POW card from Yozgat in Turkey to India. 1918 sent to my Grandfather in India who was in the Indfian Army Reserve.
From Fanning Island deep in the Pacific where there was a cable station protected by NZ troops. It saw action at the start of WW1 -Fanning was formally annexed to Great Britain by Captain William Wiseman of HMS Caroline on March 15, 1888. A deep opening was blasted, thereafter called the English Channel, on the west side of the atoll. Tabuaeran hosted a station on the Trans-Pacific Cable between Canada and Australia, a part of the All Red Line, beginning in 1902. Fanning Island Post Office opened on 29 November 1902.[3] In September 1914 (World War I), the cable station was shelled by a German cruiser, the Nürnberg, and was slightly damaged. A landing force went ashore to complete the destruction. In 1939 the atoll was incorporated into the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. In 1979, it gained independence, becoming part of the Republic of Kiribati (pronounced kee-ree-bahs).
1916 Letter from Ascension to the Army and Navy Stores in London, I wonder what was being bought? Cancel is type Z2
The Bethania was a Hamburg American Line ship that was captured by the H.M.S. Essex on September 10, 1914 and taken to Port Royal, Jamaica. The (rather tatty) cover below dated Sep. 14, 1914 is from a Bethania ship prisoner to Thuringen, Germany. The cover is endorsed "Prisoner of War / Free" and bears a violet handstamp of the Senior Officer of the Royal Navy at Port Royal who acted in his capacity as a military censor. The red P.C. handstamp is a U.K. censorship marking applied in transit to Germany.
Great War censored mail from some of the minor islands of the West Indies is not easy to find. Here is a censored cover from Dominica to Switzerland postmarked July 21, 1918. On the reverse above the "Opened by Censor" tape is a manuscript "Passed Censor" along with the censor's initials and date of July 19, 1918 or two days before the postmark, indicating that censorship took place in Dominica.
Wow, some nifty stuff so far... I was sure I had some WWI covers to show, but looks like there's no chance I'm going to find them. Here is a page from my Belgium collection showing two very problematic sets issued just before being overrun. There were many fewer of these two sets released into the wild than normal due to the Germans invading. One story has the local baker hiding the oaper used for the Albert issue in one of his ovens to keep it from the invaders. After the war there were many, many forgeries printed to provide material for collectors. It's estimated that less than 1% of the Alberts are genuine, and my experiences in trying to fill my collection bears that out. The Merode Monuments are somewhat easier, I see probably 10% good and 90% bad.
Thanks, all, for posting such interesting material. You reminded me that I had had a POW cover, so here it is:
Great Britain, from Leigh, Lancashire to Gebr Alexander, Maintz, which was a brass musical instrument workshop. The sender identified himself as a French horn player on the back.
As promised, some letters from soldiers.
The US entered the war in 1917 (April 6), and helped out with supplies, raw material and money. Those who enlisted were mainly used in the Western Front campaign.
#1, Oct 2 1917 Arthur at Green Camp, North Carolina, waiting to go to France
Salient points:
We are going to leave for Europe in about five weeks and I certainly would like to see you all before I go but it is out of the question.
From Wikipedia: "American soldiers under General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), arrived in large numbers on the Western Front in the summer of 1918."
#2 May 28 1918 Dick in France
Salient points:
I didn’t like it at first but I have changed my mind since I have seen how everything is over here in spite of the hardships. But the Canadians are sure a brave lot of soldiers and they sure get credit for it, and say wait till Uncle Sam gets started. Fritzie will run. I have been in the trenches 3 or 4 times and I sure was scared when I made my first trip but I got over it before we came out.
#3 Sep 6, 1981 Arthur in France
This is p4 of a 6-page letter, where Arthur speaks his mind (scroll on if you may be offended).
I haven’t written Dick as yet as you didn’t give me his address complete enough to write a letter to him. The chances of find him over here are very slim because the A.E.F. is scattered all over France and the different divisions almost constantly on the move from one place to another.
Dick may have gotten over all fear of danger but different here, the more one gets of experience at the front the worse one dreads it. Not so much the danger of shot and shell but nervous strain and the infernally cold damp weather. I don’t wish the Germans any harm but I hope they all die before Xmas. And I am going to do all in my power to bring about their deaths. I often wonder what the Allied governments are going to do to the Kaiser when they get him. I’ll enjoy that immensely but the Kaiser wouldn’t.
Sadly Dick was killed in action in August, and his commanding officer (who signed his letter) was wounded in late July.
Arthur lived through the war, and for many years afterwards.
On a positive note, Arthur had this to say about his chaplain:
our chaplain is a friendly man who helps the boys in much better ways than to preaching long sermons to them. When the regiment is in a battle he is out up the front day and night helping the stretcher bearers and ministering to the wounded and doing good in every way possible and getting more love and respect from his regiment than many chaplains get I imagine.
From Wikipedia: During the war, the U.S mobilized over 4 million military personnel and suffered 110,000 deaths, including 43,000 due to the influenza pandemic.
One letter I have from 1918 mentions that children were not allowed to go to school until they d been vaccinated.
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Fighting ended on 11 November 1918, when Germany signed an armistice.
Later on, territory was redistributed and new countries emerged. Czechoslovakia became a country on Novenber 14. Much of it (if not all, I don't know the exact division) was formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Here is a postmark of the town Chrast, which is in Bohemia. At this time (1897) it was part of Austria, but it is now part of the Czech Republic.
Here's another postmark: Reichenau an der Knezna, also in Bohemia.
