September 2024 – The-Philatelist

Czech Republic 1996, Losing the hyphen war

Czechoslovakia were two peoples with two languages held together by an authoritarian government post World War II. When the communist regime ended, those that replaced them were an informal group of Czech intelectuals that had put fourth an anti government manifesto. Notice the lack of Slovak involvement, the Slovaks sure did. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The remaining Czechia apparently could not achieve European integration fast enough. Here we have a stamp issue of various styles of doors. The styles are generic and not an actual door located in the country. Isn’t that strange for a new country that might be expected to want to show the world what they had. The European Union often shows generic styles like that. It is away to avoid people keeping count of whose things are represented.

Todays stamp is issue A1093, a 4 Koruna stamp issued by Czechia on June 12th, 1996. It was a six stamp issue in various denominations displaying styles of portals, this one classic. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Czechoslovakia got more repressive after the Soviet invasion of 1968. In 1976 they arrested members of the local rock band “Plastic People of the Universe”. The crimes were long hair, rude lyrics and involvement with the underground. What rock band wouldn’t be guilty of that? In any case a group of higher art folks from Prague attended their trial and then put out a manifesto called Charter 77. It made the point that hassling the rock band violated human rights treaties that Czechoslovakia had signed. It was only the type thing that fancy people would read but fancy people from all over read it. One of the writers of it was playwright Vaclav Havel.

When the communist regime was falling apart it was the Charter 77 people appointed to replace them. A Czech group. As artists they made some freshmen mistakes playing politicians. A prison amnesty meant to release political prisoners instead released almost everyone in prison. The crime rate tripled and with that took away much of the new government’s popularity. The new government also tried to get away with just removing the Socialist from the countries title.

The Slovaks wanted more. In 1919 the country had been founded as the Czech and Slovak Republic. By the late 1930s the dominant Czechs had contracted that with a lower case S. In the divisions that came with German pressure, Slovakia asserted its independance. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/21/slovakia-1942-right-wing-priests-try-to-achieve-a-seperate-slovak-state/ . After the war it was back to 1937 and now without Germans. Slovak deputies in 1991 asked for a hyphen and a capitalized S in the new name for the country. This was summarily refused but the Czechs offered to allow a dash instead of a hyphen that kept the S lower case, and only when writing the countries’ name in Slovak. They also offered to add federative to the republic title indicating the federation of states. They also took great offense at the whole discussion, reminding of the Munich Conference of 1938 with all of those inferences including by extension Slovak disloyalty.

Vaclav Havel was a lot more popular around the world as a urbane communist resister than in Slovakia where he was the Czech guy who let all the crooks out of jail. So when Slovak demands moved past names and toward independence, Havel threatened to resign. He was not going to be the guy presiding over the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. . This threat only offended has what had he done for Slovakia and notice he still wasn’t spelling the country as if he was representing both Czechs and Slovaks. Havel resigned, the two countries separated and Havel then put himself forward again to be elected as a less powerful Czech President.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another for the Plastic People of the Universe. Assuming suspended sentences, what rock band wouldn’t want the credibility of the “Man” being after them? They sung in English, weren’t political, and their name and style were rip offs, excuse me, homages, to Frank Zappa, but he never got his country to come after him. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019

This stamp seems badly put together. It combines women filling in for men in a factory while showing British made Spitfire fighters in British RAF markings. No wonder the Queen looks so confused in the corner. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Australia along with New Zealand again sent out a large contingent of forces in World War II. This spirit and service is worth remembering and I strongly recommend viewing the ANZAC memorial in Sydney that remembers Australia’s overseas deployments from World War I till the present day. There are often veterans on hand that add much color and poignance to what you are viewing.

Todays stamp is issue A417 a 41 cent stamp issued by Australia on April 12th, 1990. It was a five stamp issue that tries to show how the ANZAC spirit carried on into World War II. One of the stamps does even worse that this one by showing a not time appropriate helicopter. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

World War II started in Europe two years before Japan’s aggressive moves in the Pacific Islands. As such many Australians volunteered for service in Europe. Among them were air force personnel that manned three squadrons of Spitfire fighter planes in Britain starting in mid 1941, after the Battle of Britain. When The Japanese began their attacks, Australia was almost completely devoid of fighter planes and pilots. By January 1942, Japanese bombers began bombing the northern Australian city of Darwin. Australia made an urgent demand that their pilots be returned to Australia. After some equivocation, Churchill agreed and also sent Spitfire fighters with them to join the fight and show Britain was with them.

The Spitfire was slow to arrive in Australia. It had to be shipped by sea in an unassembled state and then repainted to local appropriate camouflage. The pilots returning had remember been late for the Battle of Britain and did not have much experience in combat. They did get to Darwin in early 1943 and did their best. America had responded much more quickly and the vast bulk of the Royal Australian Air Force RAAF fighter force were American made P40s.

RAAF Spitfire with sharksteeth decoration, personnel and Boomer the dog. Hope Boomer got a ride

The Spitfire did not prove as useful in the Pacific War as it had over Europe. The plane had a short range which was a big hamper in the island hopping campaigns. The supercharged Merlin engines seemed to have a lot more trouble related to the hot moist climate. It took a long time to get enough airplanes to form a proper Spitfire training unit. The plane was also ill adept at dropping bombs which became ever more important as the war went along with fewer Japanese in the air to fight. The Australian armed forces were also not being assigned to many of the later retakings of islands such as the invasion of The Philippines in 1944.

In all Britain shipped 258 British made Spitfires to Australia. In October 1945, one month after the end of the war, all RAAF Spitfire flight operations ended. The plane must have made some impression in Australia. In the 2000s, an Australian kit plane maker fashioning itself as Supermarine, the company that designed the real Spitfire, built 100 flying kits the resembled Spitfires on a 75% scale.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour perhaps several more to toast the ANZAC spirit. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.