It has been a few issues since I have had the opportunity to write this column. Whilst in New Zealand I was able to conduct research into a number of the covers that I had put aside.

I was travelling around and managed to spend some time in a number of libraries. It was there that I discovered some of the answers I had been seeking, once quite by accident. I intend to illustrate some of these discoveries. As I have indicated in previous articles, my passion is WWII military covers of New Zealand. One of the difficulties with collecting these types of covers is related to how covers were handled by the authorities. This was particularly so regarding New Zealand involvement in the Pacific. Most of the postal markings were without dates.

Robin Startup(1) gives some guidelines that assist in helping to identify where a cover originated. The “postmark” N.Z.E.F. FIELD POST OFFICE (fig 1 & 2) was used extensively by the various post offices of the 3rd Division (NZEF IP) in the Pacific, as well as on troopships going to the Middle East. Although certain examples of these have been identified to a particular office, about twelve, many are so similar as to make positive identification difficult.

Fig 1. Cover with N.Z.E.F Field Post Office cancel. It appears to fit example page 273 Proud/Startup APO 250 in Blue ink.

If I have interpreted the cover correctly, it is from Fiji sent by a member of the 36th Battalion. Private N Andrews was with 36th Battalion as was a Major L. A. S. Ross who appears to be the censor. The cover itself is of a good quality, which suggests an earlier, rather than a later date. This Battalion became part of 8th Brigade in January 1942 therefore date must be after this date. The censor marking, a small rectangle type, was issued for use on troopships both to the Middle East and Pacific, but is found also on covers posted after the troops have landed. In the case of fig 2, the soldier is clearly arrived and tells the person he is writing to that they haven’t received any mail for three weeks but expecting a boat next week.

Fig 2 shows a cover sent by a sergeant with the Mechanical Transport Field Workshops (M.T.F.W) dated 1 May 1941 and designated ‘B Force’. The NZEF cancel appears to be the same as in fig 1. The first elements of B Force or the 8th Brigade Group began to arrive in Fiji on the 1 November 1940. The content of the letter indicates that the small rectangular censor marking was used not only on troopships but afterward when the troops had landed.

The History of the New Zealand Military Postal Services 1845 – 19912 provides some identification of various offices on page 273, but whether that is a complete list of examples is debatable. Therefore other factors need to be considered. One of these factors involves the censor marking along with the censor’s name. But as we all know well, signatures can be impossible to decipher. The envelope itself can assist. Early in the war the envelopes are of very good quality on white paper. However, as the war progressed and paper was
manufactured from manilla and re-pulped papers the quality deteriorated. The use of these can give an indication of a date from 1943 onwards. If a dated transit marking has been applied it will prove helpful as is the retention of the contents which sometimes gives a NZ Army Post Office number (NZAPO).

This is indeed what the next cover shows (fig 3). It is possible to identify this cover as from a Trooper with the 11th reinforcements 2nd section. This is due to the fact that the writer has inserted NZAPO 800 as his address. Which is all very well, but serves to illustrate the difficulty and confusion it can pose.

Fig 3. Example of the N.Z.E.F. cancel as used on a troopship in this case transporting a member of an armoured unit to the Middle East/Italy. Note the use of the rectagular censor marking. It is quite different to those shown in Figs 1 & 2.

NZ APO 800 was the allocated mailing address for the 11th reinforcements, 2nd section which sailed on the troopship ‘WM RHYS’, 31 March 1944 (Startup & Proud 181; Munro, R.D. n.d. 67)(3) To cut to the chase then, the next covers are examples that I have which have been cancelled with the NZEF cancel. In these examples the censor marking was the triangular type which included a censor number. They were sent by a Captain Derrett to an address in Christchurch NZ. The censor markings are 101, 105, 106, 110, figs 4 – 7. According to Startup, censor 101 was used on Tonga. Censor 105 and 106 he suggests was used Tonga or Fiji whilst he states that 110 is not recorded.

My question had been, not that these covers originated from Tonga, but from what unit.

The Americans saw Tonga as strategic, as it would have served the Japanese as a airbase and the Americans wanted to make sure that didn’t happen. Therefore on 23 October 1942 ‘T Force’ made up of the 34th Battalion, sailed on the American transport President Jackson destined for Togatabu ‘Sacred Tonga’ as a defensive force, sailing into Nuku’alofa Harbour, Tonga on the 27 October 1942.(4) They replaced the American force that had been there since May 1942.5 New Zealand had been training a Tonga Defence Force as early as 1938 because of its strategic importance and recognised as such as early as 1919 by Jellicoe. The 34th Battalion remained there until replaced by the 6th Battalion Canterbury Regiment.(6)

I could find no record of Captain Derrett in the list for the 34th Battalion. Using Startup’s suggestion concerning the quality of the envelopes used, I could see that the envelopes were either manilla or brown paper, which indicated a later, rather than an earlier date. The addressee being in Christchurch suggested to me that it was possible Captain Derrett was with the 6th Battalion Canterbury Regiment, but how to prove it. That’s where library research comes in. Whilst visiting my sister in Timaru, NZ, I spent the afternoon in the local library, a library that I had frequented often as a kid looking for Biggles books by Capt John. I found a gem. It was The Fortunate Soldier. A soldier who had been with the 6th Battalion Canterbury Regiment wrote this book and in it he stated that Captain R C Derrett was the intelligence officer and usually the censor.

They sailed from Lyttelton on the Wahine and Monowai the 2 March 1943, arriving off Nuku’alofa 8 March 1943. The writer of The Fortunate Soldier who served in intelligence with Captain Derrett noted that:

Routine Orders regularly repeated the censorship rules, which included these: “Prohibited topics for correspondence: Defensive or offensive forces, weapons, installations or plans of the US and her allies. The criticism of equipment, appearance, physical condition or morale of the collective or individual armed forces of the US or her allies.

Fig 4. Example of Censor 101 sent by Captain Derrett who also censored it.

Fig 5. Example of censor 105, again Captain Derrett is the censor.

So there it was, Captain Derrett sailed with the 6th Canterbury Battalion Regiment in March 1943 and returned with the 6th Canterbury Battalion Regiment to Lyttelton in December 1943 on the David C Shank, after Tonga was no longer considered under threat.

The only puzzle to sort out is the NZEF cancel, which does not match that shown as used on Tonga by APO 200. Maybe someone can enlighten me on this or have I got it all wrong?

Fig 6. Censor number 106 with a different censor, which I cannot as yet decipher.

Fig 7.

1. Startup, R. M. (n.d.) Censored in the Pacific. (pp 3). Auckland, NZ: New Zealand Postal History Society Inc., Handbook No 29.

2. Startup, R. M. and Proud, E. B. (1992). History of the New Zealand military postal services 1845 – 1991. Heathfield, E Sussex, UK:

3. Munro, R.D. (n.d.). Fifty years on…..To war on the “Mooltan”: The story of the First/eleventh reinforcements 2 NZEF, 1944-46.

4. The Third Division Histories Committee. (1947). Story of the 34th: The unofficial history of a New Zealand infantry battalion with the third division in the Pacific. Wellington: A.H. and A.W. Reed.

5. 147th Infantry Regiment, 37th Division US Army alnog with Construction Bns (Seebees).

6. Note that the 6th Battalion Canterbury Regiment was a part of the Territorial Force.