Civil Censorship Study Group

Please help with the attached cover image. I have looked in Deery's Return to Sender volume, Boyle's Airmail Operations WWII and LaBlonde's Suspension of US Mails to Switzerland 1942 to 1944/1945 and found no clues to explain this item.

The cover was mailed with a 6 cent Prexie January 27, 1942 from Yonkers NY intended for delivery in Lisbon Portugal . It has a Mayo and Broderick Form 15.1 label pasted over the address and a New York censor 5581 label, probably Mayo/Broderick L 1.4.4. A Deery HS-US-B2.1 has been applied and there is a partial NY, NY machine marking at top center dated May 9, 1942 presumably a return date in NY.

I would greatly appreciate any ideas, comments, information that might help in the explanation of this cover. Thanks in advance

Dave

dmui wrote:Please help with the attached cover image. I have looked in Deery's Return to Sender volume, Boyle's Airmail Operations WWII and LaBlonde's Suspension of US Mails to Switzerland 1942 to 1944/1945 and found no clues to explain this item.

The cover was mailed with a 6 cent Prexie January 27, 1942 from Yonkers NY intended for delivery in Lisbon Portugal . It has a Mayo and Broderick Form 15.1 label pasted over the address and a New York censor 5581 label, probably Mayo/Broderick L 1.4.4. A Deery HS-US-B2.1 has been applied and there is a partial NY, NY machine marking at top center dated May 9, 1942 presumably a return date in NY.

I would greatly appreciate any ideas, comments, information that might help in the explanation of this cover. Thanks in advance




Dave

Good evening

Dear dmui,
I have not the complete explanation to your cover, anyway... just have a look at some notes about it.

There's several published studies about these matters and you can find a large checklist with them in the last pages of the DEERY, Michael (2015). Return to Sender Devices Used to Identify Service Suspended Mails During WWII. Island View Road, Wallaceburgo (Canada). Second Edition.

As you quoted already some of those studies, I am using in this approach three primary sources (and just primary sources).

1st - January 1942 - USA (1)
"The publication by the Department of the monthly "Schedule of Steamships Carrying Mails" has been suspended until further notice because of the war.
Mail for foreign countries will be dispatched by the most expeditious means available. No information can be furnished..."

2nd - 1942 (airmail) - United Kingdom overseas mail reports. (2)
Report #125 - Jan/31/1942 - "Eastbound mails were despatched from New York... part of these mails were received... but the remainder is outstanding".
Report #126 - Feb/7/1942 "... loss of proper sequence in arrival cannot at present be explained but enquiry is beeing made in the matter"

3rd - January 1942 - Portugal (3)
In Portugal we can find inside the pages of one of the main sources of the post offices an information about troubles on the maritime transports of the mail to be sent to the USA.

(1) - United States Official Postal Guide, 1942, January Supplement
(2) - G.P.O. Overseas Mail Branch Weekly Reports 1939 to 1944.
(3) - Guia Oficial dos C.T.T. Janeiro 1942 - loose paper attached to the January edition.

Synthesis
This said, by the USA, UK and Portuguese mail sources from January 1942 on, it seems that there were troubles in the first days of 1942 on carrying the mails from and to USA.