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Although dubbed as members' displays it was really an opportunity for Alistair Kennedy to continue his display of a year ago when he entertained us with "Small Wars" up to about 1950 ! As always Alistair produced a wealth of material covering wars or conflict across the globe and from many different nationalities. He started off with the Malayan emergency in 1948 and included items from locally raised forces; 10c Forces airmail rate to UK; mail from Gurkha, New Zealand and Australian troops as well as King's African Rifles and Rhodesian African Rifles. There were no FPOs in Malaya - all mail was sent through the civil Post Office. With the conflict between Nationalists and Communists he showed a couple of covers from Taiwanese islands with military postmarks. Also included was mail from the British Garrison in Egypt. Next came Kenya with the Mau Mau emergency which started in 1952 and the items included a civil slogan "guard your gun". The Lancashire Fusiliers were sent to Kenya from Egypt and were allocated the address MELF 71. Local African units were organised into 70 (East Africa) Brigade and the RAF sent No 8 Squadron from Aden. Indo-China came next with items from the French who were defending their interests in that area. In the 1950's the French were involved in many fights in their colonies in North Africa, particularly Algeria. In Iraq King Faisal II and his entire household were assassinated on 14 July 1958 during a military coup and a republic declared - the RAF had a base in the country at Habbaniya (BFPO 61); In 1960 Belgium left the Congo in haste and this resulted in a bloody civil war. Belgian military mail was displayed together with mail from other UNOC contingents such as Ireland, Malaya and India. In 1961 Iraq had eyes on Kuwait but the prompt arrival of British troops prevented any invasion of that sheikdom. British troops went under the name Operation Vantage and used the address BFPO 616 except for 2 Parachute Battalion which arrived from Cyprus on 3 July 1961 and used BFPO 74; the Battalion remain until September. Also in 1961 there were riots in Zanzibar which left the local police unable to cope and so two companies of Coldstream Guards were sent there to restore order - they used the address BFPO 644. In 1963 Portugal had armed conflict in a number of its colonies, including Portuguese Guinea - two covers with local stamps cancelled by Portuguese FPOs. During the late 1960's the US began to get involved in South Vietnam and Alistair showed items of North Vietnamese mail as well as mail from US forces. As we all know the US involvement started with a few advisers which then grew .. Military mail from other nationalities included South Korea and Australia; in addition Germany provided the hospital ship Helgoland. There was mail from the small detachment of New Zealand SAS based in Thailand on frontier protection duties as the Vietnamese entered Laos to take revenge on locals who then fled into Thailand. Cambodia was also drawn into the conflict and a couple of covers showing local censorship were displayed. In 1967 trouble erupted when the south east part of Nigeria (known as Biafra) declared independence from Nigeria. This resulted in civil war which lasted until 1970. Alistair showed mail from Biafra and also from the Biafran team with the Red Cross in neighbouring Dahomey. British Forces have been involved in the troubles in Northern Ireland since 1969 and as well as a selection of FPOs Alistair also showed a cover bearing a 'stamp' for a special Christmas card delivery service operated by Sinn Fein. From 1975-76 there was civil war in Lebanon for a number of years and this involved a UN peacekeeping force. 1979-80 Rhodesian military mail was displayed and in 1982 there was the Falklands War - both British and Argentinean mail was shown, including a free postage cachet of the Argentine air force. In February 1986 HM Yacht Britannia whilst on its way to New Zealand to meet HM The Queen diverted and evacuated hundreds of people from Aden. Items from the first Gulf War of 1990 included British, French and Italian military mail, plus items posted under the Christmas 1990 scheme to "any soldier" addressed to BFPO 3000. The 1990's also saw a war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Also shown were items from operations in Iraq dated 2003. Alistair also showed a selection of mail from various UN peacekeeping operations, these included: UNTSO, ONUC, UNFICYP, UNDOF, UNIIMOG, UNAVEM, UNPROFOR / IFOR and UNIKOM (I'll leave it to you to find out what all the acronyms mean !). Meanwhile other members showed a few items as well ! Albert Coles provided three pages on Australian forces in Vietnam whilst Peter O'Keeffe showed mail from British Forces in Northern Ireland and the South Atlantic (Falklands War). John Daynes started off with items from the Malayan campaign, including RAF mail 1950-51; he also showed items from the 1985 RAF famine relief operations in Ethiopia, British withdrawal from Iraq and Jordan in 1958, the Borneo revolt in 1962, Indonesian confrontation 1962-66, Northern Ireland, first Gulf War, the Balkans and Afghanistan. |
