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Fieldpost and Prisoner of War Post
A most interesting field of philately is that of fieldpost items. Although the number of philatelists specializing in such collections is increasing, this area still remains virgin territory. Wartime events and the need to retain facts relating to military matters a secret caused confusion over the use of certain postmarks in various periods of the Second World War.
Fieldpost postmarks were used as far back as the eighteenth century. During the war of the Austrian succession, 1741 – 1748, the Austrian army, together with the allied British and Dutch armies, fought the French in the Netherlands. Three postmarks are known from the year 1744: a circular handstamp with the letters ‘AA’ – ‘Army Autrichienne’ (Austrian Army); a circular handstamp with the letters ‘AB’ – ‘Army Brittanique’ (British Army); and a rectangular handstamp with the text ‘A HOL’ – ‘Armee Hollandaise’ (Dutch Army). These postmarks are relatively rare and can usually only be seen in stamp exhibitions. To form a collection from the Crimean War or the Franco-Prussian War is extremely difficult. A more promising field for collectors is the period covering the First and Second World Wars.
A most intriguing collection deals with the fieldpost of the Austrian Navy prior to and during World War I. Some of the postmarks or cachets provide the names of individual warships and, often, picture postcards with photographs of the ships are discovered. Prisoner of War mail was sent through the International Red Cross and special Red Cross postcards and envelopes were printed for this purpose.
Fieldpost items and other wartime mail were usually censored when it was going abroad. On such covers censor handstamps, censor labels and sometimes the censor’s written remarks and his signature were found. They were all important requisites of this type of mail, confirming its authenticity and disclosing many interesting facts about the fate of such items.
The Second World War is slipping back into history and, in 1945, when Nazi concentration camps became acknowledged, it was noted that special covers and postcards were printed for the larger concentration camps. Only a limited number of prisoners had an opportunity to send letters but kites and letters were smuggled from camps where resistance fighters were held. Freedom fighters have been recognized and honoured on postage stamps of their home countries since the cessation of wars.
The fifteenth century leader of the Hussites, Jan Zizka, is featured on a four ore 1952 stamp from Czechoslovakia. La Fayette, a hero of the American War of Independence has his portrait on a 1957 three cent postage stamp and Marshal Suvorov, a great military leader of the Napoleonic period is portrayed on a 1955 Soviet postage stamp.
Postage stamps continue to record the history of nations, their achievements, cultural experiences and the conflicts between and within individual countries.
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