Norway Scott 274 Norway 1946 Rnaf In Canada

Quote:
December 1942, first
supply
On December 9, 1942,
the Canadian Bank Note Co.,
had prepared a supply of
50,000 stamps, based on a
printing order sent by Reistad
on 7 November 1942 and
supported by Vetlesen, who
confirmed in a letter dated
10 November 1942 that he would pay
for the $ 1,000.00 production costs.
Plate inscription strips show the text
"Canadian Bank Note Co. Limited
Ottawa N°1 (or N°2 - number of the
plate) - The Canadian-Norwegian issue
- The 15 Øre stamp "Wings for
Norway"".
Government-in-exile
In the meantime, H.M. King Haakon
VII authorized a set of stamps to be
released in London on 1 January 1943.
These stamps were intended for letters
posted at sea on Norwegian merchant
ships. Probably the Norwegian
government-in-exile did not want two
different sets of stamps available and
therefore never supported the Reistad
initiative. As a consequence, the
Canada Post Office Department
refused to grant permission to issue
the "Little Norway" stamp. They were
waiting for a formal request from the
Norwegian government. By end of
December, Reistad received a cable
from London stating, "The Norwegian
Government has just issued stamps,
and you will therefore have to stop
issuing yours."
At the beginning of 1943, to
provide sufficient postage for an
urgent posting of a book called "Little
Norway in Pictures," it was proposed
to overprint the existing supplies of
Canada's 1935 6¢ Daedalus airmail
stamp with "Little Norway" and an
increase value to 7¢ to meet the
domestic air mail rate. The stamps
were to be cancelled at Little Norway
with special cancellations. Peter
Coolican, Assistant Deputy Postmaster
General, rejected this initiative in his
letter of 21 January 1943 to John
Darnall.
Continued persistent efforts by
Reistad and others failed. The
Government-in-exile in London
continued to oppose the issue and, in
another telegram of 31 March 1943,
stated that they did not wish to risk
that "Norway would be placed in the
same class with certain small states
which have the reputation of printing
stamps, not for postal use, but mainly
to make money out of them".
After war issue
The stamp was therefore never
issued or used in Little Norway, but
was later presented as a gift to the
Post office in Norway (12 May 1945).
After the liberation, the Norwegian
government finally ordered a
supplementary issue of one million
stamps from the printers in Canada, to
acknowledge Norwegian gratitude for
Canada's assistance and to pay tribute
to those who served at Little Norway.
These stamps, that had to be identical
in all respects to the 50,000 printed in
1942, were sent by ship around 15
January 1946. The Norwegian
Government reimbursed Mr. Vetlesen
his costs, which he donated to the
Relief Fund for families of Norwegian
airmen lost in the war.
The stamp was issued in Norway
on 28 March 1946, on Crown Princess
Martha's birthday. The stamp was so
popular that it had to be rationed to 10
stamps per person and the whole issue
was quickly sold out.
Two heroes
The stamp depicts two men
walking on the top of the globe with a
Viking shown in the
background. Actually the two
men are Norwegian Air Forces
heroes. On the left side,
Sergeant and flyer Ulf
Wormdal is "standing on
Canada". He was killed while
on maneuvers with the Royal
Air Force in the Orkney Islands
on March 1942.
Quartermaster and plane
mechanic Henry Bernhard
Malmøe is "standing on
Norway" on the right side of
the stamp. He was lost in
action during a patrol flight
from Scotland on 12 October
1943. Both men were 24
years old when they died, but both
were still alive when the proposal came
out.