No. 9 - New York, NY, USA to Paris, France

Dated 14 August, 1940, this cover entered Unoccupied France at Marseilles where a French language hand stamp "RETOUR A L' ENVOYEUR/RELATIONS POSTALS/INTERROMPUES" (Return to Sender/Postal Communications Interrupted) was applied. The cover was then sent to the German Army Censor Office in Frankfurt, Germany where it was examined and a closer label and two hand stamps applied. It was then returned to New York, arriving on 21 October, 1941, 14 months after its departure. The New York Post Office applied a "RETURN TO SENDER/SERVICESUSPENDED" hand stamp and returned it to its sender.

This cover was addressed to Paris but Paris was located in the German Occupied Zone and Germany didn't allow most mail to pass between Unoccupied (Vichy) and Occupied France. Mail Service resumed in the fall of 1944, after most of France was liberated.