I’ve acquired an AustroHungarian field postcard for my little collection of world war one ephemera

Compared to British examples it’s quite simple.

On the front of the card there’s a section on the left – helpfully labelled in the principal languages of the empire – for the sender to write their name and a return address

In this example there’s only a name, the unit name and address is given in the official purple stamp, in other examples I’ve seen there might be a line like ‘Feldpost 306‘ to give the number of the appropriate field post office.

Unlike British examples the rear of the card is blank for a simple message – no restrictive list of pre printed messages or warnings that the card will be destroyed if a personal message is added, as on the British ones.

The card is labelled Feldkorrezpondenzkarte – Field correspondence card- and that’s exactly what it is, a means for soldiers at the front to send short messages home for free.

Here the message is quite short and accompanied by a scrawl in pencil in a different had, presumably by the censor.

If you want to know more about German and AustroHungarian field postcards I’ve come across an informative blogpost with some good example images