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    Old Bayr. Soldier Feldpost MVK3X


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    Hello Gents

    I could do with some help with the script on the below feldpost, I have deciphered bits but any help with this matter would be great and very much appreciated. Also any information relating to this man, division etc also appreciated.

    I acquired this postcard off the WAF estand. Up until now I have never collected period cards,photos etc. It appealed to me as the old soldier is proudly posing with his MVK3x and also IMO he looks a little comical.

    The seller I bought it from knew nothing about this soldier so I decided to do some digging on it.

    First the postcard...

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    This is what I think I have so far....?

    The soldier served in the 6th Armee Bavarian Reserve Division. The postcard is dated 17/9/16 in handwriting and stamped 18/9/16. Given that this man looks long in the tooth and the date of the feldpost is 1916 it could be he was at Loos where the BEF dropped 140 tonnes of Chlorine gas (1915)? obviously there is no way of proving that but maybe?? Also I believe that the 6th army were involved in the battle of Lorraine (1914) he may have been there too??

    Anyway getting ahead of myself.

    It is addressed to Konigsdorf, which is directly south of Munich.

    I believe it to be sent to his love and I think it is Friede but Frieda or Feride is a possibility, the christian name actually looks like ferinde but I am sure that is not a German Christian name.

    I think the soldier is also a Engellander and I think his initial is a C.

    The rest of the script I am struggling.....

    C.Engellander? Also not sure what it says above the name?

    Feldlazarett? Field Hospital?

    Edited by EuRob
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    Still digging.....

    Came across this on Wikipedia which would suggest that my earlier battles for this guy would have been wrong?

    6th Bavarian Reserve Division

    The division entered the war on October 30, 1914, when it entered the First Battle of Ypres, part of the so-called Race to the Sea. The division remained in Flanders thereafter, and fought in numerous actions, including the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916 and the latter phases of the Battle of the Somme in October 1916. In the Spring of 1917, the division fought in the Battle of Arras. It remained in the Flanders region until August 1917, when it was transferred to Upper Alsace for rest and then to the Chemin des Dames region. In 1918, it participated in the German Spring Offensive. In the Spring and Summer offensives and counteroffensives, it faced French and American troops in several battles, including on the Aisne and Champagne-Marne. The division returned to the Flanders region in August 1918, where it remained until the end of the war. Allied intelligence rated the division as a second class division, noting that while trained as an assault division, it was more often employed as a follow-on unit.

    This does get confusing :speechless:

    So 6th Bayer.res.div. was not part of the 6th Armee under Rupprecht?

    Rob

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    Guest Rick Research

    It's Carl with a C. He signed as

    Abs(ender) Mil(it?r) Krankenw?rter C. Engell?nder

    so poor old Jacques Cousteau was a medical orderly.

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    .....

    Abs(ender) Mil(it?r) Krankenw?rter C. Engell?nder

    so poor old Jacques Cousteau was a medical orderly.

    Thanks Rick :cheers:

    So he was Carl Engellander of I presume Konigsdorf, a patient attendant (medical orderly) at a field hospital and he sent this card to his brother. In Friendly memory? writing in the past tense? I now need to find out where this feldlazarett 9 was posted on & around mid September 1916.

    Thanks et al for your help and keep it coming please :cheers:

    Rob

    Edited by EuRob
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    Guest Rick Research

    No, Carl sent this to his sister Frieda.

    Don't leave out the umlaut over the a in Engell?nder. It's an odd spelling.

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    Guest Rick Research

    Numbers may vary on computer systems but try this

    press ALT key (holding it down) while typing numbers 0228 on the KEYPAD block off on the right side, then release the ALT as soon as you've finished typing the numbers= ?.

    ALT and 0246 will produce my very own ?

    and ALT 0252 will produce a ?

    Those are the most common ones for German.

    My computer can handle German, the Scandinavian countries, French, Spanish, SOME Czech but no Polish, and (God alone knows why) Anglo-Saxon characters.

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    I will certainly try when the need arises Rick.

    After 2 pints of Bombardier :beer: a thought occured.....Didnt a infamous Gefrieter attend a field hospital after coming across a spot of Mustard gas and he was a member of a Bayer res div, 16th? maybe.....Bombardier :lol:

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    Because I am using one another language a lot when I am behind my laptop, then here is no problem with the "strange" letters - ?? ?? ?? ?? :rolleyes:

    But who knows how I can find letter - ? - Eszett (like Watt ė?? datt? :cheers:)????? Is there any short code for that as well?

    Regards,

    Noor

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    Guest Rick Research

    I never saw THOSE letters in IRISH. :rolleyes:

    Try this: hold down the ALT key while typing in these numbers from the far right numbers only keypad of your keyboard: 0223

    release the ALT key after typing the four numbers and you get ?

    My favorites are ?? and ?? which have not been used in English for 600 years-- but are still on our computers! :cheeky:

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    Had a bit of a mare trying to do an umlaut!

    I inadvertantly pressed ctl+alt+left arrow and I flipped my desktop screen!! The screen rotated through 90 dgrees and I couldnt get it back. :banger:

    Luckily for me a nice lady on Windows Forum helped me out so alls well.

    ctl+alt+arrows flips your screen. For the record

    :D

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    Guest Rick Research

    Congratulations on discovering a new keyboard horror (how do you FIX that, BTW? :speechless1: ) that years of accidental baby's breath brushing of 2 knuckles over some impossible to figure out combination of keys and cats walking on the keys have NEVER produced here...

    yet, anyway! :rolleyes:

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    I never saw THOSE letters in IRISH. :rolleyes:

    My favorites are ?? and ?? which have not been used in English for 600 years-- but are still on our computers! :cheeky:

    My quite remarkable wife has very good Latin and Anglo-Saxon, but weaker Old Norse; i.e., "Viking-Speak". She once translated the nonsense poem "Jaberwokky" (sp?) into alternate lines of Anglo-Saxon, Danish, German ( I think), and another language that I have forgot (French or Latin?), and supposedly got the meter and rhyming down beautifully, to the amusement of her professors.

    She is quite English (records back to 1480), so she disproves the rumors of the "English Gene", the one that supposedly prevents the Brits from learning other languages.

    Back to the PC, if the card had been sent in the more orderly Prussian mail system, the Absender Block might have had a lot more information. I don't even think that Bavarian Feldpost had to have the information.

    Bob Lembke

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