German & Austro-Hungarian Official Field Postcards

Great War postcards are strange creatures.  They allow us the most personal of insights into the men and women who wrote them, and yet at the same time they represent one of the largest military administrative operations ever seen, considering the millions & millions of letters and cards sent to and from soldiers on active service across the different armies throughout four years of war.  We’ve seen the standard British & French cards before (link at the end) but this post we shall take a look at some official Central Powers field postcards – ‘feldpostkarten’ – from my collection which I show you not for any great aesthetic reason, nor for their written content, particularly as I guess none of us can read them, but rather to show what information one can glean from them if you have an idea of what you are looking for, language difficulties notwithstanding.  It might be more interesting than you think.  Continue reading

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A Subaltern’s Lot

So, young man, you think you have what it takes to be a subaltern in the King’s Army? Continue reading

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Aldershot Military Cemetery Part One

Aldershot – ‘The Home of the British Army’.  At the start of 1855, with the Crimean War still more than a year from its conclusion, the Army began constructing its first bespoke, as we might say today, training camp in Aldershot, here in Hampshire.  And, as is the nature of things, an army camp requires a cemetery, the first burial being made here in August 1856.  Continue reading

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French Flanders: Richebourg Part Two – Rue-des-Berceaux Military Cemetery

Rue-des-Berceaux Military Cemetery was begun in January 1915, and when it closed in February 1917, only around one hundred & fifty men had been buried here.  Continue reading

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French Flanders: Richebourg Part One – Richebourg War Memorial

Four months ago now, we completed our tour of the cemeteries and memorials around Neuve Chapelle.  Continue reading

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Wytschaete War Memorial, the London Scottish Memorial & the First Battle of Messines (1914)

Spanbroekmolen British Cemetery, Wytschaete church and the Messines Ridge.  Continue reading

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Brookwood Military Cemetery – The American Memorial Chapel

We’ve looked around the graves in the American Military Cemetery at Brookwood before, but we’ve never been inside the chapel.  Continue reading

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