K.u.K MARINEFELDPOST

K.u.K MARINEFELDPOST

K.u.K navy was a multinational force. Croats made up to 1/3 of crews and around 8% of commanding  cadre. Feldpost to Croatia or in Croatian language is rare compared to mail in German, Hungarian and Czech language, probably this is due to a fact that most Croats were ordinary sailors who were barely literate and poorly educated. Interestingly letters mailed to interior of Croatia are more common then mail to coastal areas of Croatia (Dalmatia, Croatian littoral, Istria )

Around 56 000 men served in navy during the war , 983 members were killed and 680 were prisoners.

Navy members were granted  right to a free mail(feldpost) on 09.08.1914. Most of the ships were concentrated in Pula /Pola , so mostly Pula 1(for official and personal mail) and to a  lesser extent  Pula 2 (for personal mail) civilan post offices were used. In other coastal cities civilian and military postal offices were used, but most of  postal traffic is based in Pula.

Due to a  large amount of mail on 14.11.1914  Navy mail collecting point was formed  (Marinepost-Sammelstelle).  With time it grew in Naval military post office Pula (Marinefeldpostamt Pola) .

Marinefeldpostamt Pola was opened on 07.04.1915 and closed on 04.11.1918. Although Marinefeldpostamt opened,  civilian postal  offices Pula(Pola) 1 and 2 were still used for posting personal feldpost but much rarer then before.  K.u.K  Amy operated  Feldpost - Fp.549 in Pula from 28.01-08.11.1918 but navy personnel  didn't use it.

For more about K.u.K Navy I recommend 2 great books :

in Croatian: Dario Petković: Ratna mornarica Austro-ugarske monarhije. (2004)

in English: Rene Greger: Austro-Hungarian Warships of World War I. (1976, pdf copies can be found on internet, google it! )

For more about KuK  Marinefeldpost and its cancels lookt at :

KALIS / KOHL: DIE FELDPOST DER K.U.K. KRIEGSMARINE IM 1. WELTKRIEG (2002)

Cancels of Marinefeldpost

In K.u.K marine ships, different services and stations used unit cancels to mark mail that originated from certain unit. Especially interesting are ship cancels.

Cancels used on mail in K.u.K navy  can be sorted in 3 groups.

a) Ships /postal/ stamps: (Bordstempel/ Palubni žig): these are round cancels with date in the middle, KuK Kriegsmarine written above , ships name bellow. Two variants are present 1) date written vertically 2) date written horisonatally

b) Ships official stamps(Dienststempel/Službeni žig) : round, square, oval and line cancels with a service ,station or a  ships name, some with ,some without imperial eagle or monarchy emblem in the middle but all without a date  .

c)Censors cancels(Zensurstempel/Cenzurni žig): line, round or square cancels with a service ,station or a  ships name and with text Zensuriert or rarer  Briefzensur, but without a date . Some have only word  Zensuriert, and very rarly text Passiert that was used in 11 and 12 .1914. Censor cancels of marine coastal services or stations sometimes have text Zensurstelle ( Censor service). Special cancels are rare ship censor cancel with a date, these are round cancels  with date in middle , text Zensuriert in the top and ship name at a bottom.

They were used on SMS Erzhrzog Karl, SMS Erzhrzog Friedrich, SMS Strieter ,SMS Trabant ,SMS Ulan, SMS Gaa .  Unique censor cancel with a  date was used on SMS Adria.

All Feldpost sent until mid 11.1914 has civilian mail cancel(Pola-1) and a ships/service cancel , but after the formation of Marinepost-Sammelstelle in 14.11.1914 mostly ships cancels are present without civilian cancel. Mail was still posted via Pola-1 but it was collected by Sammelstelle so no civilian postmark was applied.

After formation of the  KuK Marinefeldpostamt Pola on 07.04.1915, three provisional postal cancels were used in 4-5.1915. 

                      Two examples of 1. provisional cancel.

(cards to Hungary from SMS Szigetvar and card to Czech )

Three examples of 2. provisional cancel.

 Two cards to Zagreb with sub-variant a) : roman numeral for month(6.V.1915)

Card to Bohmen with sub-variant b): month written in letters (5.MAI.1915)

Three examples of 3. provisional cancel. 

Part of card to Prague from SMS Trabant( with 4 different cancels used on Trabant out of total 12)

Card to Split Dalmatia from Torpedodepot ship( SMS Pelikan)

Card to Sušak(Rijeka-Fiume)  from KuK Marine-Landsturm kommando Pola.

Card mailed 18.03.1915 from Pola 1  to Brežice(Slovenia) ,written in Croatian language, from a man serving with Marinespital (cancel  kuk Marine Sanitas abteilungs Kommando).

An unregistered Marine Feldpost -Portofrei  cancel

Often mail carries 2 or 3 different cancels applied. In Boka Kotorska battle ship Monarch acted as a mail collecting point for mail from smaller vessels and submarines, all such mail carries Monarch cancel with cancels of ships that mail originated from. Mail from Boka was often send via Military Etappenpostamt Fp.267 or via civilian post offices and those cancels were applied as well. Other ships sometimes acted as collecting points , but none on a scale  as Monarch did.

As expected mail from large battle ships with crew over 1000 men in most common , mail from smaller ships gets rarer as size of ships gets smaller. Extremely rare is mail from one of 28 K.u.K submarines.

I still haven't seen mail in Croatian language or mailed to Croatia from an submarine.

Two early cards 16 and 18.09.1914 , mailed via Pola 1 post office.

 First one locally to SMS Szigetvar from Hafenadmiralat  with Feldpost canacel (official use)

 second one posted  to Zagreb from Matrosen corps  with Feldpost handwritten (personal use)