Wartime Covers

I was told that during war, US soldiers could jot off a note on a C-ration box top and mail it; no postage, as long as it was addressed. Are these considered covers? Does anybody on SCF have any they could share? Would love to see and collect some if this is true.

Most of the covers I have seen of WWI soldiers mail were envelopes provided by the YMCA. I agree it would be cool to see a makeshift cover.

During wars soldiers and sailors have the right to mail cards and letters without postage. They must write soldier's mail or sailor's mail where the postage stamp is normally placed, or if they were an officer they had to write officer's mail. Of course this was not always done but it was fairly consistent. Also, cards or letters had to be censored. In every unit, there were officers whose job was to read all of the enlisted men's mail and then apply a rubber censorship stamp and sign their name on top of the rubber stamped marking. Officers did not have to have their mail censored by others, they would censor their own mail.

I think the story you heard about using a C-ration box top is a myth, though I suppose in theory it could have been done. Cards and envelopes were not that hard to get - as was mentioned, the YMCA gave them out for free by the truck loads. The Red Cross did the same. Even the army gave out postcards sometimes. And picture postcards could be scrounged anywhere. Collecting these cards and covers is a fun way to collect postal history. Other countries have the same arrangement so you can collect by country or by war or by just about anything you can think of.

When my brother was stationed in Germany in the US Army in the late 1970s, he brought some pancakes to his dorm room from the mess hall, and put them on the radiator until they hardened. He applied stamps and wrote addresses directly on the pancakes, then mailed them to friends in the states. The got delivered.

A "free" cover mailed within the United States during World War II in 1943:

Here is an example of a soldiers free franking privilege in use.
Also, notice the examiner's stamp on upper left.



Here is one with the examiner tape also-



U.S. airmail postal stationery probably provided by the YMCA but unsure?

Medical personal that served during the war also have free military franking. I've seen "nurse's mail" as well.

I Love Stamps: Did the YMCA give out air post stamped envelopes from the postal service? I really don't know. Otherwise the sender did pay to send that envelope. The A.P.O. 606 was from Gold Coast according to Jim Forte's website.

Thank you battlestamps!

That first scan with the poster stamp, "Postage Free for Victory" from 1943 at Fort Campbell, KY seems as though it was a late use for a late use for a "stamp" that was ultimately banned by the USPOD in 1942. A brief (contemporary) story on the subject is explained here:

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/14/s...ry-mail.html

Here is a censored "Soldier's Mail" cover from WWI.

It's my impression that the "Free" frank was limited to surface mail and airmail required postage for the airmail rate. Is that correct?

Seems like I also remember the free frank privilege extending into 1946, well after the peace treaties were signed. Anyone have a last day of usage cover?

Don

I believe that is correct, thus the reason why one of the previous scanned covers used a 6c airmail embossed envelope. If a soldier wanted to mail a letter with a faster arrival time than the conventional "surface mail" would accomplish, he had to pay extra (air mail rate) for that privilege.

This may be helpful. According to the article, "Free Mail" for World War II soldiers was in place from March 27, 1942 to December 31, 1947:



Further confirmed by this excerpt from the Postal Bulletin dated December 23, 1947:

Which begs the question: How does one mount a pancake cover?

syrup?

With, or w/o syrup?

Chimo

Bujutsu

Looks like ILS and I are on the same wavelength lol.

Chimo

Bujutsu