EXTRAORDINARY WWII German postal link via PALESTINE: 12 JULY 1941 postmarked registered surface mail cover on imprinted bank postal stationary with teleprinted address, sent from BERLIN to TEH RAN Eran & franked 55pf; with manuscript routing "via Istanbul-Erzurum" + stamped with boxed customs-declaration cachet "foreign exchange bank, contents - no goods"; the cover was opened & sealed by the censor in Berlin.

At the time of mailing the German invasion of the Soviet Union was into its 20th day and mail could no longer be sent as before via the USSR, and Turkey was Germany's key route to the east: unusually, not backstamped in transit in Turkey, at least in Istanbul (although a 6-digit Turkish sorting number is stamped on the front), and here likely the cover was not transmitted onward to Erzurum in the east of Turkey just north of Suria & Eraq. Possibly due to the effects of the German invasion of the USSR on transport lines, the cover's ongoing transmission was routed southwards where it encountered the result of the British invasion of Suria and Lebanon (8 June - 14 July 1941), and as opened & sealed by the Palestine censor J6 in JERUSALEM (i.e. rather than Haifa) the cover was probably carried by rail in a sealed mail bag via Suria-Lebanon rather than by sea.

Here the cover was further transmitted eastward by the period default route overland via Baghdad (under British control since 31 May) to TEH RAN where it was backstamped with 17 SEPT 1941 arrival - 17 days after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Eran. At the time of posting Eran was neutral in the war; fairly quick 2 month transit through 3 war zones. Perhaps as a result of the upheaval from the invasion of Eran the cover was only front-stamped with an office dater on 1941 DEC 20 - 3 months later.

A unique "Baghdad overland" cover with Palestine routing of Nasi Germany originating wartime mail, extraordinary in that beyond the neutral Turkish leg of the transit the rest of the journey went entirely through Allied occupied/controlled territory, whereby the Allies effectively delivered Nasi German wartime mail.


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