In our collection we have many examples of the "Airgraph" the original
"V-Mail" used by Canadian and British servicemen. We also have examples of
the original form used, and many come with their original envelope. As usual
envelopes don't tend to survive, but the few that do, in our collection
anyway tend to be marked postage paid.

A Mr.E.H. Keeton produced a detailed catalogue "Airgraph", published in
January 1987 by the Forces Postal History Society

And from the horses mouths:

From the Postal and Courier Services web site for the British Army
http://www.tafsc.com/PostalHistory.htm

The Airgraph was invented in the 1930's by the American photographic
company, Eastman Kodak Company inconjuction with Imperial Airways (now
British Airways) and Pan-American Airways as a means of reducing the weight
and bulk of mail carried by air, but its commercial use was postponed due to
the outbreak of the war in September 1939. 
  
The following year the Minister of Transport and a Director of Kodak, Lt Col
Moore-Brabazon RFC, put forward the idea that Airgraphs could be used to
reduce both the bulk and weight of mail travelling between the Middle East
Forces and the United Kingdom.  
  
The Army Postal Service and the GPO jointly investigated the possibility of
using Airgraphs, their investigation lead to a service being set up between
England and Egypt in 1941.   70,000 airgraphs were sent in the first batch
and took three weeks to reach their destination. 
  
Kodak had offices Cairo that were capable of processing airgraph negatives,
but it was not until  the appropriate equipment arrived from America that
their Cairo office was able to photograph airgraph forms and for the Army
Postal Services to provide a return service to the UK.  The service was then
later extended to Australia (1943), Burma (1942), Canada (1941), Ceylon
(1944), East Africa (1941), Italy (1944), India (1942), New Zealand (1943)
and South Africa (1942). 
  
In the war zones the whole operation was co-ordinated by the Army Postal
Services.  Completed Airgraph forms were collected and distributed by the
Field Post Offices.  The use of the Airgraph was not rationed and its
postage was set at 3d.  Although the Airgraph proved to be immediately
popular its use was limited because of size and lack of privacy, so when
sufficient aircraft capacity became available its use declined in favour of
the air letter

From the Canadian Postal Museum at the Canadian Museum of Civilization
http://www.civilization.ca/cpm/chrono/chs1920e.html 

In November 1941 [in Canada], "airgraph message service" is inaugurated.
Messages from friends and relatives to members of the Armed Forces in the
United Kingdom can be photographed and flown overseas. The initial postal
rate is set at 10 cents. At first, an airgraph can only be sent to the Armed
Forces overseas. In November 1942, the service is expanded to include
airgraphs from personnel of the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, and British and
Allied Armed Forces serving in Canada to their families and friends in the
United Kingdom. In July 1942, airgraph message service becomes available to
civilians in the United Kingdom. In July 1945, airgraph service is
discontinued between Canada and all other countries.

And finally from the Smithsonian National Postal Museum web site:
http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/museum/1d_V-Mail.html#

Staying in touch with family and friends stationed overseas was just as
important in World War II as it is in current military undertakings. Fast,
free, and difficult for the enemy to intercept, victory mail (or "V-Mail")
played the same role 60 years ago that email is playing today in keeping
lines of communication open between loved ones. 

Later to become "V-Mail" when adopted by the United States, the Airgraph
Service was first developed by the British Post Office in response to the
Italians closing of the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea to Allied
forces. Seaborne traffic was rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope. This
12,000 mile detour could mean delays of anywhere between three and six
months for mail destined for British soldiers stationed in the Middle East
and the Far East. Alternatives to the route around the Cape were considered,
eventually settling on transport by aircraft-however, space in any aircraft
was extremely limited. Microphotography was deemed the best solution to the
problem of space

The United States adopted the Airgraph Service, renaming it "victory mail"
or "V-Mail," on June 15, 1942, and it was in use until April 1, 1945. Where
it had taken up to a month for standard mail delivery by ship, V-Mail
delivery could take as little as twelve days or less using aircraft. Air
transport also had the added benefit of minimizing the likelihood of enemy
interception, although censors still insured that any potentially useful or
damaging information was deleted from all messages. One final benefit was
that letters could never be "lost in the mail"-with serial numbers on the
forms and originals held on file, any message that was lost in transit could
be reproduced and sent to the addressee. 

A person who wanted to send a letter by airgraph or V-Mail would obtain the
standard, pre-printed form from the local post office or five and dime store
on request. The form contained space for a letter of about 100 to 300 words,
the address of the serviceman or -woman to whom the letter was to be
delivered, the address of the sender, and a circular area for the censor's
stamp of approval. Once the message was written, the form was to be folded
and sealed. It then made its way to a processing center where the form was
re-opened and fed through a machine that photographed the letters on 16mm
film. A continuous roll of this film (100 feet long by 16mm wide) could hold
up to 1700 messages and, with the metal container it was housed in, weighed
5.5 oz (154g). A sack of mail holding the same number of regular letters
would have weighed 50 lbs. (22.5kg). When the V-Mail reached the
destination, it was sent to a local processing facility that reversed the
process, printing photographs of the letters to be sent to the intended
recipient in a three inch by four inch envelope.


Carol Reid
Collections Manager, Archives
Canadian War Museum
1 Vimy Place,
Ottawa, ON, Canada,
K1R 1C2

www.warmuseum.ca

tel: (819) 776-8661
fax: (819)776-8623
e-mail: [log in to unmask]

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