US Cover To Germany

Recently, I got this cover and after looking at it I have a couple of questions. First, the cover was sent Feb, 1940. My question is why was it censored? The US was not at war with Germany in 1940.

The second question concerns the back of the cover. What is the sticker on the back. Can someone translate the German?

Not earth-shaking, but I am curious. Thanks in advance.

Oberkommando der Wehrmacht = Supreme commander of the Armed Forces
Geoffnet = Opened

So it appears it was censored by both US & Germany ?
I'd suspect that even though we were not officially at war with Germany in 1940, our Government was already planning for it. Remember that Hilter invaded Poland,the Ukraine and Russia pre-1940

Actually the Germans invaded The Soviet Union in June 1941

The "Via Italy" is interesting - what does that say about the political situation of the time?
This is where I realise how ignorant I am of some important historical times, and how hazy some of my facts are.

Planning for Operation Barbarossa started on 18 December 1940.

It must have gone via Italy since Britain and France were at war with Germany.

The planning obviously started much earlier but the invasion didn't start until June 22, 1941.
I'm sure Hitler didn't let the Americans in on his plans.

Did not Hitler already decide to invade Russia before he signed the non-aggression pact in August of 1939. If I remember my history correctly, the pact was just to buy time to prepare.

Hitler made the non aggression treaty with Stalin so he would have a free hand in invading Poland in September 1939.
The Germans invaded from the west and the Russians from the east.

Nice cover Rohumpy

Like others have already stated in here, yes, the cover was censored by both sides. While there was strong isolational trends in the States at this time, Germany and the US censored any mail in and out of the country as a rule, with some exceptions of course.

Hitler had always suspected that in the long run, the U.S. would take sides with Britain and her allies, the rest is history <G>

Chimo

Bujutsu

I just thought it was somewhat unusual for there to be censorship on both ends in Feb 1940 when the US did not declare war on Germany until after they declared war on the US a few days after Pearl Harbor in Dec 1941. Was the level of suspicion that high in 1940? Guess it was. I have often wondered what would have happened if Germany had not declared war first. Would the US then concentrated only on Japan and ignored Europe?

Not meaning to beat a dead horse, but---

In going through Roland Rustads book on the Prexies, I came across three illustrations of covers mailed from the US to Germany in 1940. None of these were censored. So the question remains--why was my cover censored?

In a similar vein. Several covers were illustrated mailed from Honolulu to the US during the war. Each of these was censored. Why? Hawaii was a US territory. This is very close to internal domestic censorship. I would have thought that was not done.

covers from Hawaii to the mainland were always censored, in case the fell into enemy hands in route. At the time the US was worried of an West Coast invasion from Japan, which in fact, sort of happened. think balloon bombs. On the east coast, ships were so regularly sunk by U-Boats that it was a grave concern in the pacific.

I also heard that a Japanese sub once shelled a lumber yard at Carman Heights in the State of California. I cannot confirm this though.

Also, we can not forget that the Japanese, once war was declared against them, had invaded the Aleutian Islands off of the coast of Alaska on Adak, Attu and Kiska Islands. A lot of mainland North Americans did nopt realize this until after the war too and this was because the powers that be at the time did not want panic tp spread through the masses.

I know that there were reports of Japanese submarines sighted off of different parts of the coast of British Columbia during parts of the war.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Japanese subs were also sighted of the coast of California.

from a California Military site..

"Within days of the attack on Hawaii, Japanese submarines were attacking merchant ships off California's coast"