#wwipostcards

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On Active Service: Trenches 14/4/16 “Dear Parents, Just to let you know I am in the pink. Hope you are both top hole. Letter soon as possible, Fondest love, Ces.” Addressed to Mr & Mrs EE Brown, 81 Kennington Ave., Bishopston, Bristol. Cancelled by Field Post 144 and passed by Field Censor 1460. The cover shows the bombed-out church if Hébuterne on the Somme front line. #wwipostcards #deltiology #hébuterne (at Hanworth, Hounslow, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCNjR8qDSJg/?igshid=1xqa8vuq1vo5z

[sheriffof0]

On Active Service: Trenches 3/3/16 “Dear Parents, Still in the pink. Hope you are both well. Fondest love, Ces.” Addressed to Mr & Mrs EE Brown, 81 Kennington Ave., Bishopston, Bristol. Cancelled 8th March, 1916 and passed by Field Censor 1975. The cover shows the bombed-out church of the village of Hannescamps on the Allied front until June 1916 and then again in 1918 by which time the church was utterly destroyed. Around Haanescamps a complex network of miles of trenches had been dug by both armies. Owing to the appalling weather the trenches were constantly wet and muddy. #wwipostcards #deltiology #hannescamps (at Hanworth, Hounslow, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCNc_8gDIF9/?igshid=hx80wewd8k4s

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On Active Service: 10/2/16 “Dear Mother and Father, Should be glad of some more S.Oil when you are sending. Hope you are both in the pink. Weather here is still very cold. Fondest love, Ces. Addressed to Mr & Mrs EE Brown, 81 Kennington Ave., Bishopston, Bristol. Cancelled at Field Post Office 144 on 12th February, 1916 and passed by Field Censor 1975. The cover shows the Rue du Four in Louvencourt. Whether enforced at unit level or implemented some other way, censorship of personal correspondence proved a major irritant to all soldiers; for some it denied them the freedom to write at any length or with much detail about the war. This was especially evident in the British ranks. Although we read only the banalities, we can also see that Ces was nith letting his family know he was still alive and also where he was. This was a dangerous practise and could lead to court-martial or worse. To avoid such punishments soldiers in all armies invented codes, impenetrable to us today. Others were simple: placing a dot under a succession of letters to reveal the name of their location. #wwipostcards #deltiology #louvencourt (at Hanworth, Hounslow, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCNagjBjEcP/?igshid=1ja9iweoz88ld

[sheriffof0]

On Active Service: 9/2/16 “Dear Parents, Hope you are both in the pink. I’m still top hole. Cheerio, Fondest love, Ces” Addressed to Mr & Mrs EE Brown, 81 Kennington Ave., Bishopston, Bristol. Cancelled at Field Post Office 144 and passed by Field Censor 1975. The cover shows the church of Louvencourt, a village behind Allied lines which served as a base for a field hospital until it was overrun by the Germans in 1918. Although cards were nearly always marked by a censor’s stamp, they were also often read and signed by an officer. Many of the cards I have posted here bear the autograph of W.H.Anderson. This *may* be Lieutenant Colonel William Herbert Anderson, Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross who was killed earning his medal on 25th March, 1918 at Bois Favieres, near Maricourt. #wwipostcards #deltiology #louvencourt (at Hanworth, Hounslow, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCNW95PDy4M/?igshid=4hrtnsodkj19

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On Active Service: 7/2/16 “Dear Mother and Father, Hope this will find you in the pink. I’m still top hole. Fondest love, Ces” Addressed to Mr & Mrs EE Brown, 81 Kennington Ave., Bishopston, Bristol. Cancelled at Field Post Office 144 on 8th February, 1916 and passed by Field Censor 1975. The cover shows a French reproduction of a ‘captured’ German postcard - an interesting propaganda technique. Chateau Fricourt was on the Somme front just 3km east of Albert and had been occupied by the German Imperial Army since October of 1914. Undoubtedly the destruction wrought upon the Chateau was caused by British and French sorties. The postcard was drawn by a German officer in November of 1914 and I have seen a German sample with a cancellation mark of 17.5.15 which is identical but without the footer text. At the time Ces sent this card preparations for the Somme offensive were deepening; defensive positions were being built all over the Somme front and raiding was increasing to snatch prisoners for questioning. #wwipostcards #deltiology #fricourt (at Hanworth, Hounslow, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCNSDehjoe8/?igshid=a77ijnckbbwo

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On Active Service: 5/2/16 “Dear Parents, Am out of trenches once again. Am pretty tired. Will write you a letter soon as possible. Hope you are in the pink. I am. 2 of your letters to answer. Well cheerio. Fondest love, Ces. Addressed to Mr & Mrs EE Brown, 81 Kennington Ave., Bishopston, Bristol. Cancelled at Field Post Office 144 in 5th February, 2016. No censor stamp. The cover shows the ruins around Nôtre-Dame de Brebuères in the town of Albert, a key location on the Somme front line, just 10km south of Hébuterne. On 15th January the Basilica was hit by a shell and the statue at its top, a golden madonna and child, slumped to a near horizontal position, where it remained until further shelling destroyed the tower in 1918. The British said that whoever made the statue fall would lose the war; the Germans said the opposite. A number of legends anout the ‘leaning virgin’ developed among German, French and British soldiers and she became an especially familiar image for the many thousands of British Tommies who fought at the Battle of the Somme. #wwipostcards #deltiology #albert (at Hanworth, Hounslow, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCL9V5hDuij/?igshid=1uyefbmio7557

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On Active Service: Trenches 24/12/15 “Dear Mother & Father, Just a line hoping you are both in the pink. Glad to say I am. Fondest love, Ces.” Addressed to Mr & Mrs EE Brown, 81 Kennington Ave., Bishopston, Bristol. Cancelled at Field Post Office 144 on 25th December, 1915. No censor mark. The cover shows the school and Mairie at Sailly-en-Bois, 1km west of the Allied frint line at Hébuterne. #wwipostcards #deltiology #sailly-en-bois (at Hanworth, Hounslow, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCGyhtzDZQc/?igshid=171z1obneqi1d

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On Active Service: Trenches 22/12/15 “Dear Mother & Father, Just a line to let you know I’m still in the pink. Hope you are both well. Letter to follow as soon as poss. Fondest love, Ces.” Addressed to Mr & Mrs EE Brown, 81 Kennington Ave., Bishopston, Bristol. Cancelled at Field Post Office 144 and passed by Field Censor 1148. Although the name is scratched out we can know that the cover shows the church of Sailly-au-Bois, 1km west of Hébuterne. The church was heavily damaged by German bombing before the conflict ended. #wwipostcards #deltiology #sailly-au-bois (at Hanworth, Hounslow, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCGxveLD4zf/?igshid=1lv34212geyig