Description

1942(Aug 5) Plain envelope to Pvt G.M. Mail, 19th Wellington Battalion, 2nd NZEF, MEF via Alexandria bearing USA Win the War 3c + Prexie 2c tied San Francisco d/s with Examined By/1504 label & with on reverse Egypt 25/Postage Prepaid [30 Oct] arrival d/s which was midway through the battle of Alemein & with on face various manuscript annotations including “Missing” with above unframed Missing h/s in black deleted in blue crayon & below unframed small Prisoner of War h/s in violet & unframed return to Sender h/s in violet & on reverse Egypt 25/Postage Prepaid [3 Nov] + Dead Letter Office/Wellington NZ [6 Sep 43] transit d/s & San Francisco Buy War Savings Bonds [21 Oct 43] arrival d/s……………….2nd NZEF MEF arrived Egypt in 3 stages during 1940 & were part of the British 8th Army who were engaged at the time in the battle of Alemein July-Nov 1942, presumably this soldier was captured during the battle with the cover strangely being returned via NZ during it’s transit time of almost 15 months