{"id":4432,"date":"2019-03-14T08:50:56","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T13:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/?page_id=4432"},"modified":"2019-03-14T08:50:56","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T13:50:56","slug":"v-mail","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/things\/v-mail\/","title":{"rendered":"V-Mail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"March<\/a>
March 28, 1945, Southern France<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Victory Mail, or V-Mail was a system of photographic transmission of letters to and from overseas stations during World War II.<\/p>\n

After writing a letter on V-Mail paper, the letter was passed by the censors, and then photographed. The photograph was transferred to microfilm, and the microfilm reel flown to a processing plant in the continental U.S.<\/p>\n

Each microfilm image was printed onto photographic paper, folded, and placed in a windowed envelope, which would then be delivered through the usual postal service.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Some of Tom’s letters were written on regular stationary, and others in V-Mail format. It’s uncertain how or why he decided which to choose.<\/p>\n

\"March<\/a>
March 28, 1945, Southern France, V-Mail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From Wikipedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

V-mail<\/b>, short for\u00a0Victory Mail<\/b>, was a\u00a0hybrid mail<\/a>\u00a0process used by the United States during the\u00a0Second World War<\/a>\u00a0as the primary and secure method to correspond with soldiers stationed abroad. To reduce the cost of transferring an original letter through the\u00a0military postal system<\/a>, a V-mail letter would be censored, copied to film, and printed back to paper upon arrival at its destination. The V-mail process is based on the earlier British Airgraph process.[1]<\/a><\/sup>[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n

Operation and function<\/span><\/em><\/h5>\n

V-mail correspondence was on small\u00a0letter sheets<\/a>, 17.8 by 23.2\u00a0cm (7 by\u00a09\u00a0<\/span>1<\/sup>\u20448<\/sub><\/span>\u00a0in), that would go through\u00a0mail censors<\/a>\u00a0before being photographed and transported as thumbnail-sized image in negative\u00a0microfilm<\/a>. Upon arrival to their destination, the negatives would be printed. The final print was 60% of the original document’s size, creating a sheet 10.7 by 13.2\u00a0cm (4\u00a0<\/span>1<\/sup>\u20444<\/sub><\/span>\u00a0by\u00a05\u00a0<\/span>1<\/sup>\u20444<\/sub><\/span>\u00a0in).<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
\n
<\/div>\n

Explanation of V-Mail System in Display aboard\u00a0USS Alabama (BB 60)<\/a>,\u00a0Mobile<\/a>,\u00a0Alabama<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

According to the National Postal Museum, “V-mail ensured that thousands of tons of shipping space could be reserved for war materials. The 37 mail bags required to carry 150,000 one-page letters could be replaced by a single mail sack. The weight of that same amount of mail was reduced dramatically from 2,575 pounds to a mere 45.” This saved considerable weight and bulk in a time in which both were hard to manage in a combat zone.<\/em><\/p>\n

In addition to postal censorship, V-mail also deterred espionage communications by foiling the use of\u00a0invisible ink<\/a>,\u00a0microdots<\/a>, and\u00a0microprinting<\/a>, none of which would be reproduced in a photocopy.<\/em><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victory Mail, or V-Mail was a system of photographic transmission of letters to and from overseas stations during World War II. After writing a letter on V-Mail paper, the letter was passed by the censors, and then photographed. The photograph was transferred to microfilm, and the microfilm reel flown to a processing plant in the … Continue reading V-Mail<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":57,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4432","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4435,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4432\/revisions\/4435"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}