One of the most interesting stamps of the last war was the German "U-Boat Field Post" issue, a seeming contradiction but based on fact. In the final stages of the allied operations in 1945, a considerable group of German troops and civilians were surrounded and concentrated on the Hela Peninsula in the Gulf of Danzig by the pursuing Russian and Polish forces. The only method of communication left open was the sea, and that possibly, only by submarines, as the remains of the German Navy had been put out of action by the allied air forces.
Finding themselves in this situation, the commanders of the German troops were compelled to issue special Field Post stamps to frank letters to Germany, for civilians on the peninsula as well as troops. The stamps were printed in the Typographic Section of the 31st Infantry Division on Hela, in March 1945, in sheets of 150. They were issued in Hela-Dorf, Hela-Forsthaus, and Heisterneet. The cancellations either bear the number 425 or are without numeral. The stamp illustrated was posted on April 25, 1945. In a half-buried and destroyed air-raid shelter on Hela were found a few sheets of this issue in very bad condition. Out of these only four were salved, plus a small quantity of considerably damaged single stamps. Used stamps on the original letters are rare collectors' items.
Sea Breezes 11/69