Air Mail Letter Cards (AMLC) was a thin lightweight piece of foldable and gummed paper for writing a letter for transit via airmail, in which the letter and envelope are one and the same. Most postal administrations forbid enclosures in these light letters, which were usually sent abroad at a preferential rate. Printed warnings existed to say that an enclosure would cause the mail to go at the higher letter rate. The aerogram was largely popularized by its use during the Second World War (1939–45). It had been introduced into the Iraqi postal service in 1933 by Major DW Grumbley CBE DSO Royal Engineers. During the early years of the war the Australian Government contacted Douglas Gumbley in Palestine and asked if he could help provide a cheap and rapid means of communication between Australian troops in the Middle East and their families back home as an aid to maintaining morale. Gumbley suggested the adaptation and use of his Iraq Air Mail Letter Card. This was readily accepted and implemented by the Australian Command and an ‘AUSTRALIA’ Air Mail Letter card was produced without an impressed stamp, a 3d. adhesive postage stamp had to be added. The introduction of the Air Mail Letter Card to Australian forces in the Middle East—one form per man, per week—proved a great success. This success prompted that Lieutenant Colonel R. E. Evans, Royal Engineers, Assistant Director Army Postal Service Middle East Force (MEF), proposed that a lightweight self-sealing letter card that weighed only 1/10oz (2.58g) be adopted by the British Army for air mail purposes. On 1 March 1941, the air mail service between the Middle East and the UK was started, using a combination of Imperial Airways seaplanes and military transport with an initial ration of one per man per month. They were first produced without stamp imprints - with a postage rate of 3d. The private nature of the air letter ensured its popularity among its users and that popularity, with its lightness, brought about its continued use as today's civilian air letter (aerograms) and the British military "bluey
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