Air Mail: Fancy Cancels, Censors, And WW2 Era

Most all of my AMs are WW2 time frame.
I have one that I will throw in that is not
an AM, but a fancy cancel promoting AM.
The others are WW2 correspondence.

I think it is interesting how they are marked
"Naval Censor" or "Army Examiner" and signed
by the soldier with that duty.

The "Blue Letter" is neat too.
Apparently that is an incoming letter
from the soldier to family. It appears to be
heavily censored/inspected. I have a stack of
these blue letters. I wish I had noticed the
damaged stamp here. I would have scanned a better
one.

I notice the envelopes all have fairly heavy clear
tape on the same one end. It has lettering that
appears to say "opened by". The envelope itself
must have been standard military issue to the
soldiers. It is marked as W.D (War Dept) Form 911.

The Leona Hotel cover I thought was neat because
it is an AM with what I would assume qualifies as
a 'fancy cancel'.

Interesting covers, ratio411. I have another question about the Leona Hotel cancel - was it both hand cancelled with the heavy "1" cancel then seperately canceled with the date/time stamp? I have seen that before and wondered about it...anyone know?

Charles

This is all new to me, so I don't have an answer.

However I do notice that the lower left corner* has
the year stamped. Looks like 194?...
I assume that was a third stamp. Doesn't look like
part of either other to me. Might be wrong. ???

If the year stamp is attached to one of the other 2,
which one?


Edit:
*Lower left corner of the postage stamp

Ratio, war covers are always an intriguing part of history.
I don't collect them myself, but always stop to look at them.

Charles, it is a one piece cancellation stamp similar to the
RPO (Railroad Post Office) stamp at this link.

http://antiques-internet.com/colora...e/IP4618.htm

I see...That would allow for a heavy cancel on the stamp itself to prevent re-use, plus a clear date stamp. Pretty ingenious. Thanks.

Charles

Wonderful WW2 covers. Thanks for posting them!

Interesting.
I have to go back through my covers.
I have a letter from a railroad with a very
similar cancel. I don't think it is that
exact railroad, but now I am curious.
Would be fun if my cancel was from that
very stamper.

As a side note:
I went through the covers tonight and they
break down something like this:
80+ 1860-1900
80+ 1900-1910
3 1910-1920
40+ 1920-1930
60+ 1930-1940
30+ Soldier mails/Air Mails WW2
1 "Soldier mail" (no stamp) that appears to be WW1
20+ Non-war 1940s covers
200-300 postcards, addressed but not sent, and
mint-never used. Date ranges 1920-1951

None are nearly as fancy as some I have seen in
just the short time I have been here!
Most are black and white, or plain personal
mail. Other than the response from Teddy's
White House, there is very little "extra
special" interest stuff.

I found one nice full color tire advertisement
postcard from the 30s or 40s, best I can tell.
It looks brand new and is awesome looking for
a simple postcard.

Great treasures you have there Ratio! Are you having fun going thru all of it? That's really what makes it special -- that "golden egg hunt", so to speak!
My hubby's oldest Uncle, Charlie, passed away a few years ago. The old sweetie had stashed money here and there all over the house and apparently forgotten that he had done that due to his dementia. We went thru his house (5 of us) and it was like a big Easter egg hunt! I found $1,800 in a pork-n-bean can in the shed with screws and nuts on top of it with a dirty piece of rag--I guess he thought no one would think to look there--including himself! ha All total we found over $22,000 hidden in tea cups and taped to bottoms of drawers, etc!! I wanted to start prying up floor boards,but no one would let me! ha What a fun "Golden Egg hunt" that was! I know I'll never have an experience like that again, ever!
Please Post some more of your finds!
Thanks!
Gussyboy1

Gussy you better spend some of that stash on stamps...even though I am from that era..i am not familiar with the blue envelope mail..we always learn something when we communicate with other stamp and cover collectors...thats why I never understood the "closet collector" who never joins a club or is afraid to share his collection with someone else because they might steal it...what nonsense...if someone steals my stamps I will start another collection.......

Let's not get started on OTHER collections. I have so resisted that subject! Hmm, wonder where I put that collection of Military shoulder patches ...

Jim