Gallery

 

In Report No.79, I read the headline on the first flights of 1 June 1929 and had the feeling that the wording (wrongly) suggests that first flights in Poland were set up in 1929. In fact, this “first” flight was the third route from/to Danzig (Gdarcsk) opened by the Polish postal aut horities. So the actual first Polish flight from Danzig was on 10 July 1927, on the route Danzig—Warsaw-Lw6w. According to philatelic sources, 105 items were flown to Warsaw and 100 items to Lwów, which was also known under the former German name Leniberg, now the Ukrainian Lviv. On this flight, the Port Gdatisk post office had apparently not yet been equipped with the cachet SMOLOTEM (by airmail), which was used from the next opening.

The second route Danzig—KatoWiCe was opened on 8 January 1929, when 65 items were flown.

May I add that mail from Danzig to Poland had already been flown earlier mainly by German airlines. In this connection, the Danzig post office used a special cancel: Danzig 5 Sidstrecke (southern route), which is recorded since 23 March 1923, so already then mail appeared to have been flown to Poland (and further to Austria).

The real “first” flights from and to Danzig took place already in 1920, on the route Berlin—Danzig—Konigsberg and v.v., though on a rather exp erimental basis. According to Michaelis, mail was accepted initially only for Denmark, and subsequently for the Netherlands and Great Brita in. Mail to and from Germany was admitted from 1921. A copy of my early 1920 cover to the Netherlands is attached:

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 83 - April - May - June - 1994, Page 28.