Description
War of Independence delayed army mail + postmark discoveries: stampless 29 July 1948 postmarked On Active Service OAS family correspondence cover sent from sergeant at army unit post office KABA 188 at "training base" to addressee at KFAR HAROEH via HADERA, tied by the KABA 188 triangular handstamp & regional Army Post Office APO 7 postmark (AFFULA) - with date-slug missing, and supplemented by English office dater. The unusual "On Active Service" handstamp may have been pre-applied at the base to envelopes. The cover was evidentally delayed in transit, possibly because of army operations in the area: it was subsequently arrival handstamped with office dater 27 Sept (2 months transit) with an accompanying dateless and incomplete regional APO postmark (likely APO 2 at HADERA). Torn open at right. Highly unusual instance of delayed Army mail. Both APO postmarks lacking date-slugs are unrecorded in the specialist literature (and their augmentation with an office date is one reason why this cataloguer is doubtful of an existing theory that the dateless APO 3 postmark from Tel Aviv was necessarily in use from 22-27 May without a date being entered in its stead).
