Mail Call

In 1914 a German infantry division
consisted of approximately 18,000 soldiers.
During the course of the war, with over 200 divisions in action,
3.8 million German soldiers were spread around
the Western front with France and the Eastern front with Russia.
Each man writing a message to family and friends
whenever he had a free moment,
hoping for some return note or gift from home.
The Deutsche Feldpost took responsibility to deliver
the millions of letters, parcels, and postcards
sent to and from the troops.

And to accomplish this task,
manpower, steam power, and real horsepower
were vital to insure that the post went through reliably.
A photo postcard like this showing the Feldpost wagon
picking up sacks of army mail was something to be proud of.

The back of the postcard shows that it was was distributed to German soldiers for free.

Kriegsspende von Angehörigen der Reichs-Post-und Telegraphenverwaltung
~
War donation from members of the Reichs post office and telegraph administration

The Kaiser's General Staff considered military postal service
such an important part of maintaining troop morale
that postage for the German Feldpost was free
allowing any soldier to easily write home or to friends.

One hundred years later the consequence for collectors like me
is that there are many more German wartime postcards
from 1914 – 1918 than British, French, or American.

* * *

The American Expeditionary Force mobilized 2 million men
to serve overseas in World War One,
but it did not reach a full force in France until the summer of 1918.
The trans-Atlantic distance was so great and the logistics of postal service
so complicated that there are few examples of postcards
sent back home by American soldiers from France.
Most were sent from an army training camp
before embarking on the crossing.

This colorized postcard shows
some American soldiers fixing packs onto mules.
A short verse is printed in the top corner.


 Army mules with their strong packs,
Strapped so strongly on their backs,
Remind me what I wish to do —
To send a pack of greetings to you.

The postmark is smudged
but the date is May 26, 1918
and is sent from Greensboro Trans. Com (?)
which I suspect is not Greensboro, NC
but a small military transit camp in Georgia
between Atlanta and Augusta,
where there were extensive military bases in 1918.

The message is indecipherable suggesting
the writer is either illiterate or foreign.
It was sent to someone in Stockport, NY.

* * *

This last postcard is remarkable in its simplicity.
It was in the same antique dealer's shoe box with the mules postcard.

The text reads:

THE SHIP ON WHICH I SAILED HAS ARRIVED
SAFELY OVERSEAS.                                                       
Name ____Fred G. Wilkes
Organization___Co. D. 57th Enginers
American Expeditionary Forces
Via N. Y. City.

The back shows that the postcard had pre-paid postage, Soldiers' Mail
and was distributed by the American Red Cross.
It was sent to:

Mrs. Francis Wilkes
2 Manchester Ave.
Troy, NY

By 1918 Americans were very familiar with the appalling casualties taken on all sides of this terrible European War. The entry of the United States into the war, giving up neutrality to join Britain and France against Germany, was a very hotly debated political question.  One of the serious concerns was that the German U-Boat submarines posed a great risk to Allied shipping and especially American troop ships. A short postcard like this did a lot to reconcile a mother's worry. It was likely given to each soldier just prior to arrival at the French port, and then taken up by a navy postal clerk as the soldiers left the ship since the troop ship would then return immediately to the US.

Of course to an amateur historian like myself, the question now became– What happened to Fred G. Wilkes?

USS Kroonland, Passenger Manifest
August 30, 1918

On August 30, 1918 the passenger manifest for the USS Kroonland leaving Hoboken, New Jersey included:

WILKES, FRED G.   PVT 57TH ENGRS    MRS. FRANCES CELIA WILKES MOTHER
2 MANCHESTER AVENUE, TROY, NEW YORK

SS Kroonland, 1903
Source: Wikipedia

The SS Kroonland was an ocean liner for the Red Star Line, an American passenger ship that first served on the New York to Antwerp route in 1902. It was built in Philadelphia and was 580 feet long with room for 342 first-class passengers, 194 second-class, and 626 third-class, and crew of 25, or 1,127 people in total. When ordered into troop transport service in 1918 it was outfitted to carry 3,300 soldiers.

In August 1918 it squeezed in 34 more for a manifest of 3,334 soldiers. It joined six other transport ships in a convoy escorted by US Navy ships arriving in France on September 12. During the voyage, two crewmen died of the dreaded Spanish Flu. The epidemic was just getting started, and eventually would take the lives of millions of people around the world.

Happily another document for Fred G. Wilkes appeared in a search of Ancestry.com's archives. It was a passenger manifest for his return to the United States on June 28,1919 on board the USS Santa Olivia.

Santa Olivia, Passenger Manifest
June 28, 1919

The Santa Olivia was built in Philadelphia in 1918 at the same shipyard that built the Kroonland. At 420 feet in length it was initially designed as a freighter for taking cargo to France but was soon converted into a troop ship. It had a capacity of 1,857 soldiers plus the navy crew, but undoubtedly in 1919 had many more Doughboys crammed into every available space on the ship's return to the US.

Fred G. Wilkes was one of those men, happy to return home to his mother in Troy, NY after being "over there" nearly a year. He was 26 years old.  I bet he sent a postcard to her from New York City.

USS Santa Olivia, 1919
Source: Wikipedia

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
Ding! "You've Got Mail!"