in 1938 the EUROPA liner was requisitioned by the German Navy, and it was to be transformed into an auxiliary aircraft carrier like some of the German other liners (was assigned number 1). Eventually due to some structural issues (and the fact that the German Navy preferred U-boat Submarine to Aircraft Carrier), the liner was transformation never started, and the ship was mothballed until the end of WWII when it was captured by the US Army (and transformed into a troop ship).
Cover shown on this page is a 3rd Reich German Navy letter and assigned Feldpost number M 00624 (this was the code for the EUROPA ship until June 1941 – then after a new Feldpost number was attributed to the ship being M 00522)