Today in Postal History

Belgium to Belgian Congo to Belgium
November 15, 1935

This is a roundtrip airmail cover for the first flight from Brussels to Elizabethville and return.
The cover left Brussels on November 15.

The special Sabena cover was imprinted with a map showing the route.
There is a square boxed handstamp cachet as well.
The cover was franked with 1930 airmails surcharged
in 1935 with 1fr and 4fr values (Scott C6 and C7).

The cover arrived in Elizabethville on November 21 (see backstamp).
It was then given another boxed handstamp on the lower left front for the return flight.

Two Belgian Congo 1934 airmails were added - 50c
gray black and 4.50fr bright ultramarine (Scott C7 and C11).
The cover was then postmarked in Elisabethville on the November 22 departure.

The return to Brussels was marked by an arrival backstamp on November 29.

Note how the address was written to send the cover "Via Elisabethville."

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