"DON'T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS" - Indian Airmail WWII

Today's post is continuation of my previous post "Don't Believe In Rumour". It is another propaganda airmail letter created by Indian Airmail Society.

Shown above is one of the famous airmail letter issued by Indian Airmail Society during WWII. The concept of such letter was from Stephen Smith, secretary of Indian Airmail Society and a known pioneer of Rocket Mail during those times.

The letter was carried through a airplane piloted by J. *ton (I am terribly sorry but I couldn't read the letters properly. If any of my reader can decode then please let me know). The letter carries his signature close to large shaped 'V'. The letter carries a red colored special cancellation cachets: "BY AIR" and a black colored "CC-Calcutta" on front side.

The letter has cancellation of Dum Dum (a place in Calcutta) of November 21, 1941, 9:15 a.m. It has been backstamped with slogan "Buy Defence Savings Certificates" dated November 21, 1941, 5:30 p.m. at Park Street (again Calcutta).

This cover has also been signed by Stephen Smith on the reverse side.

The letter carries a very large V in red color with text in center and "DON'T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS" in bigger font on the left side. The text on left hand side reads:

WAVEL CHASED BENITO OUT.

The message reminds Axis forces of massive Italian defeat in Africa by General Wavell forces in February 1941.

It continues with more text:

THE MISSING LINK.
OFT IN THE STILLY NIGHT,
IN EAST AFRICA,
I USED TO HEAR,
THAT JACKAL CRY.
HAS ANYONE HERE
SEEN MUSSOLONI,
OH WHERE IS HE.
-----------
ASK WAVEL HIS
EPSOM SALTS
ARE MISSING
-----------
INDIAN
AIRMAIL
SOCIETY

It sarcastically mentions EPSOM SALTS which originated from Epsom, Surrey, England.

India WW2 Pigeongram - Nur Jehan

Today's post is on one WWII Indian Pigeongram envelope issued by Indian Airmail Society. I don't need to explain the history behind usage of pigeon's for carrying message. They have been in service since centuries to carry message. One can find many stories of love, betrayal or wartime when pigeon played important roles as messengers.

Now, don't expect me to talk about the Pigeon used in Indian blockbuster movie "Maine Pyar Kiya" (a close translation would be:I fell in love) and its heroics in conveying love messages between lovers. Indian cinema have certainly immortalized Pigeons through movies since the birth of cinema in India. But here, I'll briefly touch upon stories of couple of Pigeons who helped creating history other than in cinema :-)

In modern times, the pigeon had been used to great effect during WWI & WWII. In both the First and Second World Wars, the pigeon saved hundreds of thousands of human lives by carrying messages across enemy lines. Pigeons were carried on ships in convoys and in the event of a U-boat attack a messenger pigeon was released with details of the location of the sinking ship. In many cases this led to survivors being rescued and lives saved.

In the First World War mobile pigeon lofts were set up behind the trenches from which pigeons often had to fly through enemy fire and poison gas to get their messages home. The birds also played a vital role in intelligence gathering and were used extensively behind enemy lines where the survival rate was only 10%.

In the Second World War pigeons were used less due to advances in telecommunications, but the birds still relayed invaluable information back to the allies about the German V1 and V2 Rocket sites on the other side of the English Channel.

When one talks about Pigeon's role during wars then there are couple of names which comes to mind instantly.

First of them is Cher Ami (dear friend) who saved the lives of many French soldiers by carrying a message across enemy lines in the heat of battle during WWI. Cher Ami was shot in the chest and the leg, losing most of the leg to which the message was attached, but continued the 25-minute flight avoiding shrapnel and poison gas to get the message home. Cher Ami was awarded the French ‘Croix de Guerre’ medal for heroic service.

Another heroic pigeon named G.I. Joe saved the lives of a thousand soldiers in World War 2 after British troops had established a position within an Italian town that was due to be bombed by allied planes. Communication equipment was down and the only means of stopping the raid was to attach a hastily written message to G.I. Joe and send him to the allied HQ. G.I. Joe flew 20 miles in 20 minutes arriving at the air base whilst the planes were taxiing on the runway. Disaster was averted with 5 minutes to spare. G.I. Joe received the ‘Dickin’ medal for his bravery.

And the last one without whom the post will be incomplete was Paddy, from Northern Ireland, who received a medal for becoming the first bird to fly back with news of the D-Day landings in Normandy in less than five hours.

Naturally, the then Indian state of Orissa police were so impressed that 40 pigeons were acquired from the Indian Army and deployed across the region immediately. You would be disappointed to hear that Pigeon services which were used since 1946 in India were finally discontinued in 2004 in Orissa state.

Anyway, so coming back to today's item, the Pigeongram was carried by the Pigeon named NUR JEHAN.

Shown above is the front side of Pigeongram. The envelope was carried on 14th October from Burdhwan to Calcutta. The envelope carries a half anna stamp on it with Calcutta cancellation. It shows a possibly olive tree with Pigeons/Doves (a messenger of peace) flying. It also carries a patriotic message printed on it which urges everyone to be united and contribute as much possible to help win the war:

The Nazi Bombers,
Their Bombs They drop & bolt.
The Infant and the Aged,
They are out to kill.
Its up to you to do your bit,
And make them still.

The reverse side carries signature of Stephen Smith, the secretary of Indian Airmail Society that time or rather father of Rocket Mail in India. The envelope also has a box shaped slogan cancellation on it which states "BUY DEFENCE SAVINGS CERTIFICATES".

"DONT BELIEVE IN RUMOUR" - Indian Airmail WWII

Yesterday, I gave you a lesson on Italian pasta and pizza from Po Valley so don't you think it's time to brush up a bit on French cheese and wine ;-) France and Italy have contributed so much in the area of art, culture, food and fashion that both go hand in hand. I know you will agree, hence I have selected today's topic.

For a change, I will not start with giving lecture on French resistance and armistice during WWII but first show you the item and then we will go down the memory lane :D

Shown above is one of the famous airmail letter issued by Indian Airmail Society during WWII. The concept of such letter was from Stephen Smith, secretary of Indian Airmail Society and a known pioneer of Rocket Mail during those times.

Let's first get into technical part of the letter and then we will touch upon literary section! The letter was carried through a airplane piloted by J. S. Salisbury. The letter carries his signature close to large shaped 'V'. The letter carries two red and one purple colored special cancellation cachets: "BY AIR" on front, "V with M" on reverse side in red color and "A" -> Calcutta on front and reverse side both in purple color.

It is also said that the "A" flight originated in Jhabua according to J. C. Cooper's notes published in "Bulletin of the Airmail Society of India", II, II, (Oct. - Dec. 1974) pp.42-45. The letter has cancellation of Dum Dum (a place in Calcutta) of September 12, 1941, 9:15 a.m. It has been backstamped with slogan "Buy Defence Savings Certificates" dated September 12, 1941, 5 p.m. at Park Street (again Calcutta).

This cover has also been signed by Stephen Smith on the reverse side twice. It also states that 20 piece of mail was carried. Only 12 such envelopes were carried on the flight.

I know by this time you would have already noticed the main attraction of this cover: the text. I am not surprised if you would have read it also and found it amusing :D Well, it is and most important of all carries a good propaganda message.

The letter carries a very large V in red color with text in center "DONT BELIEVE IN RUMOUR" and "DO NOT BE BLIND". At the left side of V, an old English nursery rhyme and musical round has been molded into a great message of war.

The cover has a rhyme:

THREE BLIND MICE,
PETAIN DARLAN LAVAL.
SEE HOW THEY RAN
THEY ALL RAN AFTER HITLER'S LIES
WHO CUT THEIR TAILS WITH A CARVING KNIFE.
THREE BLIND MICE.

Man! this is what I like about WWII propaganda. The people working under Psychological Warfare division were so creative and imaginative that they always came up with superb message on any form that they touched whether it was leaflets, posters or covers.

Literature Class

According to Wikipedia, a version of this rhyme was published in Deuteromelia or The Seconde part of Musicks melodie (1609). The editor of the book, and possible author of the rhyme, was Thomas Ravenscroft, who in 1609 was still a teenager. The original lyrics are:

Three Blinde Mice,
Three Blinde Mice,
Dame Iulian,
Dame Iulian,
the Miller and his merry olde Wife,
shee scrapte her tripe licke thou the knife.

Attempts to read historical significance into the words have led to the speculation that this musical round was written earlier and refers to Queen Mary I of England blinding and executing three Protestant bishops, but problematically the Oxford Martyrs, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer, were burned at the stake, not blinded.

Later, the wordings became:

Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
See how they run. See how they run.
They all ran after the farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice?

History Class

The rhyme was beautifully modified according to the then situation in France. The rhyme on cover mentions three blind mice as Philippe Petain (WWI hero and later becoming chief of the French state known as Vichy during WWII after German forces run over France), François Darlan (Admiral of the French Naval Fleet and Prime Minister of France between 1941 to 1942 when this cover was issued) and finally, Pierre Laval (Prime Minister of France just after French Armistice with Germany in 1940 and then he continued as head of Vichy state after Darlan stepped down.)

These three people were key figures in France during WWII and instrumental in getting Armistice signed with Germany in 1940 after France fell to the Germany. There are numerous articles on internet which talks about the role played by each of these figures during WWII including disagreement between them during WWII days.

Despite, the fact that they never openly agreed to German stand of declaring war on Britain and handing over the French North Africa to German forces as part of armistice which some historians say would have prevented allied landing in Africa, there is no denial in their role in Vichy government which caused thousands of Jews handed over to Germany which resulted in their execution and be part of other atrocities which Germans did during their rule in France.

We can go on writing about each person's role and involvement with Nazi regime but I think internet is right place for people who want to go in depth. Thus, I would end my history class abruptly here with concluding remark that Darlan was assassinated in 1942, Laval was executed by firing squad after his trial and prosecution post-war and Petain died in 1951 after his death sentence was converted into life imprisonment considering his old age during his trial post-war.

Last but the least, they introduced the word "Collaboration" to French people and gave an important history lesson to all coming generations!!!

War Rocket Mail - Stephen Smith

Am feeling really good to write about today's item. When I had bought this one on eBay through some Canada based gentleman long time back, I couldn't get enough details on it. It was lying in my album. All I new was this was related to India :-) again as told by gentleman. I tried doing Google but was not able to gather information.

I decided to put this item here so others can identify it. But before I do that I decided to Google again and voila! I got some information this time. Seems, luck was on my side finally.

The item is about War Rocket Mail Labels used on 19th Sept, 1939 in Calcutta, India. I have the unused label set of Rocket Mail no 207 and 208 not the used envelopes shown below. I just somehow managed to get images of same labels used during Rocket mail flight for collectors reference.


Stephen Smith, the pioneer in rocket mail was born in Shillong, Assam, India on February 4, 1891. Between September 30, 1934 and December 4, 1944, he conducted more than 250 rocket launches. Lots of such experimental launch included rocket mails while others carried even livestock/animals.

Lots of countries experimented in rocket mail, but Stephen Smith is known to be most successful of all.

Coming back to original item, the label "War Rocket" no. 207 and 208 were definitely part of WWII period. I really don't know how many such "War Rocket" label exists.


The other used envelope with no. 208 is shown below:


It is said that less than 100 such cards/envelopes were flown. These cards had comment on reverse: "Life is a mirror, the good and the bad seen in others, are hazy reflections of our own" with Stephen Smith's signature on front.

In 1992 his contributions were recognized by the Indian Government with the issuing of a stamp and first day cover on the centenary of his birth.

I feel the post will be incomplete without sharing the stamp and a special cover which was issued in his honor. So here it is: