Thursday, November 4, 2010

WW2 V-Mail (India) - Thanksgiving Greetings


It's Deepawali or Diwali time in India. I was searching for some WWI or WWII item in my collection which could be related to Diwali but there was none. So, I settled down on next big holiday, of course not for India but nevertheless it is related to WWII. Yes, I am talking about Thanksgiving Day celebration.

For the US forces stationed in India, V-Mail served the same purpose as Airgraph for British forces. There are variety of V-Mails known to exist for India Command with creative illustration though Airgraph is more popularly seen. I bought this item sometime back because I had no example of V-Mail and it was related to India.

Shown below is example of V-Mail which was also photographed and sent as picture roll which got later developed and then posted.

But the surprising thing is that it was posted from New York to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania i.e. within US and still it was posted as V-Mail. Though, the posting date indicates 19 Sep, 1945 so it was posted after the war had ended. And that's the reason there is no censor marking in it. Still, I wonder why it was posted as V-Mail since it was within US. If you see the cover already mentions that usage of this for private will attract penalty of USD $300 but we still see this example! Or is it that sender address is misleading where it mentions NY?

Anyway coming down to the mischievous illustration itself, it mentions "Thanksgiving Greetings" from the India-Burma Theater. One of the character is shown wearing CBI (China-Burma-India) patch on his dress. A really funny and interesting example of V-Mail.

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