Channel Islands
Covers and Cards
1943
The German forces invaded and occupied the Channel Islands between June 30 and July 3, 1940 following an air raid by German bombers and remained there until May 1945. Although local inter-island mail services continued, all overseas mail was stopped, except for some mail handled by the Red Cross. Up until this point the Channel Islands had used postage stamps issued by the General Post Office in Britain. At the time of the occupation the stamps in use were King George VI defintitive stamps (1937-1939) as well as the Postage Stamp Centenary set of 1940.
"Interisland Covers"
These two covers were both sent in 1943 and both are interesting in that the '43' of the date '1943' on the handstamp cancel is much larger than the '19'. This suggests that spare parts for the hamdstamps were hard to find and so an improvised cancel was used to cancel mail in 1943.
Modified date handstamp