Lufthansa: Douala-Libreville-Kinshasa

A quintessential Lufthansa first-day cover, with plenty of graphics (an inviting beach scene as well as a stately elephant cancellation stamp) and loaded with information, including flight number and aircraft. This is similar to Lufthansa's East African services, which only demarcate intra-African routes; its not clear if this implies that Lufthansa was able to carry passengers within Africa, though its likely. Today Lufthansa still shuttles the petroleum industry to Gabon, and recently announced another petrolstop at Port Noire, Congo (never served before) but is absent from Douala and Kinshasa.