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12th January 1940 'POST AUX ARMEES' 12.01.1940 French feldpost reverse.jpeg 12.01.1940 French feldpost reverse.jpeg 1/1 French pre-war cover with 'POSTE AUX ARMEES' date cancellation and official hand-stamp. Ref: 12.01.1940 POSTE AUX ARMEES French armed forces post office The French army post office in 1939 had been shaped by the organisation put in place during the Great War, then by the successive reforms between the two wars: 1914 : establishment of postal sectors (numbers identifying a military postal office serving units). 1924 : application of the law of separation between postal functions and treasury functions of the army post (law of 1921). This reform created the army post office as it would be in 1939. 1940 : introduction of the 5-digit postal sector. It was the last major reform before the Armistice of June 1940. Source: gallica.bnf.fr Upon mobilisation, the organisation of post to the armies in times of war is activated. It is structured around the following main elements: Military central offices , responsible for collecting and sorting mail to and from the armies. They are made up of civilians from the post administration seconded to the military post. They are the link between the border offices (for the front postal sectors), the garrison postal sectors and the civil post office. Postal sectors , military postal offices collecting and distributing mail from soldiers of units depending on them. This service is provided by soldiers (wavemasters, officers in charge of mail). Some are fixed geographically and serve units in garrison, others are mobile and serve units in the field (front). Border offices , army sorting centers ensuring the transit of mail between central military offices (rear) and postal sectors in the countryside. Their name refers to the military border separating the rear zone from the front zone. There was a border office per army and the border offices were most often located within a regulatory station (a marshalling yard regulating military rail traffic between the rear and the front). Both border offices and military central offices could postmark mail entrusted directly to them. The army post is under the direction of a central director of the army post attached to the Ministry of War (4th Bureau). However, the establishment of this organisation was not done without difficulty: in the early days, the necessary personnel were not yet in place and the army post office was not able to properly ensure the processing of the immense mass of mail addressed to those mobilised. The difficulties were increased by the fact that the mobilisation had also lost a large part of its staff from the civil postal system and therefore the processing of mail as a whole was disrupted. Shortly before the armistice and the disappearance of the postal sectors, a reform was undertaken in May 1940, aiming to set up a system of 5-digit postal sectors constituting a postal address for each unit. Source: ww2postalhistory-fr Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

4th July 1945 4th July 1945 1/1 CTO cover featuring the 'Saxon Obliteration' Mi.AP785 from Lichtenstein. Ref: 04.07.1945

23rd September 1944 Stalag IV-F 23rd September 1944 Stalag IV-F Screenshot 2021-11-27 at 09.29.50.png Screenshot 2021-11-27 at 09.29.50.png 1/1 Stalag IV-F see 29.10.1941 - 21/11 17.07.1943 - 23/45 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

September 1935 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th

German Laws German Laws Screenshot 2021-11-27 at 09.29.50.png Screenshot 2021-11-27 at 09.29.50.png 1/1 German Laws As found within the Brief History collection (with additional transcriptions from official text) Within the Brief History collection Employment in Bohemia & Moravia (1944) Additional sources Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

AN INDEX FOR THE CARTOONS FROM PUNCH MAGAZINE Punch, or The London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and wood-engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, when it helped to coin the term 'cartoon' in its modern sense as a humorous illustration. From 1850, John Tenniel was the chief cartoon artist at the magazine for over 50 years. After the 1940s, when its circulation peaked, it went into a long decline, closing in 1992. It was revived in 1996, but closed again in 2002. Punch Cartoons INDEX 1/0 AN INDEX FOR THE CARTOONS FROM PUNCH MAGAZINE Punch, or The London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and wood-engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, when it helped to coin the term 'cartoon' in its modern sense as a humorous illustration. From 1850, John Tenniel was the chief cartoon artist at the magazine for over 50 years. After the 1940s, when its circulation peaked, it went into a long decline, closing in 1992. It was revived in 1996, but closed again in 2002. Links to the cartoons from Punch listed in date order with brief description (issues within the Brief History collection: 1936 (late), 1938 (early), 1939 (Oct-Dec), 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945 (all loose), 1946). 1936 25th May 1936 - Mussolini and Abyssinia 12th August 1936 - Spanish Civil War 11th November 1936 - Remembrance Day 1945 3rd January 1945 - Child of 1945 3rd January 1945 - Starvation in Warsaw 10th January 1945 - Himmler the puppet master 17th January 1945 - Sealing Germany's fate 31st January 1945 - Hindenburg's coffin 7th February 1945 - Troblesome map of Europe 14th February 1945 - Frederick the Great 28th February 1945 - The Dutch Famine 7th March 1945 - The end of tyranny 21st March 1945 - Wotan surrenders 11th April 1945 - Werewolves 18th April 1945 - The masks of Japan 2nd May 1945 - The last heil 9th May 1945 - Food into Holland 9th May 1945 - Fallen Thrones 13th June 1945 - Help Holland Fund 11th July 1945 - Victory Parade 25th July 1945 - Göring & Ribbentrop 22nd August 1945 - Mars defeated 29th August 1945 - Bulgaria and Spain 5th September 1945 - Japanese audacity 5th September 1945 - The Marshall Plan 19th September 1945 - Japanese war reparations 31st October 1945 - Post-war America 28th November1945 - Justice at the Nuremberg Trials Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

27th November 1941 Submariners uniform 27th November 1941 Submariners uniform 1/1 Postcard depicting sailors of the Kriegsmarine waving from a U-Boat. the caption reads, 'Frohe Heimkehr' ('Happy homecoming' - although the vessel appears to be sailing out to sea. Therefore, 'Happy returns' may be more appropriate). Ref: 27.11.1941 Submariners uniform Due to the arduous nature of U-boat duty, uniforms varied greatly depending upon the actions and activity of the service member. All submarine personnel were required to maintain standard Navy uniforms, with the undress service uniform being the most commonly worn when on shore. Upon departure and return to base, especially when the submarine was visible to onlookers, officers would wear a modified version of the service uniform to consist of the blue service coat along with grey all weather over-trousers. Commanders who had earned the Knight's Cross would often wear tin copies for the ceremonial entrance and exit to port. All medals, ribbons, and badges were removed once fully underway at sea. The standard 'patrol uniform' consisted of a grey-brown denim jacket for officers and chiefs while a grey all weather smock coat was worn by enlisted personnel. Some of the original U-boat uniforms had been issued from British stocks abandoned at Dunkirk. U-boat personnel were also issued a variety of weather clothing to include fleece lined footwear and all weather over-trousers of brown or grey leather. As an unwritten rule, the captain of any submarine wore a white peaked cap in contrast to officers and chiefs who wore blue service caps. Lookouts wore oilskins and sou'westers on duty while sailors in the control center and on deck were required to wear garrison covers. Dress restrictions for engineering and torpedo man personnel, who often worked in cramped and humid conditions, were far more lax and most in these duties wore comfortable civilian clothes. An unofficial modicum for the ship's Chief engineer was the 'checkered shirt' which was a comfortable working shirt often worn with pants and suspenders. Source: Wikipedia Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

18th July 1943 Kriegshilfsdienst postcard series 18th July 1943 Kriegshilfsdienst postcard series 1/0 see 18.07.1943 - 23/46 (series 2 #8 ) Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

Mi.865 (29.01.1944) Mi.865 (29.01.1944) 1/1 Self addressed commercial cover to 'Hoflikörfabrik Hans Hertrich' in Hof. Featuring Mi.865. RefL 07.02.1944 next 3rd Reich stamp issue Mi.865. Fef: 07.02.1944

26th February 1947 Mi.1-13 Corner Edge Dates 26th February 1947 Mi.1-13 Corner Edge Dates 26.02.1947 Mi.4 Printing Date reverse.jpeg 26.02.1947 Mi.4 Printing Date reverse.jpeg 1/1 Registered cover posted from Kaiserslautern to Landsweiler-Reden. Featuring a French Zone 8 Pf definitive with corner edge printing date (27.8.1946). Ref: 26.02.1947 - 14/101 French Zone definitives (Mi.1-13) with corner edge printing dates 8 pf (Mi.4) with printing date '27.8.1946' (machine 16). Ref: 26.02.1947 - 14/101 15 Pf (Mi.7) with printing date '4.9.46' (machine 17). Ref: 14.04.1948 - 15/30 30 Pf (Mi.10) with a feint '46' to margin and no other numbers visible. Ref: 23.01.1947 - 16/34 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

1st April 1944 1st April 1944 1/0 A lebenszeichen (signs of life) air raid survivors card. Sent following the R.A.F. raid on Nuremberg on the 30th/31st March 1944. This would normally have been the moon stand-down period for the Main Force, but a raid to the distant target of Nuremberg was planned on the basis of an early forecast that there would be protective high cloud on the outward route, when the moon would be up, but that the target area would be clear for ground-marked bombing. A Meteorological Flight Mosquito carried out a reconnaissance and reported that the protective cloud was unlikely to be present and that there could be cloud over the target, but the raid was not cancelled. 795 aircraft were dispatched - 572 Lancasters, 214 Halifaxes and 9 Mosquitos. The German controller ignored all the diversions and assembled his fighters at 2 radio beacons which happened to be astride the route to Nuremberg. The first fighters appeared just before the bombers reached the Belgian border and a fierce battle in the moonlight lasted for the next hour. 82 bombers were lost on the outward route and near the target (note: the POW mail from Stalag Luft 1 - shown above - is sent by a crewman shot down during this outward engagement). The action was much reduced on the return flight, when most of the German fighters had to land, but 95 bombers were lost in all - 64 Lancasters and 31 Halifaxes, 11.9% of the force dispatched. It was the biggest Bomber Command loss of the war. Most of the returning crews reported that they had bombed Nuremberg but subsequent research showed that approximately 120 aircraft had bombed Schweinfurt, 50 miles north-west of Nuremberg. This mistake was a result of badly forecast winds causing navigational difficulties. 2 Pathfinder aircraft dropped markers at Schweinfurt. Much of the bombing in the Schweinfurt area fell outside the town and only 2 people were killed in that area. The main raid at Nuremberg was a failure. The city was covered by thick cloud and a fierce cross-wind which developed on the final approach to the target caused many of the Pathfinder aircraft to mark too far to the east. A 10-mile-long creepback also developed into the countryside north of Nuremberg. Both Pathfinders and Main Force aircraft were under heavy fighter attack throughout the raid. Little damage was caused in Nuremberg. 69 people were killed in the city and surrounding villages. Note: Pilot Officer C.J. Barton, a Halifax pilot of 578 Squadron, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for carrying on to the target in the Nuremberg operation after his bomber was badly damaged in a fighter attack and 3 members of his crew baled out through a communication misunderstanding. Although the navigator and wireless operator were among the men who had parachuted, Barton decided to attempt the return flight to England in spite of the fact that only 3 engines were running. An unexpected wind took the Halifax steadily up the North Sea and it was short on fuel when the English coast was reached near Sunderland. Barton had to make a hurried forced landing when his engines failed through lack of fuel and he died in the crash, but his 3 remaining crew members were only slightly hurt. Pilot Officer Barton's Victoria Cross was the only one awarded during the Battle of Berlin, which had now officially ended. Extract from Middlebrook and Everitt, 1985

3rd February 1945 3rd February 1945 Cover from occupied Guernsey featuring a 2½d. ultramarine. Most likely issued in July 1944 (rouletted). Ref: 03.02.1945 1/0 Occupied Guernsey 2½d. ultramarine