A letter from Austria with a miniature sheet , cachet and three different cancellations !
The stamp
Date of issue : 6 October 2018
100 years of AirMail in Austria
The cradle of Austrian aviation stood in Wiener Neustadt (about 50km south of Vienna). It had the first airport; the first motorized flights took place here and it was the site of the first aviation-related events.
Towards the end of WW1, In March of 1918 the k.u.k. War Ministry, together with the two Trade Ministries (Austria and Hungary) organized a flight connection between Vienna and Kiev. Kiev was at that time the capital of the Ukraine, albeit occupied by Austrian and German troops. Ukraine had been recognized by the central powers as an independent state on February 9, 1918 and Russia ceded this area to the Ukraine in the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918. It was expected that large scale deliveries of wheat from the 'Granary of Europe' would alleviate the hunger of the civilian population at home. This required substantial negotiations between Vienna and Kiev. The railways and telegraph lines between the two cities had been interrupted several times and were deemed inadequate for this purpose. Only airplanes could do the job.
The military was given the responsibility of executing the plan, but the attendant mail service became the responsibility of the Trade Ministry. The only planes available were Albatros biplanes, which were no longer fit for combat duty. As the distance of 1200 km was too great for non-stop flights, the service was divided into three segments:
Vienna —-> Krakau ——> Lemberg(Lvov) —> Kiev.
The first experimental flight with military mail only started in Aspern on March 20, 1918. Regular mail flights began on March 30, 1918. Although the aviation aspect was organized militarily, the pilots had to conform with postal regulations as far as mail on board was concerned.
The Airmail line functioned flawlessly until October 15 1918, although several planes had been lost for further service or had to be abandoned after making emergency landings in the Carpathian mountains. Although the flights continued to Kiev, civilian mail was not flown between Lemberg and Kiev; only official mail necessary for trade matters was allowed to be flown into the Ukraine.
The cover :
The cover with the cachet was issued by the Austrian philatelic society , for a special flight of the replica of the original Hansa-Brandenburg CI , now at the Porsche museum.
Wiener Neustadt is a town south of Vienna , and has a military airfield and a civilian airfield . The special flight carried the covers during its flight from the military to the civilian airfield to mark the 100 th anniversary of the AirMail in Austria.
This flight is documented by the two cancellation prints on the bottom. The one with the plane is the departure postmark, the plain one with "2700 Wiener Neustadt" is the arrival confirmation. The souvenir sheet is cancelled with the first day postmark.
Thanks Tom for this special cover !
Update : another postcard that I received from Tom in May 2018
The cancellation on this Maxicard on the reverse is featuring the first AirMail flight from Aspern , Vienna to Kiev - the cancellation done on 14-May-2018 and also shows the route of the biplane - Aspern - Kraków- Lviv- Kiev !
Update 24-10-2018
Received another specially designed postcard from Tom !
A postcard showing the old Hansa-Brandenburg flight used in the first AirMail flights , the flugpost stamps of Austria , the new 100 anniversary stamp and the first day cancellation !
Update : 14-02-2019
I received another cover from this series from Tom. It was extremely nice of him to give me this cover
The same re-enactment cover that was flown from Neustadt to Vienna - was posted to Kiev and the cover took the entire route of the first flight in 1918 !!
The kiev PO delivery postmark is seen on the reverse !
The cover has been stamped with a label - that the addresse can not be found and has been returned back to Austria! And a Kiev ( Ukraine ) postmark has been applied on the Austrian Stamp !?!?!?
I love this cover for all the postal history it has !
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