Antun Scholz (Šolc) K.u.K 100.IR to Zagreb

 Antun Scholz(Šolc) war memoirs from the Great War  were published in 2020 in Croatia. This great book is a rare WW1 war diary writen by a Croatian soldier. Antun Šolc was born in Zagreb but his father was from Vienna and Antun was therefore sent to serve with 4.Inf.Rgt from Vienna. He was quickly  transfered to 100.Inf.Rgt from Teschen. He writes that he was the only Croat in the Regiment. In the early 1915 100.IR was in Syrmia in the rear of the Serbian front, later it was  transfered to Italian front when Italy declered war on 23.05.1915.  With 100.IR Antun spent part of the war figthing on Italian front, participating in 1, 2 , 10, 11 and 12 Isonso battle and in fighting on the Piave front. In the diary he regularly writes about sending and recieving feldpost from family in Zagreb and from his brother Stanko serving with K.u.K 84.Inf.Rgt. By pure chance i acquired some of his feldpost cards...

Front cover  of the book which I highly recommend to all readers.

20.03.1915 card from Antun to his sister Draga Šolc in Tkalčićeva street no.68 in Zagreb , his home adress. Posted via Fp.69.  2nd.battalion of 100.IR was part of 12.Gebirgs brigade and used its Feldpost no.69. Stationed in Syrmia.

18.04.1915 card from Antun to his sister Draga Šolc in Tkalčićeva street no.68 in Zagreb , his home adress. Mailed via Fp.69. Stationed in Syrmia.

24.05.1915 card from Antun to his sister Draga Šolc in Tkalčićeva street no.68 in Zagreb , his home adress. Mailed via Fp.69. This card was mailed a day after Italian declaration of war on Austro-Hungary. Antun writes that they are moving to "you know where and we are glad to go there"  and   "we are all in high spirits. I already  know the thunder of the guns, nothing new". The next day Regiment moved from Syrmia to Italian front.

27.07.1917 card from Antun sister Vlasta in Zagreb  to his brother Stanko in 84.IR,  Fp.297 added by postman, censor cancel  Zagreb in green . Fp.297 served 25.Inf.Division in Galicia on the Russian front. Text has handwritten date 17.07.1917, this is probably an writting error. Vlasta writes that she has mailed some photos to him and to Antun(nick Tonana), his war diary confirms this few days earlier.

1.1944 - 1.Flughafen-Betriebs-Kompanie L.G.1 on Pleso airport to Reich

 

 29.01.1944 official registerer letter from  1. Flughafen-Betriebs-Kompanie L.G.1 which used Fp.L14713 to 1.Flieger Ersatz Bataillon XI in Neumünster in Germany. Mailed via Feldpostamt 530 based in Zagreb , Kenn-176 , used by Army group E. 

1. Flughafen-Betriebs-Kompanie L.G.1 operated on Pleso airport near Zagreb from 11.1943 until the retreat of German and Croatian army  from Zagreb on 06.05.1945. 

Pleso airport serves today as Zagreb and Croatia main airport , it was build by German forces in 1943 and from early 1944 was used by Luftwaffe as main transport and resupply airport .

 

5.1942 packet card to 2. Zračno područje Sarajevo.

 

 

 
 

15.05.1942 packet card from Andrijevci to Stožer 2.zračnog područja(2 Air command) or correcly 2.Zračna luka.Arrival cancel Sarajevo at the back 21.05.2021.

8.1914 Kuk Feldpost to Osijek with Tarnstempel (28.Pučko-ustaška pukovnija)

8.1914  K.u.K feldpost to Osijek . Mailed from 3.battalion 28. Infantry regiment of Croatian Landsturm ( 28.Pučko-ustaška pukovnija). Regiment was part of 104.Landsturm brigade that fought in Serbian campaign. Brigade  was exclusively Croatian made of 4 Croatian Landsturm Regiments.

Card was canceled with Tarnstempel :  9132 in Square box. Tarnstempels or "Dumb" (tarn=hidden) cancel were originally used to cancel Postal money orders , at the beginning of war they were used instead of usual postal cancels to conceal location of mailing.

They were mostly used in Galicia in 8-11.1914 and in Tirol 6-10.1915 , usage in other areas is very rare.

This card was posted from Serbian front and this is  the first  usage of Tarnstempel i have seen on the feldpost card mailed to Croatia. Sender notes that his Feldpost number is Fp.9 (bojna pošta 9) that served 104.Landsturm brigade at that time.

1.1944 Wehrmacht Wirtschafts Sicherungs Bataillon Kroatien to Dresden

 

 

 23.01.1944 Official registered letter to Dresden from Fp.30420C - 2.komp. Wehrmacht Wirtschafts Sicherungs Bataillon Kroatien. Mailed via Feldpostamt 530 , its head office was in Zagreb. It uses  Kenn number -176, which is present in Felpost cancel and register label . Arrival cancel Dresden is on the back of the cover, as well as straight cancel Dienststelle Fp.30420C.

 

4.1944 - 3.doknadna lovačka bojna to Zemun, NDH

 

 29.04.1944 card from 1.sat 3.doknadna lovačka bojna in Hrvatska Mitrovica to Zemun. Postage was prepaid with card and Ratni doprinos(war tax) was charged with 1.kuna stamp. Writer ask how are things in Zemun after heavy (allied) air bombing. 

 

 

12.1915 KuK card 22.Inf.rgt to Drniš

 07.12.1915 Feldpost card from 22.Infantry Regiment to Drniš,Dalmatia. Regiment was part of 13.Gebirgs(Mountain) brigade and sender writes his adress as Fp.88 which served 13.Geb.brig. Card was mailed via Fp.304 used by 18.Inf.division on Italian front

6.1943 - 187.Reserve division to Wien

 

 30.06.1943 official registered cover to Wien from Fp.42860 - Reserve-Pionier-Bataillon 86 of  187.Reserve division. Division didn't have its own Feldpost and used Felpostamt No.530 of Army group E , that used Kenn number 176,  its head office was in Zagreb and it had branches in Slavonski Brod(Brod N/S) and Banja Luka. On 22. December 1943 187.Division was renamed 42.Jager Division and Reserve-Pionier-Bataillon 86 was renamed Pionier-Bataillon 142.

11.1944 Croatian feldpost H1241/23 to Banja Luka

 

 

22.11.1944 card from Zagreb to Banja Luka. Sender notes his Croatian feldpost number as  H1241/23.  Writer is a Croatian Muslim, sending greetings for Bajram festival (end of Ramadan fasting). Stamp 3,5 kn was correct postage, but War tax stamp wasnt attached. Therefore card is marked with big letter T  hence postage due was to be paid, but was not charged. 

This is the earliest usage of Croatian feldpost number i have seen yet.

 

 

4.1915 - S.M.S Adria to Lussinpiccolo(Mali Lošinj) Croatia.

 

1.04.1915 K.u.K Marinefeldpost from S.M.S Adria to Mali Lošinj(italian-Lussinpiccolo), Croatia. On   the front of the card is Italian Easter greeting Buona pasqua. 

Only cancel present is rare Zensuriert/Sms Adria/date/Marine-feldpost cancel. This unique cancel was used only on SMS Adria.

 At the time SMS Adria was Gunnery training ship ,from October 1915 it was used as hulk to accommodate German naval personnel.

1.1944. letter Croatia to Reich - 367.Infanterie.div.

 05.01.1944 official registered letter from Fp.27998-Regiments stab ,Grenadier-Regiment 975 of  367. Infanterie-Division  to Neumünster,  Dt.Reich. The divisions  Kenn number K863 is visible in Feldpost cancel and R-sticker.

 The Division  was raised on 15.11.1943 , its formation and training(Aufstellung) was in Croatia around Zagreb(Agram) area. Divison reached strength of around 10 000 by the end of 1943. In the period January-March  of 1944 parts of division were used for  anti-partisan operations "Cannae" , "Fuchsjagd" and "Schneeschmelze" in the nortwestern Croatia. 

As the core of officers came from 330 . Infantry division that was disbanded, to cover up formation of the new division, name 330.Gebirgs(Mountain) division was used for 367.Inf.divison from the January of 1944.  This was done mostly to deceive Hungarians as division was planned to participate and later used in operation "Margarethe", the bloodless German invasion of Hungary . Division crossed Croatian-Hungarian border on 17.03.1944 and  reached Balaton lake and city of  Veszprem when it was ordered to return to Croatia on 21.03.1944.

Upon arrival in Croatia the Division was immediately transferred to Lemberg(Lviv , Ukraina) where it arrived on 01.04.1944,  now under its true name 367.Inf.Dv.

Divison was in Croatia 15.11.1943-01.04.1944  and mail from Croatia is rare.

4.1942 parcel card to 7.pješačka pukovnija(infantry regiment) in Sarajevo

 

21.04.1942 parcel card for a packet mailed from Podravska Slatina to Sarajevo to a member of 14.satnija/Proti-oklopna (14th company/anti-armour) of   7.pješačka pukovnija (7th.infantry regiment). At the back of card arrival cancel Sarajevo 29.04.1942 and units cancel in blue colour.  Certificate by prof.Ercegović from 1983.

8.1917 - K.u.K Donauflottille SMS Bodrog to Zemun, Croatia

 

02.08.1917 postcard from K.u.K Kriegsmarine,  Donauflottille (Danube river fleet) to Zemun, Slavonia then part of Croatia. Text is in Croatian language. Mailed via Fp.299b which served Donauflottille command and later KuK units in Romania.

All mail from KuK Donauflottille is rare but mail to Croatia is extremely rare, i have seen just a couple of items in years i collect Feldpost.

 SMS Bodrog was river monitor that entered service with KuK Kriegsmarine  in 1904, it fired the first shoots in the Great War. After the WWI it was transferred to Kingdom of Yugoslavia navy. During German invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 it was scuttled but later raised and served with Croatian Navy river fleet as monitor "Sava" until September 1944 when it was scuttled again. Raised again after WW2 it served with Yugoslav navy again . In 2018 it was repaired by Serbian state to become a museum, and is one of the two KuK Monitors that are still around ,the other one being SMS Leitha in Budapest.

11.1942 370.Kroat.Inf.Rgt -369.Kroat.Inf.Div. to Riegelsdorf (Rigonce near Dobova , Slovenia)

 

 

 28.11.1942 Feldpost card mailed from Wien by a member od 369.Kroat.Inf.Div who notes his Fp.23274 - 14.Kompanie Kroat. Infanterie-Regiment 370. 369.division was training at the time in Döllersheim. Text is in Croatian and  there is nothing interesting in message itself, a soldier writes to his uncle(Dragi Tetak -Dear Uncle),that he was in hospital in Wien and is about to return to his unit, but whole card and location of  a recipient is very interesting.

Rigonce(Riegelsdorf) near Dobova is a village in Slovenia right on the border with Croatia. When Slovenia was divided between Germany and Italy in April 1941 , an German enclave was present in Italian part, in the area called Gottschee(German) or Kočevje(Slovenian). Germans decided to resettle Germans form Gottschee to their part of Slovenia (then a part of the Reich) to an area called Rann(slov.Brežice) triangle. This is an area between Sutla and Sava river around Brežice(Rann)  In November 1941 Germans deported all Slovenians (46.000 people) from Rann/Brežice trialngle(Ranner Dreieck) to Germany and resettled Gottscheers there.

This feldpost card from late 1942 was mailed from Croatian soldier training in Reich to his family in Rann triangle who are  resettled Gottschee Germans , and this is the first such letter i have seen.

After the war Gottscheers were evicted to Germany and Slovenians that survived the war in German labour camps in Saxony returned home, both groups suffered immensely in the War.

12,1942 - ILOK to 29.bojna Ustaške vojnice (29. Ustasha army battalion) in Srebrenica.

 21.12.1942 parcel card for packet mailed from Ilok to Srebrenica to Petar Rambala a  member of 29.Ustasha battalion stationed there.He is a member of Headquarters company. Parcel content is food sent probably as Christmas gift. Packet was mailed on 21.12 , arrived on Christmas 25.12. and was collected from Post office on 27.12. when it was signed by Rambala himself. Why was porto  charged and why were 2 porto stamps of 1kuna each  canceled on 29.12 is a mystery. Possibly wrong date was inserted in canceller.

2.1918 K.u.K postcard Solin to Čilipi

 04.02.1918 postcard mailed via K.u.K  feldpost  from Kustenabschnittskommando Spalato (today Split ,Croatia) based in Solin near Split to Čilipi a village 22km  south of  Dubrovnik.

10.1943 Kroat.Ausbildungs Brigade to Zemun,NDH - Chemical censorship

 

 27.10.1943 card from Fp.57364F - 3.Ausbildungs Battalion of Kroatische Ausbildungs Brigade in Stockerau to Zemun, Croatia. Chemical censorship lines are visible. Text is usual greetings and reports,  sender notes that he is serving with bicycle unit and writes that other lads from Zemun are training in Neusiedl (am See)  with Fp.56925C -  4.Ausbildungs Battalion of Kroatische Ausbildungs Brigade.

2.1943 Zagreb-Posadna bojna Sarajevo

 09.02.1943 parcel card for package mailed from Zagreb to a Domobran serving with 1.sat, Posadna bojna Sarajevo (1.st company, Garisson battalion Sarajevo). Unit is stationed in Bijela Tabija a fortress in Sarajevo.

4.1917 K.u.K, Peterwardein 70.IR to Zemun

 14.04.1917 feldpost card from K.u.K Peterwardein Inf.Rgt 70 to Zemun, Srijem , Croatia. Text in Croatian language. Sent from 15.company, 70.IR via Fp.632 which served 32.Infantry division stationed in Galicia(Russian front).

7.1944 Fp.30710 - Hafenkommandant Dubrovnik to Reich.

 07.07.1944 letter from Fp.30710B - Hafenkommandant Dubrovnik to Bechhofen in  Bayern, German Reich. Interesting cancel Fp.30710 ,such double circle official(Dienststelle) cancels are rarely seen on feldpost mailed from Croatia. Sender note his location as Ragusa, italian and latin name of Dubrovnik.