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Whilst most of the rest of the world were either watching 22 men kicking a plastic ball around Germany (Football World Cup) or basking in the heat wave in London (reported as being 30 degrees centigrade), ten, yes just ten, of our members were enjoying a cool afternoon (air conditioned) seeing several displays of World War One material connected with the war in Italy. Keith Tranmer kicked off with a selection of mail from Austro-Hungarian troops of the 'Kaiser Jaeger' and 'Kaiser-Schutzen' units that set up their Feldpost when they invaded Italy in 1915, followed later by German forces. There were a number of coloured maps of the fighting in the Paive area of Northern Italy, several illustrated postcards plus stamped and unstamped covers (with some overprinted stamps, believed to be philatelically contrived). Keith also showed items from injured soldiers in hospital. Alistair Kennedy then added some similar items. Frank Schofield showed mail from British units which had been transferred from the Western Front to help the Italians, especially with heavy artillery (the Italians apparently had no big guns). The first British units, however, were only in Italy for about four months before returning to France. They used Base Army Post Office 'W' as their canceller and the British units were referred to as the 'British Mission to the Adriatic'. It was interesting to note that some of the British soldier's mail was censored by the Italians rather than by the British. Frank also showed some mail from British troops who operated in Albania. After the half-time break for refreshments (the chocolate biscuits were somewhat affected by the heat - just like the English football team !) Peter O'Keeffe showed a few postcards from later British units back to the UK, all of which had British censors. Peter High had a small range of hospital ships which were based in the Adriatic and which used ports in Malta and Sicily. Alistair Kennedy then produced his main offering of the afternoon, including postal stationery cards, envelopes and postcards stamped and unstamped, several of which attracted surcharges on arrival in the UK. Some West Indian Regiments sent to Italy were utilised as dockers and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) Kite Balloon Squadrons were used to protect shipping in the docks, etc. Finally Bill Collingwood showed some mail from United Stated troops whose units had arrived in Italy in the middle of 1918. An interesting afternoon which gave an insight into part of the First World War that we sometimes tend not to hear much about. Frank Schofield has asked us to clarify the item relating to his display.
The first British units (heavy artillery) referred to initially used the Italian Army Postal Service before a British FPO was established to serve them.
The British units which remained in Italy for only four months referred to 5th and 41st Divisions which brought their allocation of FPO datestamps.
The BAPO W datestamp was only used by the British Adriatic Mission and was located in Brindisi.
The unit sent to Albania from Italy was 1/6th Gloucester's who were there from late February 1919 until returning to Italy early in May the same year. Peter O'Keeffe, President |