The township Salantai (Salanty), in 1940 pop. ca. 2200, in Žemaitija or Samogitia acquired its first post office in czarist times, sometime before WWI. During WWI it was occupied by German troops soon after the swift German push into Žemaitija and Courland (present-day Latvia) starting at 2 a.m. on April 27, 1915. Before nightfall Salantai was passed through by units of 6. Kavallerie-Division. This was reinforced on May 5 by cavalry unit Abteilung Schulenberg (3. Kavallerie-Brigade, 6. Kavallerie-Division, commander Gen.Ltn. Graf Egon von Schmettow ) which was rushing from Klaipėda (Memel) area through Skuodas in the direction of the strategic Russian port and naval base of Liepaja (Libau, Libava). During German occupation Salantai had no post office of its own and obtained its mail probably via the Postgebiet Ob.-Ost civilian post office of Russich Krottingen (Kretinga).
As the German army retreated from Russia at the end of 1918 and the Soviet Red Army advanced into Lithuania as far as Telšiai, Salantai was part of the area guarded by German volunteer border troops – in this case Detachement Schlenther. In March 1919 this unit took part in the German Grenzschutz attempt to recapture Riga. Lithuania’s independence was accompanied by the forming of local bodies of self-government, including re-opening of post offices.
In Salantai, its post-office was re-opened on or about April 1, 1920. Its first postmaster was Dominikas Milevičius, sent up from Kėdainiai. The first Lithuanian stamps sold were values of the Fourth Berlin Issue. To start with, the facility had no formal postmarker of its own and cancelling of stamps was done by hand, showing the place and possibly the date. [The stamp shown below is from colln. Doniela]. Before long, Salantai was supplied with a regular callendar-type postmarker.
