I’ve been spending my money again and picked up this example of a British world war 1 propaganda postcard

which shows a German soldier running from an advancing (and presumably British) tank.

The rear of the postcard is a bit of a puzzle though

Someone has stuck a King George V green halfpenny stamp on the postcard and then a message has been written using the whole back of the card, including over the stamp.

I’ve done a rough transcription of the message and my reading of it is as follows

Dearest Sister,

just a line hoping to find you in the best of health, as it leaves me abouth the same as kate(?)lifted up.

[I] have not heard anything of your name for ages, but still live in happiness,  alls well at home except kiddies have got bad colds [.] I expect its to do with fetching the poor devils out of bed [...] its damn near time this war ended.

we have had snow for three weeks much so you can {leet?}

it's lovely hearing you are in a perfect state of remaine(?)

you loving B

Notes:

Remaine is an obsolete form of remain and can mean remaining content.

Leet is an older form of let in some english dialects

Post card has a King George V half pence stamp but no address

The message is not quite coherent, but it’s interesting that there is a definite hint of war weariness in the message

My guess is that the postcard had come with the stamp already stuck on and the writer decided to use the whole back of the postcard for the message, perhaps enclosing it in an envelope.

Given that it mentions snow, I presume in England, on the ground for three weeks, it suggests that the card was written in winter, but which winter?

While tanks were first used in combat by the British in September 1916, they did not see significant use until 1917. Both the winters of 1916 and 1917 were particularly harsh on the western front with food riots occurring in Germany in the winter of 1916.

However, my gut feeling is that the card dates from the winter of 1917, simply because it was not until the British began using the Mark IV tank that tanks began to perform effectively…

[update 26/07/2025]

I’ve had a second look at the text and where the writer writes

… fetching the poor devils out of their beds

I now read it as continuing on raid nights

which I’m guessing is a reference to the German air raids on the south east of England by both Zeppelin air ships and in 1917 also by Gotha bombers…