Israeli Military mail

Israeli Army paraphilatelic cost-savings drive: 1963 issued "Album for the Soldier who Saves" - a campaign to raise awareness of the need to avoid wastage of and damage to army property; the album is an illustrated fold out folio encouraging soldiers to affix 4 different stamp labels which would appear each month, and once the album was complete, to submit it to the army's headquarters along with ...

Rare flown pre-State army mail: stampless plain light-green registered mail envelope addressed to "Haganah Headquarters - Negev", sent from the Haganah's headquarters in TEL AVIV & tied by 1x strike of the illustrated cachet on front & 1x on back + "By Air" ('Derech Avir') framed carmine handstamp instructional endorsement; tied on back by 14 April 1948 dated instructional handstamps for the dispa...

1948 War of Independence mail in siege era JERUSALEM: 7 May 1948 postmarked stampless cover sent from the Jerusalem City Commander (David Shaltiel) to the Commander of the Hagana field companies (Shlomo Shamir), bearing the circular cacher of the City Commander on the front and dated posting/registry handstamp on the back. The cover does not bear the Jerusalem "communication corps" Misrad Kesher M...

1948 Palmach mail to Jerusalem pre-APO postmark usage: late May/early June era stampless undated cover sent from soldier Natan Levin at army unit post office KABA 219/3 (Yiftach brigade), self identified in the return address as belonging to "Company A" (Pluga Alef) - of the 1st battalion of the Yiftach brigade of the Palmach, and addressed to the British Institute in JERUSALEM; the front is tied ...

Important Army Mail proving cover - one of the earliest known covers with a KABA handstamp: 3 June 1948 postmarked civilian cover, sent from TEL AVIV and addressed to the Schweitzer Hospital in TIBERIAS, franked 10 mils for the domestic letter postage rate (10x11 perforated stamp) & tied by a single strike of the head post office postmark; the hospital functioned as an army hospital, and the cover...

1948 War of Independence era priviliged civilian mail to JERUSALEM through the Army postal service: stampless & undated cover addressed to JERUSALEM and dispatched from army unit post office KABA 140 (Headquarters of the Army post service at the KIRYA government complex in TEL AVIV) & return addressed to a civilian in TEL AVIV - the cover is not endorsed "on active service" (OAS); tied on front by...

Key 1948 Army mail proving cover: undated stampless cover with original pen written letter inside, Hebrew dated Alef Sivan 5708 (8 June 1948), signed "Shmuel" [Rubkhash] with his unit number "211/25" & bearing on its backside the endorsement "on active service" together with the address Moshe Levi Family near the Avihayil Bakery at the Zichron Moshe neighborhood [next to Mea Shearim] in "JERUSALEM...

Cracking the riddle of the dateless APO 3 postmark - a supporting 'proving cover': a plain stampless cover, without return address or army postal unit triangular KABA handstamp, addressed to "Family [of] Refael Levi, 52 Sokolov Street, Tel Aviv" & tied at top right by a single strike of a black dateless APO 3 postmark.As per extensive research conducted by this cataloguer on the subject of 1948 ma...

Unusual Palmach "army mail" handled by Army signals corps mail: 29 July 1948 postmarked civilian cover sent from TEL AVIV to relative in "Company 3 of Battalion 3" at "P.O.Box 724", franked 10 mils per inland letter postage rate & tied by strike of the head post office; the cover was transferred from the civilian postal service to the army postal service & backstamped same day regional Army Post O...

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 En...

1948 internal army mail processed by the Army Postal Service: stampless & undated "official mail" endorsed cover tied by the emblem of the 'Palmach' military force on reverse with manuscript signature-endorsement "Jerusalem", addressed on front to Eli Ron at the "Communications Department" at army postal unit (KABA) 222 (5th Battalion of the Harel brigade); front-stamped 2(?) Oct 1948 transit by r...

Rare 1949 internal-army "official mail" handled by the Army postal service: stampless "official mail" endorsed cover, addressed to a member of the Secretariate of the Prime Minister's Office; without a return address but tied on front by triangular army postal unit KABA 403 handstamp (of "TA'AS" - the armaments production department) - the apparent sending office & tied by 7 June 1949 army post of...

1949 internal army mail handled by the Army Postal Service: stampless miniature envelope on brown army-type postal stationary handstamp-endorsed "Official Mail" on lower-front, addressed to a civilian (Joseph Oplatka) at post office box address in JERUSALEM with an additional unit notation below referencing army postal unit 241 and "AKA" (the manpower directorate of the Army - the addressee may ha...

1948 Jerusalem Army processed civilian mail DOUBLE proving cover: 11 June 1948 postmarked cover sent from a civilian in TEL AVIV to soldier Avraham Ziskind of the "Kvutzat Portzim" unit at KIRYAT ANAVIM "near Jerusalem", franked 10 mils per domestic letter postage rate using a tabbed rouletted right marginal single stamp (Ba #3c) & tied by full strike of TEL AVIV head post office cancellation (on ...

Early 1948 era [air] mail to Beersheva - rare combination: 4 Dec 1948 postmarked registered airmail cover sent from tiny locale TITISEE Germany (return addressed tiny locale ELTERS in American occupation zone) to a Michael Turk in Beersheva "Palestine", likely franked 1.20 DM for the period postage rate (30pf letter + 50pf non-Europe airmail + 40pf registry fee) - but some stamps fell off already ...

1948 early liberated Sodom incoming civilian mail: 30 Nov 1948 postmarked pink Mandate pt238 parcel card sent from KINNERET to female soldier at KABA 192 (Sodom) assigned to Base #1 & franked 60m using Doar Ivri stamps for a 2.3g weight package, tied by local postmarks on front & back; front-stamped 1 DEC 1948 army Base B (Haifa) transit & received in Sodom 3 Dec 1948 (liberated as of 25 Nov.) - m...

Unusually censored domestic letter: 10 Oct 1949 postmarked express mail cover, sent from TEL AVIV (no return address) to soldier (personnel number written) at #3 Recuperation Home in HAIFA & franked 55 prutot for the 40pr express fee + 15pr base letter postage; opened by "Base Censor" and sealed using rarely seen Tzadi-4 creme label imprinted "Military Censor | Opened by the Censor" & tied...

Rare postal links - POW mail direct from SUDAN: 3 April 1956 postmarked air mail cover, sent from KHARTOUM and addressed to a prisoner of war #15043 called Mohammed Sali Abu Bakr care of the prisons section of the Israeli Army headquarters (the Kirya in TEL AVIV); affixed on front with a Sudanese airmail etiquette, franked on the back 5 Piastres & tied by a full strike of the SUDAN AIR MAIL KHARTO...

Rare Israeli 1956 Sinai Campaign postal history: 23 Nov 1956 hand dated picture postcard (interior of Saint Catherine Monastery in Sinai), tied by its English and Greek-intaglio (negative seal) handstamps, with Hebrew message ("...passing away the time with trips and tanning in the sun, hope to be back soon"), sent by a soldier and endorsed "On Active Service", addressed to NETANYA; franked 80 pru...

Rare Eilat - Army mail combination: 27 Aug 1963 postmarked family correspondence cover sent from civilian in EILAT to relative serving in the army; in this period uniquely at EILAT all domestic mail addressed outside of the city was flown as air mail: the postage rate was the same as the domestic letter rates for the rest of the country but the weight tranche differed. Here the cover was franked 1...

Heavily re-routed mail to the Israel Police: 22 June 1948 local TEL AVIV registered cover from civilian sender to "Inspector of the Special Police", addressed Beit HaShoeva Street in the city; franked 25m per period rate (one frank, presumably 15m now missing) & tied by 1x strike of the Head Post Office trilingual cancel on the front + 2x on the back & HPO registry label and "National Loan" cachet...

War of Independence era army mail: 4 Aug 1948 postmarked stampless "on active service" cover from soldier at KABA 276 (9th Oded Brigade, in the north east) to addressee in TEL AVIV; tied on front by the unit's triangular cachet & postmarked via APO 6 (ROSH PINNA); opened gently at back; with 9 Aug 48 arrival docketed on front. At this time the unit was in between major operations which took place ...

Rare 1948-49 era named army mail with civilian post office transit mark: stampless small On Active Service OAS family correspondence printed matter cover sent from army post office KABA 164 to female addressee at WIZO baby-nursing home in JERUSALEM; apparently Jewish holiday period mail as subsequently tied by dateless triangular TEL AVIV postmark of the civilian post office used for holiday perio...

Besieged Negev - end of Operation Yoav: 19 OCT 1948 (1st day of Hol HaMoed Sukkot holiday) parcel card from BNEI BRAK to KABA 277 (Palmach Yiftach Brigade headquarters) in the NEGEV, franked 60m using 10 + 50m Doar Ivri stamps for 1.3kg weight & tied by 2 strikes of the local postmark; flown to the servicing army post office at APO 10 ('Misrad 10') in RUCHAMA where front-stamped 22 X 48 arrival; r...