American APO 3909 - Where Was It Please ?

I have just got a cover that is on the edge of my Canadian collecting interests. It is from a Canadian serviceman in 1943 but is is posted from APO 3909 using a US 6c airmail stamp with a return address of Postmaster Sanfrancisco. There is alo the passed by U.S. censor resealing label.

On the internet I have not been able to find out where APO 3909 was stationed. Can someone please help me.



AQ

Can you post a close-up of the APO number? By my references, 3909 wasn't a valid APO number during WWII.

Below is what I have







Don

Don,

That list appears to be from the 70s or 80s.

Understood, at one point I was going to put together an online small APO database so folks could quickly lookup APO number but no one seemed to want to give up their lists. This was the only list I could dig up.
Don

Ross Carter's Numbered Army & Air Force Post Office Locations assigns APO 3909 to APO 501 in Australia during 1943. APO 501 served the Headquarters, U. S. Armed Forces in the Far East. At the time your cover was posted, APO 501 was located at Brisbane, Australia. Are you sure this is from a Canadian? The O-735101 appears to me as an American Officer's Serial Number. As I understand it, until 1945, Canadian officers never received numbers and were identified by name and rank only.

Thanks for the suggestions here are some more scans as requested






I took the APO3909 number from the corner card which a previous owner has turned back to reveal

However a close up of the unfortunately blurred rubber APO cancellation appears to read 391? and I am not totally sure about the 9 which may be 0 and also the 1 and as for the last number, which based on the symmetry of the canceller should be there I think could be 4 based on what appears to be the angular top but that is more of a guess than anything.
So possibly 3914 or 3014 but ????

I am fairly certain the censor number is 1613 if that helps.

I do not know if there is enough info in he scans to be sure about this but it would be interesting to know where he was when this was sent. and I have not been able to find anything out from the service number.

AQ

AQ,
The cancel does not contain an APO number. What you are reading as 391 is the word SERVICE.

The "Geographic Locations of U.S. APOs 1941-84" published by the War Cover Club notes there is little specific information about these high-numbered APOs other than they were used as temporary APO numbers for groups in transit between static destinations. Thus I would interpret Jarnick's reference above to indicate that your soldier used APO 3909 briefly while in transit on his way to being stationed at APO 501, or leaving there for somewhere else. I have several near-complete correspondences which show this type of APO use in transit.

AHHHH I see. The text at the top reads US ARMY POSTAL SERVICE / A.P.O. That makes perfect sense and is obvious now you have pointed it out.

Thank you

AQ

Jarnick



I had not considered that.

Wikipedia says that Canadian Officers were not given numbers until after the war and the number preceding the service number represented the Canadian Military district (1 to 11) that they came from. However I have covers from Canadians with service numbers starting with R (and other letters from memory) so that does not seem totally correct. I did not consider that my cover came from an officer.

This is from the following web page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servi...my)#Officers




Lots more to find out I guess.


AQ

From a cursory glance at my Reference, I can not find any 3909 or 501 listed here.......
(Newbie in this discipline)

It would be useful to have the soldier's full name. Can you backlight it and read it? Or put a few drops of watermark fluid on it to make it more transparent?

The officers (if that is what he was) surname is clear in the image I posted above. It is Kowski unfortunately the initials and possible rank are under the censor label and unreadable.

I have not found any online sources that are generally available to connect service numbers with names or histories. The Canadian one seem to be locked for the time being.

AQ

Is that the FULL surname? How about Kokowski, Lekowski, etc., and he just made his Ks a bit large and the censor tape is wide.

JOhn

The censor tape is damaged and very fragile where it has previously been folded back. I guess a previous owner wanted to answer the same question. I took a risk and scanned that portion - luckily it held together. I am not sure it helps very much though. Perhaps you can see something more than I can




If this was from an American it is possible to look up the service number somewhere? I have not found anything on the net but perhaps someone in the USA may know.I am in the UK and have to rely on the web for my info.

Have just noticed the seller I got it from thought the name may be Solkowski

AQ