USA 1948 – Centenary of Fort Bliss 

Fort Bliss started life as an American infantry post at El Paso on the US–Mexican border in 1848, although it did not move to its current site east of the town until 1893. At the end of 1945 Wernher von Braun and other top German rocket scientists arrived at Fort Bliss after surrendering to the US Army at the end of World War II. By February 1946 their numbers had grown to over 100 and they soon began a series of test flights with modified V2 rockets from White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico. Such a test launch is the centrepiece of this stamp celebrating the 100th anniversary of Fort Bliss’s founding. 

This is the first-ever stamp with an astronautical, rather than astronomical, theme. 

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