UK Airletter Used on HMC Ship

This airletter is UK #1c (according to the Greiner catalogue), identifiable by the following features:

• Dotted address lines, with 11 dots per cm
• Line below "If anything is enclosed ..." admonition is 20 mm wide
• Area in which the indicium is printed is 23.5 mm wide
• Rectangular area recessed from overlay to indicate where the sealing flaps have to be fixed to

Greiner specifies October 1943 as the month of issue. Deviating from this, the message on the writing panel is dated September 29, 1943.

The airletter was posted aboard HMC Ship Edmunston, a flower-class corvette operating as a anti-submarine convoy escort, and was addressed to Canada. Interestingly, a regular UK airletter was used instead of one of the military airletter forms.

The airletter was censored and handstamped "From H. M. C. Ship / Examined by DB N 621".


Reference:
Greiner/Greiner, Aerogramme von Europe, 3e, 1993.