 22 and 23 December 1915, and on 26 December Kingani was spotted out on patrol. The British ships were quickly out of harbour but despite full steam ahead, Kingani was caught and in an unequal exchange of gunfire the captain and two officers were killed and the engine hit. The surviving engineer hauled down the colours and surrendered. Captured, the ship was towed back to harbour, repaired, re-launched and renamed Fifi. By this time it was the height of the ‘bad season’ and the Germans were unable to investigate the disappearance of their ship until the Herrmann Wissmann was ordered out in mid-January but saw nothing to report. Returning on 8 February she was spotted and engaged by firepower from Fifi and Toutou. The Wissmann caught fire and ‘abandon ship’ was ordered whilst scuttling charges were set. The crew were captured and the ship sank. The ship’s German naval ensign was the first to be captured in WWI.


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The Belgians, free from the threat of German bombardment attacked and captured the German port of Kigoma driving the German steamer Graf von Göetzen south where she was scuttled by the Captain with her engines heavily greased but in a state for potential refloating. This effectively ended the battle of Lake Tanganyika.

The Belgians unsuccessfully re-floated the Göetzen after the war, followed by the British who succeeded and Figure 14 below shows the modified ship in her post-war livery as the MV Liemba when re-launched on 16 May 1927. She still sails Lake Tanganyika today.

Figure: 14. The re-named MV Liemba as she is now on Lake Tanganyika

The final campaign involved taking the German bases at both ends of the great lake with the Naval Africa Expedition supporting the attack on Bismarcksburg in the south.

By late in 1916 Spicer-Simson and most of the men of the expedition had left for England, but a small administrative group remained for a while to complete the paperwork and settle financial

matters. This included Asst. Paymaster W. Eastwood RNVR who has initialled the crowned double oval

ON NAVAL SERVICE / POST FREE / ASSISTANT PAYMASTER, AFRICA EXPEDITION on the cover below (Figure 15). The cover, damaged by water has a cds

receiving cancel LONDON / 203 dated 18 February 1917 with a boxed RFHMS / NCTBR handstamp. This cds was used on incoming naval mail otherwise unstamped or un-cancelled

(Gould), previously only seen with pre- or post-war dates.

As for Spicer-Simson, post-war he was a Royal Naval delegate and interpreter at the Paris Peace Conference in June 1919, presumably without his mini-skirt.. Subsequently he held the post of Secretary General of the International Hydrographic Bureau in Monte Carlo until he retired to Courtenay in 1937 where he died on 29 January 1947 aged 71. Reference. Alan R. Drysdall and Kenneth Pennycuick The Nyasaland-Rhodesia Field Force, 1914-18. A Postal History,.


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Figure: 15.

Following the submission by Tony of this article research by myself has brought forth these additional items. Courtesy of Cherrystone Auctions. Ed.

1915 letter (Aug 14) from Engineering Lt. W. W. Cross to London, headed "Naval Africa Expedition" at Belgium Congo (actually at Fungurume), endorsed "On Active Service No Stamps Available", boxed "Passed by Censor No.25" via South Africa, where it was cancelled at

Simonstown (28 Aug) 1915 (Sep) cover and picture postcard (Basoko Belgian Congo) from sub-Lt. C. T .Tyler, addressed to England, routed via Simonstown,

each censored by medical officer H.M. Hanschell, pencilled "On Active Service No Stamps Available" and boxed "Passed by Censor No.25" hs, the card with framed "Paquebot".


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ARMY POST HD A.3 CANCELS

Patrick Frost During World War One certain Divisions were allocated to be defence of the U.K. These Divisions were allocated numbered Army Post Office datestamps with the letters HD (for “Home Defence”) after Army Post Office. 64 HD numbers (and a Base Office) are recorded used in the U.K between May 1915 and September 1919, some only used at a single location, others used at several locations as Divisions using certain numbers were moved around the country. In February 1917 Malta also came under the control of the Home Depot in London and was allocated datestamp “Army Post Office HD1” (in a differing format to the U.K cancels).

As with most Army Post Offices some of these HD datestamps are very scarce, others very common. One of the more elusive cancels is Army Post Office A.3. Proud records this datestamp for November 10th 1915 until 15th March 1916, with no place of use shown. Kennedy & Crabb recorded it used at Mundford in Norfolk from January to July 1916, but also state the office opened in October 16th 1915. Most Army Post Office HD datestamps have “HD” in brackets, and have totally symmetrical wording, as shown in Figure 1. Army Post Office HD A.3 (shown in Figure 2) is odd, having HD without brackets and appearing asymmetrically in the datestamp, almost as though the postmark was originally made reading “Army Post Office” and the HD was added as an afterthought. Army Post Office HD A.1, D.1, D.3, D.5, D.11, D.12, D.14 and D.16 also all have this odd asymmetrical appearance. Figures 3 and 4 show two other previously unrecorded datestamps used at Army Post Office A.3, both unfortunately pieces only, but they are clearly genuine and appear to have been cut off covers (and not simply proof impressions of datestamps). The first, dated November 15th 1915, has the HD omitted, and as such is a perfectly symmetrical datestamp. The second piece, dated November 29th 1915, is a skeleton datestamp (diameter 29½mm).

Figure: 1.


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It would appear from these that the Army Post Office A.3 datestamp was incorrectly issued in November 1915 with HD omitted in error, and was used in this format for a few days until a skeleton datestamp was received. The original datestamp was then returned to be corrected, the skeleton datestamp being used until the corrected datestamp was received back at the office. The corrected datestamp, with “HD” added, was then used at the office until it closed in July 1916.

One does wonder if the eight other offices using similar type Army Post Office HD datestamps were also incorrectly made, probably all at the same time, and were returned to be corrected - and if so, did any of these offices also briefly use skeleton datestamps?

Incidentally this A.3 skeleton is the only skeleton datestamp recorded from any Army

Post Office HD office in the U.K, although a skeleton was used at Army Post Office HD1 in Malta.

Figure: 2.

Figure: 3. Figure: 4.


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NAPOLEONIC WARS

1803 – 1815.

John Cowlin

An entire letter from Alexander Higginson Ensign.

From Catania Sicily, posted on 28th July 1807.

To his Mrs. Higginson, Bath, but redirected to 5 Road Cliff, Exmouth. Postage 8d, 80 to 120 miles.

Postmarks of BATH and SHIP-LETTER PORTSMOUTH.

My dear Mother, Never did I write with greater joy than at this moment, only a few hours are past since I was about to be obliged at last to undertake the most painful task that ever was imposed upon me, instead of that it is nothing but joy joy joy – In my last letter I told you that GEORGE was going to MALTA whither almost all of our officers except myself have been to see the Lyons – well to Malta he went & saw all that was to be seen – but in returning he was laid hold of by a FRENCH PRIVATEER with another officer of the name of Milnes taken & kept aboard nine days after which they were landed at TUNIS & immediately exchanged for two French officers, the very next day they had the excellent fortune of getting a passage to MALTA in a British sloop of war where they now are waiting till the INTREPID 74 sails for SICILY. I am therefore in hourly expectation of seeing George again which only yesterday morning I had reason to


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apprehend might not have happened for years! Never was anything more fortunate or rather never did I feel more thankful to Providence since my own deliverance from the bottom of the Thames. The very same packet that brought me your letter of the 22 May yesterday also brought me George’s welcome one from Malta announcing his safety when I was in hourly apprehension of being obliged to relate to you the dismal tale that he was made prisoner & I knew not whither he would be sent to. His capture happened on the 3d July & I was informed of it by the Master of the vessel on the 5th. You may imagine what a wretched time of it I have had from that day till the 27th. George will I suppose of course write to you from Malta by the packet which will carry this & which will be made up here in an hour or two so I must be expeditious. You should not write at the end of the months, but at the beginning as the packet always leaves England in the middle of the month. LORD COLLINGWOOD, admiral of the Royal Navy] has just left MALTA with a strong fleet to the Eastward, SIR ARTHUR PAGET just left MALTA with a strong fleet to the Eastward, SIR ARTHUR PAGET, diplomat and politician] went before him to CONSTANTINOPLE. We do not understand what is going on. GENERAL FOX Henry Edward FOX, leaves us in a few days for ENGLAND. GENERAL MOORE Sir John MOORE, will now be our commander in chief. What the devil do our government mean to do with SICILY, how much longer do they mean to make us support the diabolical government of the KING OF NAPLES. We are all heartily sick of it & with good reason I assure you. I have been up MOUNT ATNA & a sublime sight it is, the ascent was easy on horseback as the Bath road till you come to within about two miles of the top, it is then necessary to dismount & walk up to the crater over the cinders a little more than angle deep forming a steep hill, but it is easily ascended in an hour. We looked into the crater which is something like a grand pit. There was a prodigious quantity of smoke rushing out the whole time we were on the mountain with intervals of a few seconds which enabled us to peep into the crater where we so fortunate to see a little eruption of fire which did not rise so high as the top of the crater it was like the fire of a squib & was accompanied with a noise of distant thunder. We slept at a little hovel erected for the purpose on the cinders where it is necessary to dismount & rose to begin our walk at three in the morning with a beautiful full moon & cloudless sky, we got to the top at four just before day-break – The rising of the sun we all think is not a finer sight from the top of ATNA than from at sea or indeed almost anywhere else – There was so high a wind on the mountain that it was as much as we could do to stand up, it was still more difficult to open our eyes to look about us, for the wind continually blew the cinders & dust into our faces & ears with prodigious & almost painful violence, when we came down again we all looked like chimney sweepers. It <...> cold the thermometer at the top was 34 which <...> point, when we left Catania the <...> was 90 in the shade, a fine change <...> was no snow remaining on the mountain. We are now pretty well able to understand <...> weather means – The veto ponente or <...> wind which happily we have hitherto <...> experienced is terrible it blows fire & though<...> running away from it, when it happens <...> shut up their doors & windows & go to sleep<p ...> would stifle an Englishman. There is <...> however a fine ...(?) in the middle <...> which helps us through it very well. Al<l> of us are in extremely good health... We have received all your letters & those from Charles. Many thanks to Sheppard for his I shall soon write again & my next will be addressed to him. My kind remembrances to him & Mrs. Sheppard – It is all dullness, monotony & stupidity with us in this nasty island we do not see any symptoms of movement of any kind. Adieu my affectionate regards ever dwell upon you all at home & on the Rolls’s – Yours my dear mother most entirely Alex.r Higginson. One little part of the sheet is missing and there are tears


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Bermuda WWII Censored Mail

Ryan Epps. (Kent) Guest - Submitted by Mick Carter

Firstly I hope that you are keeping well and hopefully we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel – not necessarily a great metaphor but the best I can come up with at the moment. Like many of you I have been working on some covers and I thought I would share with you a couple of interesting WWII covers censored in Bermuda. At the outbreak of World War II censorship departments were set up across the British Empire with the main headquarters in Liverpool which was chosen because it was an important shipping port at the time and (hopefully) it was less likely to be bombed than London. At that time most transatlantic mail between the Americas and the rest of the world passed through Bermuda as a transit point as did a large part of other international mail in the world, for example a letter originating from Ceylon and bound for France would be sent via an elaborate Transpacific and Atlantic route passing through Bermuda. So due to its location and the fact that it was already a transit point for such mail, Bermuda was turned into Britain’s No. 1 overseas listening post during World War II for censorship and contraband control under the British Imperial Censorship and every day ships would drop anchor in Bermuda to pass the Censors, and transatlantic Clippers would pause in Bermuda for examination of their mail. All of this activity was done under a veil of secrecy and even a request from local Bermuda journalists for the exact number of staff working for the Imperial Censorship in Bermuda, was rejected. This figure was later to be estimated at 1 censor for every 30 islanders – about 880, although figures at its peak were said to be 1,200. All the work was done behind closed doors and the Censorship got its first publicity when mail was removed from an American Clipper bound for Lisbon – this action later being dubbed as the “The Great Plane Robbery.” Captain Lorber protested that he had been threatened by British marines with fixed bayonets, which was of course flatly denied by James Pantan, the censor in charge at the time. When mail was opened for censorship it had to be resealed and generally a tape/label was used, the British used a tape printed ‘OPENED BY CENSOR’ or ‘OPENED BY EXAMINER’ and the same was used in Bermuda from the mid-1940s. Each tape had a code number the most common being ‘P.C. 90’ and from 1941 the British Imperial Censorship introduced an Empire-wide country coding system which was supposed to be written or printed on the tape by the censor. In Bermuda the code was “C” for mail exchanged between local residents and overseas destination (so called ‘terminal’ mail) and “I.C.” for mail in transit through the Island. The tape also had a serial number printed or written on, this was the individual code number for each censor. The study of these censor labels is quite in depth together with the many different censor handstamps used on the Island. The vast amount of mail was read re-sealed and sent on its way but a number of letters and parcels containing restricted materials such as coins, stamps, etc., were held in Bermuda until after WWII and sold by the “Prize Court” in various auctions between 1946 and 1950. (The story of the International Prize Court is a story of its own, but basically it allowed for the disposal of goods captured/held during conflicts, however many opposed the idea as a violation of National Sovereignty so it never really became an official body). Only about 60 items from Bermuda are known with the "Released by/Prize Court" handstamp. I have attached scans of two covers with ‘Sold By Prize Court’ handstamps.


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Figure: 1.

The first is a registered envelope posted April 2nd 1941 from Djibouti to the USA,

franked with 10 stamps making up the 750c rate, tied by despatch cds's with registration label No.'204' around the right edge of the envelope. Figure: 1. This unusually doesn’t have any censorship marking or tape but on the reverse is the censor’s filing number in red and a Hamilton Bermuda cds dated Feb 3 1950 which would have been struck when the envelope was released, also New York oval and Flushing arrival cds's dated Feb 10th and 11th respectively as well as a fine strike of the unframed 'Released by/Prize Court' handstamp. Figure: 2.

Figure: 2.


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The second is a registered envelope posted June 3rd 1941 from Kobenhavn (Denmark) to Detroit USA via 'Lissabon', franked with 75ore stamp tied by despatch cds (fdi), which went through the German censorship and received the German ‘Ab’ censor handstamp on the front. The letter arrived in San Francisco on August 1st and Detroit on the 4th but presumably the addressee had moved and the manuscript 'Left No Add' was added as well as the pointing hand 'Return to Sender' and 'Do not remail in this envelope or forward again’ handstamps. The envelope was cancelled in Detroit again on August 5th for the return going via New York (Aug 21st), however it was intercepted on the return journey in Bermuda and held (with file No. '25581' on the reverse) until it was released at the end of the war with a fine strike of the unframed 'Released by/Prize Court' h/s, this is a particularly unusual cover having been held on the 'return' leg of its journey. Figure: 3 & 4.

Figure: 3.

Figure: 4.


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MALTA. W.W.I Naval Censor. GOULD 3B47. “Wilkinson”

The Late David Ball

Malta P.P.C. O.A.S. Datelined Malta 18/11/16 to Driffield, England Cancelled MALTA No 26 16. Figure: 1.

CENSORED /G.A.W. / WILKINSON / C.F. in triangle. (Gould 3B47)

Figure: 1.

Gordon A.W. Wilkinson was an Army Chaplain, C.F. who won the Military Cross in Gallipoli in 1915. His postings in 1916 are not recorded.

The Triangular Censor, 3B47, is similar to those used by Masters and Pursers of Merchant ships used on Military Service (Hired Managed Transports, H.M.T.s). Use by a Chaplain on a Hospital Ship would be logical. Hospital Ships were in regular transit through Grand Harbour, Valetta and a record of sightings is kept in the “Tourville Logs.” The TOURVILLE was the French Base ship moored adjacent to Fort St. Angelo, from January 1915 to January 1917, with an excellent view of the entrance of Grand Harbour: less good of activity in the inner harbour and none of Sliema Harbour. The quartermasters kept a full log in daylight hours and from this excellent record of their view, we have a useful idea of the ins and outs of numerous vessels. No less than 10 different Hospital Ships are recorded in the “Tourville Logs” between the dates on the postcard, Nov 17, 16 and Nov 26 1916, in Grand Harbour of which WANDILLA, WARILDA and ESSEQUIBO are recorded on two or three different dates.

This is as far as I could go until I asked my colleague to access www.forces-war-records.co.uk/records. This revealed W.W.1 Medal Rolls Index Card shown in Figure: 2.

http://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/records



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Figure: 2.

WANDILLA was an Australian Army Transport converted into a Hospital Ship in August 1916. She imported a R.A.M.C. Hospital and a British Army Chaplain to augment her Australian Master and crew. I think we can conclude that Gould Censor 3B47. CENSORED/G.A.W./ WILKINSON/C.F. was used on H.M.H.S. WANDILLA from September 1916. My thanks are due to Barbara Thacker, longstanding friend, for her help in unlocking the equally longstanding puzzle of Gould 3B47.

Reference

1. Dr. M.H. Gould. British Naval Post & Censor Marks of the First World War. Revised

Edition 1998 ISBN 1 902101 00 6

2. The “Tourville Logs.”

http//www.memoirecleshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/fr/arkotheque/inventaires/eadirc

onsult.php?fam=38idarkeadlesirs=8

3. www.forces-war-records.co.uk/records

HMAT A 62 WANDILLA



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Rhodesia’s Oil boycott: The RAF Operational Base in Majunga, Madagascar

Marc Parren

Introduction

In November 1965, Ian Smith's Rhodesian minority white government made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence, leading to United Nations sanctions against what was up until then a British colony. One of the major thrusts of this action was to try and deprive the country of oil. Being land-locked, Rhodesia relied on a pipeline through Mozambique from the port of Beira. The Foreign Office negotiated with the Madagascar government to allow for a RAF detachment to be based in Madagscar, to assist the Royal Navy's Beira patrol named Operation MIZAR, by carrying out aerial surveillance of the Mozambique Straits. The request was granted and at the most five aircraft were allowed to operate from Madagascar with 108 support staff and with the clear instruction that it was to serve only this purpose. The Madagascar government requested the UK to inform the French of their intentions (Anon. 1966). Because the government of the Malagasy Republic didn't want the RAF's presence to be seen as permanent, the facilities were required to have a degree of non-permanence about them. As a result Camp Britannique was a collection of tents and aluminums prefabricated huts located next to the airport close to the port of Majunga on the north-west coast of Madagascar. The senior NCO's were housed in a former maternity hospital, and the HQ offices and the admin accommodation occupied a former shop in the main street of Majunga town. Various other personnel had rented flats, bungalows wherever available.

A detachment of two Avro Shackleton Mk2s aircraft was sent on 3 March 1966 from 37

Squadron based in Aden. The two Shackleton crews were normally on 8 weeks rotation in Majunga. A typical Shackleton crew comprised two pilots, two navigators, a flight engineer, an air electronics officer, and four air electronics operators. Sorties were conducted daily for between nine and eleven hours. When a suspect vessel was found, it was first photographed and then details were passed on to the patrol frigate for interception. One of its other functions was to drop mail to the naval vessels on patrol (Flintham 2009). Up until 1972, the sanctions were applied by the Royal Navy working close together with the RAF, which undertook reconnaissance flights of the Beira Straits from its base in Madagascar. Sequential detachments of Shackleton’s of 37, 38, 42, 204, 205 and 210 Squadrons were tasked with this responsibility, until just prior to the evacuation and closure of the base in March 1972. The last flight took place on 17 March 1972, but the Royal Navy's Beira Patrol continued until June 1975.

Postal implications

Madagascar never granted the RAF permission to have a FPO opened at Majunga and outgoing mail had either to be sent from the Malagasy civil post office (Figure. 1) or taken out by RAF aircraft. Two outgoing covers with British adhesives posted in 1966-1967 have been seen cancelled ‘Majunga Principal’ and with the oval undated handstamp reading ‘* ROYAL AIR FORCE */ DÉTACHMENT / MAJUNGA’ applied (Figure. 2). Most likely this handstamp was produced locally as the first E in Detachment bears an accent. Incoming letters could be addressed to Box 200 Majunga as the detachment was renting a post office box. An article in the Daily Telegraph of December 1968 mentions that all mail was flown out in commercial airliners three times a week from London to Majunga (Coles 1971).


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As we have seen the first RAF Squadron to serve at Majunga was 37 Sqn from Aden who would do this between March 1966 and July 1967 (Baldwin 1998) so we see covers postmarked FPO 955 and FPO 1041 both used at BFPO 69 serving RAF Khormaksar. They worked in rotation with crews from 38 Sqn based at Hal Far, Malta until February 1967. During this period we also have noted a cover with FPO 145 (Singapore) so first going eastbound. This might be explained by the fact that 38 Sqn was relieved by 42 Sqn in February 1967, which arrived from the Far East, where they had been on detachment from their home station at St. Mawgan.

During 1966, 105 Squadron based at RAF Khormaksar made a couple of resupply flights per month from Aden to Majunga via Nairobi, before they moved out to RAF Muharraq in Bahrain in 1967. Next we see that Bahrain became another staging post that resupplied Majunga monthly between 1968 and 1971 and covers are seen postmarked FPO 98, FPO 99, FPO 186 and FPO 218 all used at BFPO 63 serving RAF Muharraq. Figure 3. shows such a cover posted in 1968, but it is known that during 1969- 1970, 99 Sqn served Bahrain - Majunga - Bahrain with a refuelling stop in the Seychelles northbound. RAF Muharraq was formally shut down on 15 December 1971.

As from late April 1967 we see that 210 Sqn (based at Ballykelly) providing three crews and aircraft, with 204 Sqn taking turns to provide personnel at three monthly intervals right up until the closure of the base. There was a six-month period from May to November 1968 when 205 Sqn from Singapore took over, after which the detachment was reduced to two aircraft and crews. During this period two covers have been seen with the postmark FPO 156 used at BFPO 51 in Malta (Coles 1971). But why would they have been dropped off at Malta? The normal route to Majunga was Ballykelly - Gibraltar - Malta - Djibouti - Mombasa (or latterly, Khartoum - Nairobi) - Majunga, an approximate flying time of 40 hours. Rotation of air and ground crews took place by RAF Britannia’s, a British medium-to-long-range mixed passenger-cargo aircraft, which flew the regular weekly service. The aircraft were flown back to Ballykelly during a detachment change-over if servicing was due.

Covers seen of 1970 are all postmarked FPO 98 or FPO 186 used at BFPO 63 serving

RAF Muharraq in Bahrain. Apart from a cover postmarked FPO 88 of BFPO 53 at Akrotiri, Cyprus and one postmarked FPO 99 used at BFPO 63 serving RAF Muharraq, Bahrain. In November 1971 and February 1972 we see respectively a cover postmarked FPO 998 and FPO 192 both of BFPO 53 in Cyprus (Braisher 1972). What is striking is that no covers have been reported originating from Mujanga that were transported by 204 Sqn and 210 Sqn directly to Ballykelly and posted over there. Most covers reported carry the oval undated handstamp reading ‘* ROYAL AIR FORCE */ DÉTACHMENT / MAJUNGA’ so would be easy to be recognized as such.

Sources

1. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1967/jul/05/majunga-raf-detachment

assessed 31 May 2020

2. https://pcsbranch.org.uk/members-area/thegallery/oman/ assessed 31 May 2020

3. https://www.thegrowler.org.uk/avroshackleton/ballykelly.htm assessed 31 May 2020

4. Anon. (1966). Madagascar accorde des facilités à la R.A.F. pour surveiller la cote du

Mozambique. Le Monde 17 March 1966.

5. Baldwin, Nigel (1998). South Arabia and the withdrawal from Aden. Royal Air Force Historical

Society Journal 18: 25-101.

6. Braisher, D.R. (1972). Recent Bristish FPOs. FPHS Newsletter 116: 60, 117: 65.

7. Coles, C.W.E. (1971). Madagascar: R.A.F. Mujanga. FPHS Newsletter 110: 94-95.

8. Flintham, Vic (2009). High Stakes: Britain's Air Arms in Action 1945-1990. Pen and Swords

Books Ltd., Barnsley, UK.

https://pcsbranch.org.uk/members-area/thegallery/oman/

https://www.thegrowler.org.uk/avroshackleton/ballykelly.htm


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Figure: 1. Photo of the Majunga post office taken by the author during a visit in November 2018.

Figure: 2.

Cover cancelled 5.9.1967 Majunga Principal sent by a member of the RAF Detachment in Majunga, Madagascar and with double oval handstamp. Ex-collection Alistair Kennedy.

Senders details below


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Figure: 2a Figure: 2b

Figure: 3.

Official cover of the RAF Detachment in Majunga transported by 42 Sqn and cancelled 13 March 68 FPO 218 of BFPO 63 serving RAF Muharraq in Bahrain before being forwarded to

the UK. Ex-collection Alistair Kennedy.

Avro Shackleton AEW Mk 2 as used at this time. Ed


314

Life on the Western Front, Royal Naval Division, June 1917

By Nick Colley, Frank Schofield and Alan Baker

I currently have in my custody a letter from a member of the Hood Battalion (RND) on the Western Front in June 1917. Sadly it has become separated from its envelope, so we are denied the usual postal history, but the letter itself provides much military interest. We are almost certain that the writer is one Sidney Fish, MC, Lieut., RNVR, and we know from the content of the letter that he is the Officer Commanding D Company. It is apparent that he is writing to his brother (Gordon). If the writer is indeed this individual, then we learn from Ref.1 that he was promoted at some point to Lt.Cmdr, and command of the battalion. It was in this role that he was killed in action on 25th August 1918, age 24. Now that we appear to know his fate, his last sentence in the letter: ‘…. One more attack with the Steadies will satisfy me.’ carries a certain irony. According to the 1911 Census, Sidney Fish had two older brothers, Harold Lund, and James Alex Gordon. The latter was seven years older than Sidney. He serves in the Royal Marine Artillery from February 1916 and survived the war. Harold L. Fish also served in the RMA, from March 1916 and also survived the war. Yet more research, Ref.2, confirms that the Steadies was the nickname of the Hood Battalion. The content provides an illuminating insight into life on the Western Front. At the time of the letter, Ref.3 indicates that the Royal Naval Division were between major battles. In February 1917, they were employed in a relatively minor operation at Miraumont on the River Ancre, in which the RND suffered 549 casualties. Their next significant deployment was in the Second Battle of Passchendaele, October-November 1917, in which the RND suffered 3126 casualties.

Hood Battalion B.E.F. 21st June 1917

Dear Gordon, Thanks very much for your letter of the 15th June and the parcel of sweets which are excellent and much appreciated. We are in reserve trenches at present, doing working parties – a job we’ve had since our last trip up to front line. That was a week of misery. The trenches were waist deep in mud and water from a thunderstorm, though the weather fortunately was fine, and we were out in front of our trenches every night digging a new trench in full moonlight. The Boche saw us going over every night and turned his artillery onto us. After that had quietened down and we got to work again, he sniped us all night – most wonderful targets we made, silhouetted against the full moon at 50 yards range, but he hadn’t a great amount of luck, though he annoyed us a good deal. My company’s portion of trench was maeked down for strafing by Fritz and he gave it us every day to an unpleasant degree. After a week of this we went down, thoroughly tired to reserve trenches and found to our disgust that every night we were to carry up supplies to the people who had relieved us, a distance of about 3 miles, then do four hours digging in the self-same spot, carry salvage back and arrive to our trenches just in time for the morning or evening strafe. We were between two lines of batteries, and got all the shorts from one, and the overs from the other. Then we were to get two days’ rest, so we went back just out of range of the usual fire, had two days there, and then came back to another lot of reserve trenches where we now are. We’ve had a much better time here, as it’s been mostly fine, no shells, and easy working parties. Last night we were flooded out with a heavy shower, but if a pool of water hadn’t broken through our roof, wouldn’t have worried at the several inches of water which flowed in through the entrance.


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I’ve just had a new sketch book out, but I’ve so far had no time for anything, as I’m a very busy mortal as O.C. ‘D’ Company and only get about 6 hours sleep during the day – we’re mostly out all night. We see some wonderful flying out here especially from the new tri planes. I saw two Boche aeroplanes brought down a few days ago over a big town just behind us. They were marking for a long range naval gun which was bombarding the town. We often see the squadrons of red bellies, as we call them, fast Boche fighting machines which generally keep behind their own lines ready to pounce on any of our slow observation planes which patrol their front line all day long. One Boche machine was surrounded by one of our squadrons and they chivvied him home to their own aerodrome and got his machine safely! I saw them going over, and it was very funny – if the Boche tried to break away, they turned on their Lewis guns sufficiently close to head him off again. We have an immense superiority in everything now, guns, ammunition, troops etc and there is a general feeling that the war will soon be over with the Boche badly beaten. Personally, one more attack with the Steadies will satisfy me. Cheerio Your affectionate brother Sid References:

1. The Hood Battalion, Royal Naval Division by Leonard Sellers, pub. Leo Cooper 1995,

ISBN 978 1 78346 168 4

2. https://timedetectives.blog/tag/royal-naval-division/

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/63rd_(Royal_Naval)_Division#Western_Front

https://timedetectives.blog/tag/royal-naval-division/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/63rd_(Royal_Naval)_Division#Western_Front


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Page 2 Page 3

It’s always difficult when a multi-page letter is submitted with a transcript for publication. In this instance I’ve decided to publish both transcript and original letter. Ed

Feedback

Query: 396 reply by Phil Schreiber. A follow up.

Colin Tabeart has replied as shown below clarifying “Splice the Mainbrace”

Since Nelson was a lad the Royal Navy "Spliced the Mainbrace" rather than "Splitting" it, which would have had rather the opposite effect. The order is rarely given fleet wide and can only be issued by the Queen or the Admiralty Board. It is the only occasion when officers also get a tot. In over 30 years in the Royal Navy I only recall the order being made once - after the victory in the Falkland Islands.


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Query : 400

Indian Soldiers on the Rhine - Konrad Meyer

I collect mail of the Allied Occupation Forces in Germany after World War I (1918-1930).

In The Occupation of the Rhineland published by HMSO in 1987 it says that the Dominions in the Occupation Force were represented by the Canadian Corps, the NZ Division and some smaller units from Australia, South Africa and Newfoundland. No mention of India. So I was really surprised when I recently bought two photo postcards with Indian soldiers and their mules in Cologne and Bensberg. The annotations on the back of the pcs are shown under the copies. I tried to find out more on the Internet and came across an undated photo from the SUD-DEUTSCHE ZEITUNG showing Indian soldiers boarding a tram in Cologne. Furthermore I found an excerpt from a diary written by the headmaster of the school in Bensberg, which is in the Cologne Bridgehead, where he describes the passing of an Indian artillery unit through Bensberg and that they were billeted in the school building at Immekeppel, a small village east of Bensberg. (This will be shown in the next journal. Ed) I hope that maybe a member of the FPHS could tell me more about this Indian unit. Any information welcomed.

March through COLOGNE towards the other side of the Rhine. Notice the Indian Artillery men.

Hindoo drivers and supply train passing

through BENSBERG on 19-

6-19.


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Query : 401

The Royal Air Force in the Azores – May 1945

Peter O’Keeffe

Can any reader provide any information about an R.A.F. unit, apparently in the Azores, known as FORCE ‘A’ circa 1945 please?

I have a plain envelope, Figure: 1. Containing a three page letter from an Airman to his mother. It was written on the 9th May 1945, but has no mention about the end of WWII. Although it does have a manuscript “On Active Service”. The writer was 3061491 AC2 H.F.F. Williams whose mother lived in New Malden, Surrey. There is no unit cachet, and it has no censor markings. The postmark is the ‘V’ Bells slogan mark officially in use from the 9th May, but the ‘town’ slug is the ‘Postage Paid’ dumb strike with no date, which could mean that there was no FPO with this unit.

My questions are (a) Where was the postmark applied ? It is unlikely to have been in the Azores! It must have been specially put together to have the dumb die used alongside the ‘Bells’ . There were 400 dies of the ‘Bells’ issued to the Royal Mail Postal sorting offices well before the release date so that they could be brought into use at all Post Offices in the UK at the same time.

(b) Might it have been a weather reporting base or signal listening station ? Was it to provide use of refuelling facilities for RAF aircraft from say Ascension or the Falklands ? (c) The writer gives the impression that he is just settling into his new job and surroundings, this seems to be his second letter, which might indicate that he has only recently being posted there. He is an AC2, perhaps a new recruit, still untrained in his job ! Was it likely therefore that he would be based at any specialist or even a secret unit ? (d) Was the envelope flown to the UK (by the RAF ?) on the 9th May, arriving later that day (it is not an Air Letter !), and then passed to an RAF post office or Royal Mail (Foreign Section ?), if so it would presumably have been delivered on the 10th or 11th May, I understand that the 8th May (and in some areas the 9th May was / were a National holiday and sorting offices were closed, perhaps post men or woman also had the day off..!

The writer does not mention where his unit is actually living, but he does say that his wrist watch packed up whilst he was ‘on the boat’ (I assume therefore he was not flown to the Azores) so he intends to purchase a better one locally for only a few pounds. He writes that he and two mates have visited the local town and found the shops well stocked with goods and plenty of good inexpensive food , easy to obtain (they had two eggs, chicken leg and chips for approximately 2/6d) at a ‘posh’ café !... They have also had strolls along the cliffs, and likens it to the Isle of Wight. (Would they have been in uniform or did they have to be in civvies ?) He apologises that he had misspelt the name of the town in his last letter – he now says it is Praia. He also comments on the hot but often quickly changeable weather.

Finally, I have had this cover for several years, but recently rediscovered it, and noticed the unusual postmark. Although a relatively modern item (now 75 years old, but younger than me), I wonder if it could be unique (like wot I am ? ) ? Any help would be appreciated.

Cover and Senders details shown below. Apologies for Black & White, however in this instance details are clear. Ed.


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Figure : 1.

Query : 402

A Submarine P.O.W. From U12 ? - Dean. W. Mario

Was the Devenport Military Hospital connected with the Devenport Detention Barracks where some ten P.O.W.s were held from U12 when it was destroyed in the North Sea on 12 March 1915 ? Was W. BUSCH possibly one of the crew members? Reference Mark. G. Prisoners of War in British Hands During WWI. The Postal History Society, 2007, p.6


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Feedback

Query: 399. Journal # 324 Page 260 Several members responded on this one, C. Tabeart, C. Entwistle, M Gould. Thanks all.

The censor marking on John Scott's card is Gould 2A3, the bottom line reading "R.N.A.S. E.M.S." usually interpreted as "Eastern Mediterranean Station". It is difficult to find good information on this outfit, but apparently after the Dardanelles Campaign it absorbed 3 Wing and covered the whole of the Aegean.

Clear Example shown RFHMS London Feb 18 18. – Ed ***********************************

British Naval Liaison Officer, Dakar, 1940 - Nick Colley

Journal # 324 Page 259 - Michael Gould writes

Re, Figure 3 on page 259, is this not just a case that when the letter was forwarded by the naval office in Paris it needed a French stamp, and they applied one? What does puzzle me is how the French post office knew where to send it as the illustration does not show any forwarding instructions.

Request for Information and help. John Scott writes in as follows,

I have received a query from Diane DeBlois, the Editor of the Postal History Journal for the Postal History Society in the USA and am hoping that you might be able to include it in a forthcoming edition of the Forces journal. Fran McClendon was an African-American veteran of WWII who joined the Women's Army Corps and a year later was assigned to the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion which was the only unit of black women deployed overseas during the war. The unit was posted to Birmingham to sort out the backlog of mail and redirect to soldiers in the field. Apparently the women were made very welcome in Birmingham, being invited into homes and restaurants. It is hoped to have a presentation about the unit at the next conference of the Ephemera Society of America in Greenwich, Connecticut, next Spring and Diane would much appreciate it if any member could get in touch with her if they know anything about this unit. Diane's email address is [email protected]



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Feedback

Journal # 324 Page 235-236 DAYNES EA B4 BASE CENSOR NO. 1/01

Dean. W. Mario, Writes in, I am indebted to Ross Debenham for illustrating his cover dated 4 October 1942 with the above censor marking and calling for others. I too had wondered if this example was the only one (contrary to Daynes and Proud), and was coincidentally compelled to write it up in the near future !

This cover was also postmarked from Army Post Office 2 in Nairobi and is dated 28 July 1942 and was sent to Mombassa. Unfortunately there are no sender details and no link with naval connections. While some compelling arguments have been proposed the BASE CENSOR NO. 1/01 may have been used at the Naval Base at Kilindini, until further evidence surfaces from other examples, I suspect that E.A. No I and E.A. NO. II were both used at Nairobi

Illustration re-sized. Ed

Copy Date for Next Journal

Articles are always welcomed and will be published so as to give wide and varied content within the journal.

Query and Feedback will appear in the journal following receipt.

Deadline date for next Journal copy will be 1st November 2020

I currently have a number of articles awaiting publication, if you have submitted something it

will be published. If unsure drop me an email. Ed


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Air Mail Letter Card from South Africa

Ross Debenham

I attach a scan of an AMLC that although posted via the civil post office, I believe is very much forces mail. Posted by somebody at RAF Driftlands, Port Elizabeth via the civil mail. Received at RAF Northwood, and re-directed to RAF Tarrant Rushton in Blandford, Dorset.

Cancel dated 7th September 1944

CEN T SOR Marking

Tony Walker

The censor marks CEN T SOR

with the central T which could be another letter or letters, a number or a symbol are largely associated with ships of the Dover Patrol Command in WWI. The letter T is known in several forms and in purple, and provides scope for study - some time. The cover has a London machine cancel dated 31 October 1917 with wavy lines, with an illegible censors initials. However the cover illustrated has, on the reverse a boxed PH. / 344, shown here enlarged by 150%.

General consensus is that this is a Collector / Dealers mark, Can anyone enlighten us further as to the identity of this individual?


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Brothers in the RAF

Alan Baker

This cover was sent by Cpl E F Kinmond, RAF Transport Command, based in Trinidad to who I assume to be his brother, Cpl J D Kinmond at 38 SFTS, Estevan, Saskatchewan.

I note that they have consecutive service numbers, which suggests they joined up at the same time. In fact, FWR says they both enlisted as pilots in the RAF Volunteer Reserve in January

1937.

Cancelled Port of Spain Trinidad June 22 1943

Reverse of cover showing senders details.


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AEF in Siberia

Howard Weinert

A cover with enclosed letter sent to Lincoln, Nebraska by Sgt. Ernest Ralph Fishburn [1888-1954] with the Medical Department of the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia. Postmarked U. S. POSTAL AGENCY SIBERIA on 23 October 1918, along with the handstamp A. E. F. SIBERIA CENSORED signed by Major James Howard Agnew MC (Medical Corps). Agnew [1884-1954] signed the envelope and the letter, from which he cut one line of text. Figure: 4.

Fishburn was assigned to Evacuation Hospital No. 17, the primary medical facility with

the expedition. Hospital personnel (257 officers and men and 27 nurses) left San Francisco on 2 September 1918 on the army transport Logan and arrived in Vladivostok on the 29th. The hospital, located on a hill a few miles from the city, began work on 18 October. Fishburn left Siberia on the Logan in September 1919 and was discharged the next month. Dr. Agnew was called into active service in September 1917 with the rank of captain and was promoted to major in May 1918. He served in Siberia with Evacuation Hospital No. 17 until May 1919 when he was discharged. Enclosed with the letter is a 15 kopeck “money stamp”, the reverse of which reads, “equivalent to silver coinage.” Figure : 2 / 3

Figure : 2 / 3.


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Figure: 4.

Dunkirk Evacuee

Graham Perfett

I saw this postcard (of Margate beach and pier) in a postcard dealers cheap box and the

large manuscript BEF on the back caught my attention. My first thought was why is there no Censor mark. I then noticed that it is was postmarked Margate Kent / Gt Britain / 31st May 1940 machine in red. That's when the penny dropped! It is from a Dunkirk evacuee who has been landed at Margate. He writes "Arrived home OK, and feeling fine. Alex" It is addressed to Mrs W Hodden, Deane Cottage, Monymusk, Aberdeenshire. I have never seen such a card before and wonder if anyone else has.

This card generated considerable discussion as to the identity of the sender, see Forum for details. Ed


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A Russian POW at Hameln

Peter Harvey

Another challenge for me - but what I think is a 1917 Russian stationary card cancelled with the FPO 33 date-stamp posted to a POW at Hameln Germany and then a part cachet on arrival August 18 - so 8 months in transit .

Reverse of Card

Response from Howard Weinert

Pretty much what you said. Violet mark in upper right corner reads "from the active army", postmark is FPO No. 33 dated 28 Nov. 1917, 34 days after revolution, sent to POW Nikolay Vasilyevich Rudenko in Hameln camp, Hameln censor upper left, Hameln receipt at bottom dated 15 Aug. 1918, message contains Xmas greetings from brother.

Postal communication between Russia and Germany was spotty from the end of 1917

onward so the long delay is not unusual.


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HMS CURACAO

Tony Walker

A bit foolhardy perhaps, venturing into the realms of WWII, but this cover is one I showed during our VE Day celebrations the other day and it attracted some interest.

The requisitioned liner Queen Mary was used primarily to carry troops from America across the

Atlantic to the UK, usually unescorted, relying on her speed to avoid any U Boat attacks.

On 2 October 1942, with 20,000 US troops on board she was nearing the end of her journey and was some 200 miles off the Irish coast and had been met by the light cruiser HMS Curacao to act as escort. Both ships were zig-zagging to make life difficult for the U Boats, and found

themselves on a collision course, and had been warned so. However each of the captains assumed the other ship would give way (a misinterpretation of the etiquette), and the huge liner cut the small cruiser in half. She was ordered to continue and not to pick up survivors. 337 men

lost their lives.

The cover below addressed to James William Crouch of HMS Curacao, posted a week after the tragedy has an Admiralty label attached :

Return to Sender on Admiralty Instructions

It is with the deepest regret that you are informed that the addressee has

died on Active Service

Due to the nature of the loss the Admiralty imposed a blanket censorship on reporting the event

See illustrated card on Front Cover.


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RNAS Fabric Inspector

Tony Walker

I acquired this cover some 17 years ago in a Cavendish Auction and have never seen or found

any reference to such a naval rank in the intervening years.

The OHMS cover has a Manchester cds of 7 July 1915 and a fine strike of R.N.A.S. / FABRIC INSPECTOR within a circle. It is addressed to the Fleet Paymaster, Royal Naval Air Service at

Dewar House, Haymarket, London. There are no marks on the reverse.

'Fabric' in WWI was a fast developing material used in aircraft and balloons particularly, and no doubt elsewhere, but the origins of this mark are obviously naval.

As far as I know this is the only example recorded to date - a fatal statement to make, so I will

be delighted to hear of the several examples held by members and what they can tell me about it.

Currently this query has elicited no response, certainly a cachet I’ve never seen before. Ed

Any information or further examples welcomed.

Items like this possibly languishing in our collections and unreported or recorded

highlight how much we can still discover about early Postal History. I’d encourage members

who if they believe they have unrecorded or reported material to get in touch. If preferred

reporting can be published anonymously.

Don’t Hide It, “Publish It” Ed.


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BFPO Meter Franks

Mike Dobbs

Further to my previous posting on the ending of the Official Paid scheme on 1 April 1982, a new method of paying for postage on official mail had to be introduced for British Forces

overseas. As I understand it they could not use the PPI method and so the Forces Post Office introduced meter franking machines to pay for postage on official mail from units.

The Forces Post History Society (FPHS) Newsletter 172 gave details of the introduction of meter machines at many BFPOs following the phasing out of the ‘Official Paid’ service for

official mail by the Post Office on 1 April 1982. Details of the two BFPO LONDON meter machines (serial numbers HF 22052 and HF 22057) in use in the Falklands were given in FPHS

Newsletter 175 and John Daynes’ comprehensive book “The Forces Postal History of the Falkland Islands & The Task Force”.

In a letter to the late John Daynes dated 14 May (no year) Lieutenant Colonel Roger Ayres OBE

RA explained that units handed over all official mail to Forces Post Offices unstamped. The mail was then sorted and those bundles which needed franking went through the meter

machine. This meant that within BAOR only mail to civilian addresses received a meter mark - unit mail still received the normal datestamp. At that time mail to the UK normally received as

12½p meter mark unless:

(a) It was marked ‘First Class’ (b) It was for the London area; he commented that this must somehow have been delivered or

distributes from Mill Hill.

I show here mail from Germany and Cyprus used on the first day - 1 April 1982. The first two are Hasler machines: serial HAS 1437 used at Düsseldorf BFPO 34 on 1.IV.82 on a cover from HQ 6 Artillery Support Squadron RCT and serial HAS 1438 used at Rheindahlen BFPO 40 on

2.IV.82 from 4 Armoured Division Transport Regiment RCT at Minden (BFPO 29).

Figure: 1.


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Reverse of Figure 2.

Figure: 2.

The third cover is an Ascom/Hasler machine serial HGB 1413 used at Nicosia, Cyprus BFPO 53 on 1.IV.82 from HQ UNFICYP Transport Unit (this is the only report I have had from this serial). It is clear that, certainly in BAOR, official mail from various BFPOs was centralised on

certain locations for meter franking (see the item from BFPO 29 franked at BFPO 40).

It could be that the Cyprus item was not actually franked in Nicosia but at another FPO in Cyprus.

Figure: 3.


331

From Beef Tea to Battleships

William Greenall Coe, Mariner and Submariner 1912-1917

Claire Scott FRPSL

123 + xi pages A4. Hardbound with very attractive dust jacket. Full colour throughout, published by the Postal History Society (UK). ISBN 978-0-85377-025-1. £20 plus p&p £3 in UK, £10 elsewhere. Order via [email protected] or by post to the Author at Tumblins, Winterbourne Stickland, Blandford Forum, DT11 0ED. Cheques payable to “The Postal History Society”. Paypal available to [email protected] but add £2 to cover Paypal charges.

The rather unusual title follows the all-too-brief naval career of a young Engine Room Artificer who joined the peacetime Navy in 1912, serving initially in surface ships, primarily battleships, then volunteering for submarines soon after the war broke out, by means of his many letters written to his parents from the time he joined up to his untimely death from illness. His submarine time was spent mostly in HMS E1, primarily in the Baltic.

Each year of Coe’s career is introduced by a very useful date time line of significant

events during that year, which the author has woven skilfully into the narrative primarily given by the letters. Coe writes with a nice turn of phrase, in a delightful style, and with well-informed opinions on what is going on wherever his ships are operating. Before the war he was able to write uninhibitedly about where the ship was, what she was doing, and various runs ashore. One particularly interesting comment was that he often went ashore in Malta with an automatic pistol in his pocket due to frequent problems with the populace. Once war was declared, with censorship immediately imposed, the letters sadly can no longer comment on what his boat was doing and where she was. Content often refers to problems with receiving the mail, particularly parcels, which sometimes took months to arrive, what social activities as were possible in the Baltic, and with requests for various articles to be sent out to him. He was hospitalised ashore with suspected consumption, and sadly died very quickly in March 1917.

There is a very interesting comparison of pay scales of various rates and ranks – Engine

Room Artificers were very well paid by comparison with non-technical ratings. A number of interesting service documents are illustrated: several relate to Coe’s various qualifications as he gained experience; his Naval Allotment Form sending regular payments to his mother; and the all-important Service Certificate, showing what ships he had served on, with the final chilling endorsement “DD (Discharged Dead) Hospital, Reval, Russia”

There is a nicely researched chapter on the politics of the early gestation of the

Submarine Service, and a final chapter on the sad demise of the Baltic flotilla as the Russian Revolution progressed.

Archives of letters from well-informed ratings of this period are rare. The book flows

well, the background research is excellent, and it is well worth the modest price. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Colin Tabeart




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