Marcus Sherwood-Jenkins displayed first with material from Russia in WW1. The display covered the whole range of postal history, including registration labels, cachets, postal stationery and postmarks and covered the Russian contribution to WW1. The Tsar, in honouring his obligations to the Western Allies, helped the cause of the Revolution. In 1916 with Verdun getting a pounding the Tsar brought forward the Russian offensive by several months, but the casualty rate was such that it caused conflict and revolution in Russia. Showed was a picture postcard with the earliest know Petrograd censor mark; there were charity postcards for various funds, including the Empress fund for Soldiers; there were also illustrated and decorative envelopes. Western Russia was devastated by war and there were a number of pages which showed this through various picture postcards. Also shown were a couple of postcards depicting aircraft of the Imperial Russian Air Force. Displayed was a petition to the Tsar asking for money from an officer held prisoner in Austria. Two brigades were sent to the Western Front and they arrived in Marseilles in 1915 and there was a cover from a Russian hospital, also items from Russian ambulance units with the French Army. There were postcards made out of birchbark as well as mail and postcards from Russian troops on the Western Front. He also showed a letter from Sidney Gibbs, an English tutor to the children of the Russian Royal family. There followed a small display of a little known event - the Belgian Armoured Car Unit sent to the Eastern Front to assist the Russian Army with a selection of postcards from soldier with the Unit. The Unit eventually got back to Belgium in 1921.
Jim Hamblin was next with Serbia during WW2 - the country hadn’t had a great WW1 and didn’t want to get involved in WW2 ! However, Germany wanted to send tanks through Serbia to Greece and when the Serbians refused they simply bombed Serbia. Jim put up a selection of mail from Serbian POWs, including charity stamps and various censor cachets. Serbia along the coast was occupied by the Italians and various POW items were displayed from the period 1943-44. Material from the period when Tito took over included censored postcards, overprinted stamps of the Democratic Federal Jugoslavia, photographs and cards from Yugoslav POWs in German camps and war charity stamps of 1942/43.
Martin Lynes had a couple of query items - from 1st British Field Hospital in Belgrade in 1912 and from British Intelligence in Petrograd in 1920.
Keith Tranmer was going to show items from the Danube Flotilla, Black Sea Fleet but decided to save it for the President’s Cup Competition ! Instead he told the history of and his collecting of material from Przemysl and his subsequent disposal of it. The history is contained in his book “Przemysl 1914-15” published in 2003 jointly by the ARGE and HBSV in Austria under their "Militär und Philatelie" series. His display was of odds and ends associated with the subject - copies of newspaper extracts, duplicates of photographs and maps of the various forts surrounding Przemysl. Also shown were photographs, Russian and Austrian, which depicted buildings and scenes as they were “today” (i.e. modern times) and as they were when built. This included the after effects of bombardment and photographs of the airfield of Przemysl.
Michael Dobbs brought us up to date with a selection of NATO-related items which illustrated the number of former Soviet republics or members of the Warsaw Pact now members of either NATO itself or the Partnership for Peace programme. These included FDCs of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joining NATO; 50th Anniversary stamps issued from PfP Bulgaria and Lithuania; other Bulgarian miniature sheets, postal stationery and FDCs for NATO-related events and eventually a FDC upon its joining NATO in 2004, along with that for Romania. Philatelic covers of the Estonian, Slovak and Ukrainian contingents to UNPROFOR were also shown. Lastly a collection of covers and cards relating to the Czech Independent Armoured Brigade and Polish Forces in the UK / NW Europe during WW2.
Nick Colley displayed items from the Royal Navy in the Baltic in 1915 - there were a couple of submarines to disrupt the German war effort in Russia. He also showed a letter with some interesting text from the destroyer HMS Valentine in 1919. The author writes about the attack on the Russian Fleet at Kronstadt and the loss of coastal motor boats - the letter was censored by withdrawal of pages and cut-outs. He also showed a letter form HMS Engadine, a sea plane carrier, serving with the Black Sea Fleet in 1919. Lastly he had “real photographs” of the British fleet in the Baltic.
Peter O’Keeffe was next with a miscellaneous display of items, including a blue OHMS envelope from St Petersburg in 1905 addressed to the Adjutant, 2 Seaforth Highlanders at Aldershot; official mail from SOXMIS in 1971 (FPO 309 of 10 SP 71); returned British POW mail from Stalag XXB (Marienburg) in 1944; POW mail from camps established for Germans in the Russian Zone of Berlin in 1946 and a couple of covers from Spandau Allied Prison post-WW2.
Alistair Kennedy displayed covers with Russian FPOs in WW1 - they were numbered up into the 300 series; French ambulance unit attached to the Russian Brigade in France during WW1; a few Red Army FPO items with lettered FPOs (including K and T). He also showed British Forces in Russia: the PB series of postmarks in 1919; South Russia APO SX 22 at Batum in 1919; OC POSTS BMM 1 in1919; British Military Mission to South Russia (APO BMSR) as well as British Nurses in Russia, a card from the submarine E9 in the Baltic; mail from Bulgaria to Canada via New York and the British Military Mission in Romania.
