From July 1940, there was a regular trans-Pacific
airmail service (FAM 19)
by PanAm between New Zealand and the USA.
However, this service was expensive.
The airmail rate to the UK
was 6s 3d, reducing to 5s 9d in September 1940 and
there were alternative (partial) airmail services
between New Zealand and the UK via USA.
Flights from 1940-41 are described below
while flights from 1942-44 are shown later.
New Zealand - UK: (Honolulu - New York leg by air) June '40 - March '41
The Empire Air Service to the UK was suspended in New Zealand on 14 June due to Italy entering World War II. That meant that it was no longer possible for airmails to be flown across the Mediterranean.
It was towards the end of July 1940 before the New Zealand Post Office accepted mail for the Horseshoe Route with the first dispatch being on 23 July and arriving in the UK on 5 September [3]. In the meantime, the advised route was by sea to Honolulu from where mail would be flown to San Francisco on FAM 14 and then flown to New York followed by sea to the UK. The cost of this service was 1s 9d. If mail was to be flown in addition from New York the rate was 4s 0d [1,5].
This cover is addressed to the UK and postmarked in Wellington on 24 June, 1940. As it is franked with 1s 9d, it was presumably sent via Honolulu [6].
According to [2], this airmail service to the UK remained in
operation as an alternative to the Horseshoe
for airmail to the UK until March 1941.
It was faster with a claimed average transit time of
four weeks instead of the average six weeks of the
Horseshoe Route.
This next cover is franked with 1s 9d and is postmarked in Timaru on 21 August, 1940. As it has the routing instructions Per Honolulu New York, it was clearly intended to go via this route.
The cover was opened and passed by the censor in Christchurch (censor number 5) [2]. The censor stamp is red rather than the usual purple. Apparently red handstamps are more common in Christchurch than elsewhere [8].
The regular Honolulu - San Francisco airmail was established as a leg on the route between USA and the Philippinnes in November 1935. An airmail service from the USA to Hawaii followed by Hawaii - New Zealand by sea had been available since that time [3]. However, it is not clear when the service first became available in the opposite direction from New Zealand.
It was available in 1939 as two 1939 covers addressed to the USA are shown in [4]. The first is dated 12 June 1939 (i.e. before WWII) and has the routing American Airmail via Honolulu and is franked with 1s 6d while the second is franked with 1s 9d and is postmarked 8 December, 1939. Startup in his Appendix A shows that the 1s 9d service to UK via Honolulu was available in October 1939 [5].
Until the Empire route was broken in June 1940,
there would have been little need to use this service for mail to the UK
as the Empire Airmail service via Australia
provided a fast and cheap route
costing only 1½d per half oz between July 1938 and September 1939 and 1s6d
after the outbreak of war.
The reason that the service was terminated in March 1941 was that it was no longer possible to make a decent connection at Honolulu [2].
This rather crumpled and torn censored cover is franked with 1s 9d and was postmarked in Wellington on 24 September 1940. It was redirected 8 weeks later in London on 19 November and therefore took twice as long as the expected 4 weeks.
Assuming that the redirection took place very soon after the cover was received in New Zealand House, the connection at Hawaii was therefore already a problem six months before the service was terminated. The reason was presumably the lack of sea traffic from New Zealand to Hawaii.
This cover also has the letter A on the back in purple.
It has been suggested that these Alpha Control Marks were concerned
with the translation of letters being censored [2], but the contents of
this cover do not seem
to have been written in a foreign langage.
via Honolulu to Canada
This cover to Canada is postmarked in Wellington on 9 September 1940 and has an arrival backstamp in Bedford, Quebec 16 days later on 25 September.
As it is franked at the 1s 9d rate, it presumably went by sea to Hawaii and was flown from there although I have not seen any reference to this route for mail to Canada. As this route was available for mail to USA from before the war, there seems to be no reason why it should not also have been available to Canada, but it is not in the list of air mail routes in April 1940 given in [5] although there is a rate of 1s 3d via the Canal Zone and 1s via USA.
Presumably, this service to Canada became available at the same time as the service to the UK in June 1940.
New Zealand - UK: 2s 6d rate flown trans-Atlantic
New York - UK leg by air: May - September '41
A new New Zealand - UK (partial) air mail service was introduced on 30 May 1941. The rate was 2s 6d and the route was: sea to San Francisco, rail to New York and then air to UK via Lisbon.
This cover to the UK is postmarked on 22 July 1941 and, as it is franked with 2s 6d, it presumably went via this route. It does have the inscription Via America in pencil on the front, but it is not clear whether this is a routing instruction or whether it was added later by a dealer. The cover has no censor marks.
This service continued in operation until July 1944 although after September 1941
the complete San Francisco - UK leg was flown [2].
San Francisco - UK leg by air: September '41-'44
From 2 September, 1941 airmail at the 2s 6d rate went by surface to San Francisco and then was flown from San Francisco to New York as well as from New York to the UK. [2]
This censored cover to the UK is postmarked in Wellington on 17 February 1942 and is franked with 2s 6d. Although it has no routing instructions, it presumably went by this route.
FAM 19 was terminated in December 1941 with the attack on Pearl Harbor; the Horseshoe Route via Singapore was increasingly difficult due to Japanese advances and was terminated in February 1942. Services to America by sea therefore became more important.
Although this service from New Zealand continued until July 1944 [5], there was a lack of shipping between New Zealand and the USA and so the service provided was erratic. Legg [9] gives an example 1942 transit time via the similar route from Australia to UK via USA of 66 days. The service from Australia cost 2s 1d.
From February 1942 mail from UK to New Zealand was sent by this route at a cost of 1s 3d
which was only half the cost from New Zealand.
back next
[1] A Problem Airmail Cover, A.P. Berry, The Kiwi, vol 46, pp 95-96,
September 1997.
[2] The Postal History of World War II Mail between New
Zealand and Switzerland, R.M. Startup and C.J. LaBlonde, 2005.
[3] Airmails of New Zealand, volume 2 compiled by
D.A. Walker,
Air Mail Society of New Zealand, 1986.
[4] A Problem Airmail Cover, G. Branam, The Kiwi, vol 46, pp 93-95, September 1997.
[5] Airmails of New Zealand, volume 3, R.M. Startup, 1997.
[6] Alternatives to the Horseshoe Route in June and July 1940, R. Clark,
The Kiwi, vol 58, pp 42-47, March 2009.
[7] Civilian Postal Censorship in World War II Some Facts and Problems,
G. Branam, The Kiwi, vol 43, pp 90-97, September 1994.
[8] Civilian Postal Censorship in New Zealand in World War II, Rodney Stone,
The Mail Coach, vol. 25, no. 1, pp 3-7, October 1988.
[9] Wartime Interruptions to Air Mail Routes, W.H. Legg,
Air Mail News, vol 47, pp 46-53, May 2004.
[10] Further Wartime Interruptions to Air Mail Routes, Bill Legg,
Air Mail News, vol 47, pp 188-192, November 2004.
[11] Airmail Routes and Rates for P.O.W Mail in World War II,
G Branam, The Kiwi, vol 38, pp 34-38, March 1989.
[12] World War II Censor Marks, J.A Daynes (editor), The Forces Postal
History Society, 1986.