Stamp Story No. 33 WARTIME SLOGAN

Press, Volume C, Issue 29602, 26 August 1961, Page 8

Stamp Story No. 33 WARTIME SLOGAN

[By KEN ANTHONY] rpHIS Norwegian stamp -* wasn’t used in Norway until more than two years after it had first been issued. The paradox arose during World War 11, when the Norwegian Government, in exile in London, produced its own stamps for the use of Norwegian forces serving with the Allies. There were six stamps altogether—mostly showing the Free Norwegian forces in action. But this 20-ore one has a special interest because it depicts the slogan of the Norwegian underground movement—"We Will Win” —written in Norse on a roadway. That was the defiant motto used constantly in occupied Norway to harass the enemy. From the time the stamps were first released at the beginning of 1943, they were

used on correspondence posted at sea on board Norwegian ships which were officially reckoned as part of Norwegian territory. In some cases, they were also used from Norwegian camps in Britain. With the Liberation, the Norwegian Government returned home, taking with them supplies of the stamps. These were then put on sale, throughout the country—the only Norwegian issue to be printed in England. Norway is not the only country to have produced stamps in exile: the wartime Polish Government in London also had its own issues. The designs showed the ruins of Warsaw, as well as scenes of the Polish war effort. In 1944. four of the stamps were specially overprinted to celebrate the part played by Polish troops in the capture of Monte Cassino in Italy They were used by Polish servicemen in similar circumstances to the Norwegian stamps. But, at the end of the war, the parallel ended; they were never available for postage in Poland itself. (Central Press Features. All Rights Reserved.)