Envelope addressed to Daphne Cottrell and two Newspaper Cuttings

PMendelskiVR15010016.jpg

Title

Envelope addressed to Daphne Cottrell and two Newspaper Cuttings

Description

Three items from an album.
Item 1 is an envelope addressed to Daphne from Victor.
Item 2 is a cutting referring to Victor being shot down over Germany.
Item 3 is a cutting about the transfer of mail to prisoners during the war.

Language

Format

One printed envelope with handwritten annotations and two newspaper cuttings on an album page

Rights

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Contributor

Identifier

PMendelskiVR15010016

Transcription

[underlined] Kreigsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
[inserted] MIT LUFT POST [/inserted]
[four ink stamps]
An
Miss G.D. Cottrell
Empfangsort: 4 Station Approach
Strasse: Hampton
Kreis: Middlesex
Land: England
[underlined] Gebührenfrei! [/underlined]
Kriegsgerangenenpost
[two ink stamps]
[postmark 24 FEB 45]
Miss G D. Cottrell [inserted] W.R.N.S. [/inserted]
Empfangsort: [deleted] 4 Station Approach [/deleted]
[inserted] FIELD HOUSE [/inserted]
Strasse: [deleted] Hampton, Middx. [/deleted]
[inserted] BARGATE
GRIMSBY LINCS. [/inserted]
Land: England
Gebürenfrei!
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname:
Sgt V.R. Mendelski
Gefangenennummer: 1620
Lager-Bezeichnung:
[deleted] M. Stammlager 357 [/deleted]
[inserted] STALAG LUFT 3 C4/3 [/inserted]
Deutschland (Allemagne)
[newspaper cutting]
Shot Down by Nazis
British airmen shot down over German or occupied territory, say an enemy source, include: Sergeant Dennis Victor H. Evans, 154, Coldharbour-lane. S.E.; Sergeant Victor Richard Mendelski, 43, The Avenue. Sunbury-on-Thames; Flight Sergeant Ronald Horace Ernest Bray, 42, Marmion-road, S.W.11.
[newspaper cutting]
QUESTION How did mail to and from prisoners of war travel between the belligerent countries during the world wars?
DURING World War II, prisoner of war mail was mainly transferred through Switzerland and Lisbon. During the periods when most of Europe was occupied, it was often extremely difficult to get mail, especially bulky parcels, across enemy territory.
In 1941, a reciprocal agreement regarding the transportation of letters was set up with Germany, allowing about 200,000 letters from Britain to be taken by the British air service to Lisbon and distributed from there. In return, mail for German PoWs in Britain or Canada was given passage between Germany and Lisbon.
Thanks to the perseverance of Post Office employees and a great deal of help from the Royal Navy and the Red Cross, most letters and parcels got through, and by 1944, with France free, it was relatively east to get mail into Switzerland. More than 26 million parcels were sent abroad between March 1941 and May 1945, a tribute to the courage and tenacity of the Post Office and all who helped get mail to loved ones around the world.
Christine Jones, Post Officer Heritage Services, London.

Citation

“Envelope addressed to Daphne Cottrell and two Newspaper Cuttings,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/28118.

Item Relations

This item has no relations.