V Mail Cover April 4 1943 with letter

War Department Official Business Victory Mail
Penalty Mail Cover (Penalty for Private use to avoid payment of postage. $300. With the Buy War Savings Bonds and Stamps cancel.

Victory Mail, more commonly known as V-Mail, operated during World War II to expedite mail service for American armed forces overseas. Moving the rapidly expanding volume of wartime mail posed hefty problems for the Post Office, War, and Navy Departments. Officials sought to reduce the bulk and weight of letters, and found a model in the British Airgraph Service started in 1941 that microfilmed messages for dispatch. (National Postal Museum)