GPS June 2020

Images 14 & 15. (14). The ST.O.K. SLOBODA cancellation compared with common
German Feldpost cancellations. On first glance the similarity is not very obvious
but postal cancellations of the Third Reich are almost exclusively two-ring
cancellations with or without date bridge (with the exception of some machine
cancellations that are irrelevant here). Just the Feldpost cancellations have only onering.
Therefore, if it was intended to imitate a German cancellation the most similar
type for the “ST.O.K. SLOBODA” cancellation is the Feldpost cancellation type. (15).
Two “Standortkommandantur Sloboda” cancellations compared with official stamps
(Dienststempel) of four German garrison commands. The Dienst- or Briefstempel
of authorities are the only German cancellations using Gothic type fonts with the
size of the letters being always small in relation to the diameter of the cancellation.
By using this design the producer of the “Standortkommandantur” canceller must
have had such a Dienst- or Briefstempel in mind. What he did not observe is that
by replacing the eagle by a dateline the non-postal Dienststempel became a postal
cancellation in the design of a Dienststempel , a hermaphrodite.
Sheets or part sheets were cancelled in Smolensk or Sloboda in
advance (Images 16 & 17) to be separated later. The results were accumulations
of cancelled stamps off paper, bearing often full strikes of
Sloboda cancellations. I have checked 136 cancelled stamps bearing
dates of 15 days in September 1943. The earliest date is 10 September,
the latest 30 September. The missing days are September 12, 13, 14, 19,
26, and 28. 108 copies had the “ST.O.K. Sloboda” cancellation, and only
28 the “Standortkommandantur Sloboda” cancellation. According to
Kesselstatt/Heide the dates would indicate the days of distribution but
this is very doubtful, at least for the last week of September. There were
hard battles in the Smolensk area in that month, resulting in the retreat
of the German Army. Smolensk was surrendered on 25 September
1943. Shortly before Sloboda and Skrylevshchina had to be evacuated.
This means that the stamps could be distributed from Sloboda only a
few days, from September 10 to approx. September 20 or 22. The military
situation certainly prevented an organized distribution afterwards
and I venture to doubt that many educational lectures or other propaganda
activities, during which the stamps could have been distributed,
were held at the Sloboda farm in view of the impending evacuation.
Cancellation dates from about 22 or 23 until 30 September must represent
pre-cancellations anyway. Kesselstatt/Heide explained the late
dates by stating that the stamps were taken to the Hatitsche farm
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German Postal Specialist