1944 Censored Cover From Langnau, Switerland To Naples Maine

This 1944 doubly censored cover from Langnau, Switerland to Naples, Maine was lurking
deep in a foreign cover box. The dealer was from Maine, so he probably aquired it locally.



The dark green 1 franc stamp (Sc. #275) is neatly tied by a bold strike of a Langnau
(Emmental) postmark dated April, 19, 1944. It commemorates Ludwig Pfyffer (1524–1594)
an important Swiss military leader.



Langnau im Emmental is in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is situated in the upper
Emmental between Bern and Lucerne. "The Emmental" is the valley of the Emme river.



Apparently the cover was routed north to Basel and into Germany where it was passed by
Nazi military censors.



The tape on the edge shows it was also passed by American censors. Finally, there is
an interesting Red Cross cinderella on the reverse.

Great cover Tom...

Thanks Bob! It was way too interesting to pass up. It was marked $5 but I got for less as part of a discounted group of covers.

Tom:

Nice cover, and a great deal for $5!

Any thoughts on the Red Cross Cinderella?

David

Thanks David!




I have not researched it yet. I was hoping that someone would shed some light on it.

Really nice cover t360.

Nice cover. It's interesting that the letter would be routed through Basel to Germany and then to the US at a time when there was a war going on between both of those countries. How would that be accomplished? Seems to me that two countries fighting would not even do such things as observe postal niceities between each other. If anything, I would have thought that mail from a neutral country like Switzerland would have been routed through other neutral countries, such as Spain/Portugal or Sweden...

Maybe Germany at this time was partly occupied already by the Allies?

Might have been, but the German censor markings are Nazi ones.