COVER N. 406 -  SOUTH AFRICA

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Posted on ?; Received on the 1st February 2024

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Another mystery.....

Thank you, whoever it was who sent me this cover from the country where the two oceans come together, all for Good Hope....

I have a suspicion, in fact I have two suspicions, but I'll refrain from outing them here, for they can be absolutely wrong....

And so I'll go directly to the stamps, which fall under my theme of choice: all things aviation.

South Africa Post Office issued a minisheet on 28APR2021 with 10 "Standard Postage" stamps, celebrating the centenary of the South African Air Force, which was established on the 1st February 1920, equipped with aircraft donated by the United Kingdom from the vast surplus inventory issued out of the First World War.

The stamps are pretty informative in that they contain a small legend indicating the period of usage of the aircraft depicted on each stamp, which are also well identified.

On the cover we have 5 of the 10 stamps and, from left to right, top to bottom, we have:

 - Hawker Hurricane IIB, used by the SAAF for the duration of the 2nd World War, between 1939 and 1945.

- Mirage IIICZ, operated between 1963 and 1990,  and from 1966  in the context of what become known as the Border war or the Namibia independence war, a conflict which involved Namibia, Angola, Zambia and South Africa.

De Haviland DH9 - one of the workhorses of  many an air force after the end of WW1, the DH.9 light bomber was a development of the DH4, itself one of the most mass produced aircraft of the first world conflict with over 6,250 aircraft of the type having been produced.

C-130B Hercules, still in service with the SAAF, with whom it began to operate in 1963.

Atlas Oryx - a South African development of the  Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma, which became operational with the SAAF in 1986 band is still in the current inventory.