Military post - [Etude monographique du 0,50F Marianne de Béquet]

Military post

Introduction
Sorting offices
Military Post Offices
Naval Post Offices
Military Post Agencies
Naval Offices
Naval Post Agency
Administrative Marks
Philatelic or temporary Offices and commemorative marks

Introduction

The army postal service, a department depending only to the Ministry of the Armed Forces, was, until 1973 (that is during the validity period of the stamp 0,50F Marianne de Béquet), made up of two different entities: the military mail and the naval mail. Since September 12, 1973, only one service exists: the military post, , as shown in the following official documents:

The Armed Forces Postal Service operates as a civilian service, with the following terminology:

the military central office (B.C.M.-C) and Paris Naval carry out the sorting and the routing of the correspondence and the postal parcels;
the frontier offices receive the mail from the B.C.M. and forward it to the military postal offices which are in charge of delivering it;
the military postal offices (B.P.M.) (and some other offices) distribute and send the correspondence and parcels of the troops and services;
the military postal agencies "land, sea and air" (created in 1958).

Each unit was assigned a 5-digit postal sector number, which in itself was a postal address. In 1972, the postal sectors were given 5-digit military postal codes such as XX998 or XX898 (where XX is the department number); for example, the B.P.M. 102 of Lille inherited the postal code 59998.

We will now describe and illustrate these different services.

Sorting offices

**postmark of the sorting centre PARIS NAVAL**

**illustrated slogan to right of date stamp of the sorting centre PARIS NAVAL**

Military Post Offices

A Military Post Office (B.P.M. in French) has an activity comparable to a civilian full service post office (mail processing, financial services...). Some post office annexes have existed until 1977.

**postmark of a Military Post Office with a postal code**

**postmark of the post office annexe of a Military Post Office**

**illustrative slogan box to right of a Military Post Office**

**blank slogan box to right made by a Klussendorf machine (from a military post office located in Germany)**

**illustrated slogan box to right of date stamp made by a Klussendorf machine (from a military post office located in Germany)**

**illustrated slogan box to right of date stamp from a military post office located in Polynesia**

**postmark from a military post office located in Polynesia**

**blank slogan box to right from a military post office**

**illustrated slogan to right of date stamp from a military post office**

Naval Post Offices

There was five Naval Post Offices (B.P.N. in French) during the reporting period. They made the same operations than B.P.M.

**blank slogan box to right of a sea military postal agency**

**illustrated slogan to right of date stamp of a naval post office**

Military Post Agencies

Attached to the closest civilian post office, Military Post Agencies (A.P.M. in French) had a virtually identical activity as that of a civilian post office. There were military post agencies for land, sea and air defence forces.

**postmark of a sea military post agency**

**blank slogan box to right of a sea military post agency**

**illustrated slogan to right of date stamp of a naval military post agency**

**postmark of an air military post agency**

**blank slogan box to right of an air military post agency**

Naval Offices

A Naval Office (B.N. in French) is embarked on a ship and has an activity of mail processing and routing, of sales of stamps, of money orders service…