Round-the-World Flights

Wartime Round-the-World Flight Cover

Page 3y (rev: 1000)

Sikorski S-42	Pacific Alaska Airways	Flown Cover	Budapest Hungary	Juneau Return Cancel

	On September 3, 1939 England sent an ultimatum to Germany saying that unless German 
troops were withdrawn immediately from Poland, the two countries would be at war. 
Receiving no reply, England was at war with Germany.  France, Australia and New Zealand 
also declared war on Germany and WW-II had begun.  In 1940 the German "Blitzkrieg" 
overwhelmed Belgium, Holland and France. Holland surrendered to the Nazis on May 15, 1940.
	In June, 1940 Foreign Air Mail Route #20 was inaugurated by Pacific Alaska Airways 
linking Alaska with US Pacific northwest.  On June 22, 1940 FAM 20-3 was first flown on 
a four engine Sikorsky S-42 Flying Boat from Juneau Alaska to Seattle WA.  This air mail 
cover was carried on that first flight and was further directed to be flown to San 
Francisco CA, across the Pacific Ocean to Hong Kong, across Asia to Europe (Budapest 
Hungary) and then across the Atlantic Ocean back to the US for return to Juneau Alaska.
	It's round-the-world postal routing was confused by the deteriorating war situation 
in Europe but it did arrive in Budapest on July 7, 1940 and was returned to Juneau AK on 
August 26, 1940.   This round-the-world air mail cover is sandwiched between the war in 
Europe and Japan's raid on Pearl Harbor HI on December 7, 1941 when the US entered WW-II 
as a full combatant.

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