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  1. #1
    Contributing Member 30Three's Avatar
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    postcards from Verdun

    on Sunday we went to the first local brocante since 2019. (All were cancelled last year).

    Found some nice postcards of the Verdun battle grounds; dating I believe from the early 1920's.
    There are 3 sets; with between 7 and 10 cards in each (so I assume one ot two may have been posted!).

    They are in very nice condition and not often seen in the original envelope.

    Attachment 119788
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    Contributing Member Flying10uk's Avatar
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    I believe quite a lot of people visited the WW1 battlegrounds, post WW1, where their relatives fought and fell. "Packs of photos" would have been something for visitors to purchase as souvenirs.

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    Contributing Member CINDERS's Avatar
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    Battlefield Guides WWI

    Battlefield Guides WWI ~ over the years I have picked up these off the net they are pretty good and full of good pics they don't come up that often over here but they can demand a reasonable cost to the buyer.

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    Contributing Member 30Three's Avatar
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    Cinder's, if you collect this stuff I'll keep my eye out for you at the next brocante. At least this stuff is easy to post!
    I got these three sets for 50 cents each set. That was really very cheap; it's less than a stamp!
    I also picked up a small 37mm shell casing from 1914 and a folding shovel which is same as the US WW2 type, but no markings. It was only 3 Euro so worth having.

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    Legacy Member 72 usmc's Avatar
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    Post cards were a big thing around 1900-1930. Mostly the towns and building pictures are very collectable, likewise the Christmas and Halloween cards especially if they have the canceled stamp with a date.
    Here is a brief history of types.
    Postcard History | Smithsonian Institution Archives

    WW I cards were popular with returning troops due to a lack of cameras on the troops. Yours are most likely post war. Early books look like this style :
    Attachment 119843Attachment 119844

    There is a nice book of post cards entitled:
    WORLD WAR I in POSTCARDS by JOHN LAFFIN

    Some soldiers that stayed overseas assembled memorial post card albums: this is one I got:
    See SRF post:
    WW I Post card album sold due to hard times - Surplus Rifle Forum - www.surplusrifleforum.org

    Most of the booklets from 1919-1920s are poor copy B&W cards. Higher quality picture photo cards were sold separate.

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    Contributing Member Flying10uk's Avatar
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    I'm not sure that they are really postcards because they are too small to write a message on the back as well as an address and send through the post. I would describe them as "ready taken small photographs". They must of been quite a popular thing on the continent because I have some from the 1950's which are just tourist type photos but came in similar small packs of small photos.

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    Contributing Member BEAR's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CINDERS View Post
    Battlefield Guides WWI ~ over the years I have picked up these off the net they are pretty good and full of good pics they don't come up that often over here but they can demand a reasonable cost to the buyer.
    A WW2 veteran friend of mine, (now passed on) while still on active duty, remained in Franceicon many years after the war and made many trips to the Verdun battlefield. He accumulated a fair amount of items during his visits after the war( helmets, bayonet, grenade, ammunition and much shrapnel). He also had this US Army Battlefield guide (undated). I inherited everything after he passed on.
    Attachment 119845

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    Legacy Member 72 usmc's Avatar
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    The old packets with a staple have perforated cards of the divided back style ca 1907-1920. Most of the booklets are dated 1918, 1919. For example, a view of the back
    Attachment 119851
    other envelope styles post war have pictures not post cards it depends on the time & maker some of the photo cards have a 1920s back shown below
    Attachment 119852
    Last edited by 72 usmc; 08-31-2021 at 10:19 PM.

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    Contributing Member 30Three's Avatar
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    The ones in the set I got on sunday all have a postcard type reverse side.
    I believe they are early 1920's; when tourism for the families of the fallen was quite common.
    People visited as part of the healing process and to get some closure for the loss of their sons.
    Every Frenchicon village has a war memorial; the names of local families are always present! Often two or three from the same family.

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    30Three our country is the same for our war memorials you can be at a small isolated place where a small town is and you'd have a high chance there is a monument there for those that answered the call and paid the ultimate price.
    For Australiaicon, the First World War remains our costliest conflict in terms of deaths and casualties, from a population of fewer than five million, 416,809 men enlisted (8.336% of our population), more than 60,000 were killed, 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner.
    (Population of the USAicon in 1917 = 103.3 million)
    They answered the call of the old country and were keen to prove themselves on the field of battle along side nations that had history of wars over hundreds of years, sadly the reality struck harshly on the 25th April 1915 at Gallipoli.

    They acquitted themselves very well against the Turk and grudgingly acknowledge him as a game fighter and worthy opponent but in the end they had to evacuate the effort as it was never going to go the way the command had envisioned.
    One rumour at Gallipoli went ~ A rifle shot rings out! The Brit dives for the trench, The Kiwi flattens down on the ground, The Aussie stands up and say's "Now where did that come from!"
    It may have been true but allot of our chaps treated it as a game and suffered many privations, sadly for allot of them they stayed behind as the great Mustafa Ataturk said of the Australians;
    "Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. ... You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace".

    The fields of the Western Front were of a whole new affair but the Germans ended up having a healthy respect for our soldiers.
    At the end of it all there were very few families in our country at the time that had not been touched by WWI they had either a husband, son/s (All sometimes), or other relative involved in that conflict/s so far away.

    As always I respect and acknowledge all men/women who have served and continue to serve the allied nations that endeavour to keep our freedoms safe from those that want to remove it from us and enforce their ideals whether twisted or not onto a free peoples of the world.
    Last edited by CINDERS; 09-02-2021 at 04:09 AM.

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