Italy invaded Egypt in 1940 so the "Desert War" was going on at this time. I assume the British forces were controlling some postal services in 1941. Interested to hear from the experts.
The envelope shown about half way down the link (Egypt - 1941 censored cover to UK used at Egypt/69) has a similar cancellation to yours. Note the explanation:
"Mails from the Western Desert Campaign was routed through Egypt under an agreement with the Allied forces."
The political/military istory of EGyptup to this era is that the British had had a large political military force in Egypt since the last quarter of the 19th century. Egypt did have it,s own King and armed forces but they had no great power or influence. From 1940 Italy was at war with the "British" the front went way east into the Italian colony that later became Libya, then the Italians would push back. Eventually the British pushed the Axis forces all the way back to Tunisia. The British forces had field post offices and from 1932 enjoyed concessionary rates on post from military personnel Egyptian stamps were used with a pink etiquette until 1941 then they used Egyptian stamps with some overprint. I think the UK George the sixth stamp was probably wrongly used. Possibly no stamp was needed for a field post office and some newly arrived service man didn't know this
Thank you. Always happy to learn something new about postal matters& this sure is the place to do it! BTW, would you believe that I have a granddaughter who's doing a doctoral dissertation on the development of mail services in Italy. Means she spends a lot of time in Italy. What a burden to bear!!
EdziuMM. get your Grandaughter to note the stamps and markings. Independent states till 1870, invasion overprints of Austria in WW1, Forces and Feldposts in World war two. Allsorts of Italian colonys in Africa, overprints when the British kicked them out. Italy has it all. Ask her to keep an item open for a pre adhesive Cavellini (little horseman)stamp mark from 19th century Sardinia. I think knowing about the logistics behind the mail is what moves Philately away from being a collection of labels.
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Posted 05/03/2018 09:19 am
