V-Mail in WWII

[abn deuce]

I received a Book for Christmas Ken Burns "the War" in it I ve just come across an item about V-Mail While I had heard of it and knew some of its details i did not know its volume heres what it says

In the spring of 1942 , the military began encouraging Americans to use v-mail, a simple but ingenious space saving system devised by the British -who called their version airgraph,letters were addressed and written on a special one sided form ,sent to Washington where they were opened and read by army censors who blacked out anything they thought might give useful information to the enemy , then photographed onto a reel of 16-millimeter microfilm. The reels-each containing some 18,000 letters -were then flown overseas to receiving stations. There.each letter was printed onto a sheet of 4 1/4-by5-inch photographic paper,slipped into an envelope,and bagged for delivery to the front. A single mail sack could hold 150,000 one-page letters that would otherwise have required thirty-seven sacks and weighed 2,575 pounds.Between June 15,1942 (when the first v-mail station began operation in North Africa), and the end of the war,anxious families sent more than 556 million pieces of v-mail to their sons overseas- and received some 510 million in return.

Quite a feat

I must give it a read in depth soon, as I m just skimming it for photo's and the personal stories at the moment . I did see part of it when it was on TV but not all of it I m very sorry to say !

[Mark]

Interesting

[Great War truck]

I was in a junk shop in the US and bought some V mail. Both the photographic print and the original letters. I will see if i can dig them out and scan them for you. What i would really like is the camera to complete the collection.

 

Tim (too)

[Great War truck]

Another thing i like about this diverse forum is that it reminds me to go and look for things that i know that i have but had forgotten about but still have a rough idea of where it might be.

 

Here is a V Mail reproduced from the microfilm for the family back home in the USA. The envelope is only about 3 inches square.

 

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/VM3.jpg[/img]

[Great War truck]

Here is another one that was not microfilmed but mailed. The letter when folded forms the envelope with the address on the reverse.

 

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/VM2.jpg[/img]

 

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/VM1.jpg[/img]

 

Anybody have an idea why this might have been the case, or were they only microfilmed when overseas?

 

Tim (too)

[Great War truck]

Finally, here are the instructions for use:

 

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/VM4.jpg[/img]

 

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/VM5.jpg[/img]

 

Tim (too)