PHILIPPINE AMERICAN WAR - Company A, 38th Volunteer US Infantry on 23 May 1900, Batangas, Philippines

It's Memorial Day weekend here in the United States.  Memorial Day is a U.S. Federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 31 in 2010).  First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the Civil War), it was expanded after World War I.  Today, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in military service. 

Therefore, this Memorial Day weekend, I will share a postal history item from my collection to help us remember those that made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of service to our Country...

PHILIPPINE AMERICAN WAR COVER

Cover sent by Fred Breiding of

Company A, 38th Volunteer US Infantry on 23 May 1900,

during guerilla fighting and "pacification" in the Batangas region.

Extraordinary soldier's drawing on this cover!

By the time this cover was mailed during the Philippine American War, the army of the Philippine Republic was no longer a regular fighting force.  Faced with the superior strength of U.S. forces, on Nov. 12, 1899 at a meeting of the council of war in Bayambang, Pangasinan, General Emilio Aguinaldo dissolved the regular army.  It was reformed into guerrilla units that would carry on the war unconventionally, relying on ambush, concealment, and the avoidance of set-piece battles. 

This method of warfare was successful in the past against the Spanish, and initially it seemed to be successful against the Americans.  As American casualties grew, it seemed as if the Filipinos would fight the Americans to a stalemate and force them to withdraw.  This was even considered by President McKinley at the beginning of this phase of the war. 

Unfortunately, such tactics brought on the full wrath of the U.S. military onto the Filipino guerrilla and Filipino civilian population alike.  This period of the Philippine American War became marked by atrocities and a level of barbarity, committed by both sides, previously unseen in this conflict. 

In May 1900, General Elwell Stephen Otis was replaced by Brigadier General Arthur MacArthur, Jr. as military governor, and William Howard Taft arrived as civil governor (Governor-General) of the Philippines.   On Dec. 20, 1900, Brig. Gen. MacArthur, Jr., declared in an official proclamation that since guerrilla warfare was contrary to "the customs and usages of war," those engaged in it "divest themselves of the character of soldiers, and if captured are not entitled to the privileges of prisoners of war."

Less self-disciplined men found in the proclamation authorization for identifying Filipino fighters as outlaws and dealing with them accordingly.

GRAF ZEPPELIN MAIL - 1930 EUROPE-PAN AMERICA ROUND FLIGHT, SPANISH DISPATCHES

LUFTSCHIFF GRAF ZEPPELIN

EUROPE-PAN AMERICA ROUND FLIGHT, SPANISH DISPATCHES 

SEVILLA, SPAIN TO LAKEHURST, NEW JERSEY, USA

This leg of the flight: May 19, 1930 - May 31, 1930

Spain did not issue any special Zeppelin stamps for this service, but applied a special red cachet to all mail.

The "American Air Mail Catalogue, Volume 1" (fifth edition, 1974), states that 2,210 covers and 638 post cards were carried on the Sevilla, Spain to Lakehurst leg of the flight.

Cover and cachet by A.C. Roessler of East Orange, N.J.  Notable franking includes Spain's airmail stamp Scott C5.

FRENCH PAQUEBOTS CANCEL ON "RECARGO DE CONSUMOS - HABILITADO" OVPT. ON TELEGRAPH 2-CENTAVOS, 1889

FRENCH PAQUEBOTS CANCEL ON "RECARGO DE CONSUMOS - HABILITADO" REVENUE ON 2-CENTAVOS TELEGRAPH STAMP

"MANILLE A SAIGON PAQ. FR."

16 AUGUST 1889

(VERY SCARCE POSTAL USAGE OF THIS REVENUE)

This is a very scarce example of the RECARGO DE CONSUMOS HABILITADO revenue surcharge on a pair of TELEGRAFOS 2-centavos stamps used as postage for the "LIGNES COLONIALES" French Paquebots from Manila to Saigon, Indochina.

From Arnold H. Warren's "Unpublished Studies on Philippine Revenues" (from "The Philippine Philatelist" website), on December 21, 1887, the Philippine Governor General ordered 2,900,000 stamps of various kinds to be surcharged “RECARGO DE CONSUMOS -- HABILITADO” (Surtax For Consumption — Made Valid), with new values, for the collection of the new surtax of five percent on the personal cedulas (poll tax receipts) during the first semestre of 1888 only. 

Hence, after June 5, 1888, there was no further need for the “RECARGO DE CONSUMOS -- HABILITADO” stamps, since the amount of the surtax was later included in the price printed on the face of all cedulas issued from July 1, 1888, to December 31, 1889.

Since there were so many of these surcharged stamps left over and no longer needed for their original purpose, decrees issued on January 29 and March 30, 1889, stated that the remaining 1,858,291 stamps be used for postal and telegraph use at the value surcharged on them.  A decree by the Philippine Governor General  stated that stamps with the surcharge HABILITADO would only be allowed for the franking of letters and telegrams until August 10, 1889. 

As a result, F.L. Palmer (1912) indicates that these stamps were available for postal use from January 29 to August 10, 1889.  Postally used examples of these “RECARGO DE CONSUMOS -- HABILITADO” stamps are scarce, although "cancelled-to-order" stamps are commonly found.

From "LA POSTE MARITIME FRANCAISE, TOME V" by Raymond Salles (Paris, 1966), the scarce postal cancellation on the stamps pictured above indicates their usage on the "LIGNES COLONIALES" French Paquebots which travelled from Manila to Saigon, Indochina.  This French Colonial shipping line was based at Saigon and also had regular stops at Singapore, Quienhone, Tourane, Haiphong, and Hong Kong. 

(Map from SALLES, Raymond, "LA POSTE MARITIME FRANCAISE, TOME V, LES PAQUEBOTS DE L'EXTREME-ORIENT", 1966, 1993)

On the date these stamps were used (August 16, 1889), the French LIGNES COLONIALES used the ship "ARETHUSE" on the Manila and Saigon route.   "ARETHUSE" was a veteran of the French North African shipping lines, and began her service in May 1885 along the Manila and Tonkin routes, serving between 1885 and 1898.

The stamps pictured above are also interesting in that they appear to have the denomination of $0'02 4/3 on them.  F.L. Palmer (1912) lists this surcharge variety as "Type V" and states "due to blurred printing or injury to the die, the 8 of 4/8 often appears to be a 3, making the value read $0'02 4/3".

The Recargo de Consumos surtax was abolished, effective on January 1, 1890, by the Royal Decree of October 25, 1889.

SPAIN'S BLUE DIVISION AND THEIR CRUSADE AGAINST BOLSHEVISM DURING WORLD WAR 2

SPANISH POST CARD PICTURING  "BLUE DIVISION" SOLDIERS INSPECTING A CAPTURED SOVIET TANK

(Series 1, Card 6)

GERMAN WEHRMACHT FELDPOST CARD

FELDPOST NR. 14929, INFANTRY REGIMENT 263, SPANISH

SPAIN'S VOLUNTEER "BLUE DIVISION"

POSTMARKED OCT. 7, 1943, LENINGRAD AREA AND THEIR WITHDRAWAL FROM THE EASTERN FRONT

The Blue Division (Spanish: "División Azul", German: "Blaue Division"), or 250. Infanterie-Division in the German Army, was a unit of Spanish volunteers that served in the German Army on the Eastern Front of the Second World War.

The 250. Infanterie-Division was formed in Spain during the last week of June 1941, immediately after the German attack on the Soviet Union. The unit was an offical Spanish sponsored formation created to partially repay the debt owed Germany for its vitally important assistance during the Spanish Civil War during 1936-1939. It was formed with Spanish volunteers from across Spain who flocked en masse to serve in the unit, originally named simply the Spanish Division of Volunteers, or more properly, Division Espanola de Voluntarios (DEV). The division was exclusively a foreign volunteer unit, designed for service within the German Wehrmacht, but to consist soley of Spaniards and to be led soley by Spanish officers.