15.11.1943 official letter from Headquartes of Ustasa army in Zagreb to Court Table in Osijek. Such covers from HQ of Ustasha army are rare. This one was probably delivered by courier as it has no signs of postal manipulation.
Cancel is interesting Ministarstvo oružanih snaga(MINORS) is Ministry of Armed forces.Stožer Ustaške vojnice is Headquarters of Ustasa army.
21.11.1944 Feldpost letter sent from Croatian Airforce Legion stationed in Posen Großdeutsches Reich( today Poznan in Poland) to Zagreb Croatia. Letter was mailed via Fp.54972 - 'Stab kroatische Luftwaffen Legion' , cancel is on the front of the cover. Sender notes his Fp.number on the backside as Fp.55893 - '1.Staffel Kroatische Kampfgruppe 1'.
From 01.11.1944 Croatian Airforce legion ceased its flights due to defection of two pilots to the Soviets from their base in Labiau, East Prussia. One of the defectors was Mato Dukovac, legions leader and top scoring Croatian Ace with 44 kills. The Legion was transfered deeper into East Prussia then to Poznan, Poland. The Unit was stationed first in Poznan city then near it in Środa and lastly it moved to Miloslaw where it was stationed during Christmas time. Air force legion was transformed into infantry and men were used as replacements for German troops. They were reatreating with Germans and lastly some of them saw fighting in Frankfurt on Oder. Groups of men made it seperately back to Croatia in the spring of 1945.
1918. printed card with text " i'm well and healthy" sent from 4th battery 36.schwere(Feld) Artillerie regiment. Mailed from Fp.634 which served Croatian 36.Infantry division to Varaždin, Croatia. At the end of the war 36.schwere Feld Artillerie regiment returned to its base in Varaždin.
20.08.1944 letter with content from Fp.M53183 - 11. Sicherungs-Flottillen-Kommand to Zagreb, Croatia. Croatian navy personel was training with German Navy 11.Sicherungs Flottillen in Italian northern Adriatic near Ligano. This Feldwebel writes that he was sick with malaria and that Italian mosquitos are horrible. He writes that thay are in training, sailing every day and they see "Tommies" regularly but fortunately there was no firefights. He thinks their training will be over in one month and they hope to return to Croatian Adriatic. German censorship mark Ag , Vienna censors office.
SMS ADRIA
Ship was launched in 1873 as " Radetzky". In 1897 it become Gunnery training ship . It was renamed ADRIA in 1908 when new battleship that was being built was named Radetzky. From October 1915 it was used as hulk to accomodate German naval personnel.
3.1915 card from Sms Adria to Travnik in Bosnia with uniqe rare cancel Zensuriert/Sms Adria/date/Marine-feldpost. Cancel of this type was used only on Sms Adria, it is rarly seen on cards. Text is Easter card, written in Croatian.
10.07.1943 damaged envelope of an letter mailed from 2nd Croatian Legion that was training in Riva del Garda to Split Croatia, at the time named Spalato in Italian occupied Dalmatia . Nice croatian cancel II.Hrvatska legija in purple. Italian civilian cancel Riva and censorship marks are present.
1944(?) letter from Fp.00691 Regimentsstab "Polizei Freiwilligen Regiment Kroatien" (Rgt.3) to Znaim in the Großdeutschland Reich today Znojmo a town in the South Moravia, Czech Republic. There in no clear date on the envelope but SS Feldpost is written on it thus the letter was surely sent from "Polizei Freiwilligen Regiment Kroatien" , it was part of SS German-Croatian police that marked its mail as SS Feldpost.
Regimentsstab Polizei-Regiment Kroatien used Fp.32555 from 1943 , I think but I can't prove it that Fp.00691 was used by Polizei Freiwilligen Regiment 3. (Kroatien)
Small collection of 4 letters mailed from GbAR 13 Haubitz division/abteilung (croatian: 13.gorsko-topnička pukovnija ,english: 13 mountain artillerie regiment) to Croatia.
Letters mailed :
10.09.1916 Fp.85 - 7.Gebirgsbrigade to Šemovci near Virje
29.01.1917 Fp.382(Fp.85) - 22.Gebirgsbrigade(7.Gebirgsbrigade) to Požega
02.02.1917 Fp.636 - 7.Gebirgsbrigade to Požega
06.01.1918 Fp.473 - Quartiermeister.abteilung 6.Armee to Zagreb
Mail from GbAR 13 is scarce , very interesting are letters from 1917 mailed just a few days apart but units Fp. number changed. Units often changed its Fp.numbers making it hard to make exact lists of Fp. Numbers that each K.u.K unit used. At the end of the war GbAR 13 returned to Ogulin where it was disbanded.
09.02.1943 card mailed from German unit via German feldpost to a Domobran in Zagreb, text in Croatian, censored by OKW censorship. Unfortunately german units Fp. number in cancel is unreadable, but as croatian card was used sender was most probably in Croatia. Such usage of Croatian civilian cards in German Feldpost is very very rare.
Ships fate is very interesting. SMB 81-T was given to Romania after WW1 and renamed SBORUL. It served with Romanians until it was captured by Soviets in 1944 and then used by the Soviet navy against Romanians under name MUSSON. Ship was returned to Romania on 22 September 1945 and continued to serve under name SBORUL until 1958 when she was scrapped.
29.09.1943 Feldpost card from Erg.und.ers Abteilung der Kroatische Flaklegion in Wiener-Neustadt to Fp59706(Feldkommandatur 1019, Macerata, Italy). Beautiful unit cancel. Text in German language probably from an instructor in the Flaklegion to his brother. All mail from flak legion is extremly rare.
One reader of this blog mr.Branimir Pešut left a note on my first post about Croatian flak legion. English translation follows below Croatian text:
" Školovanje dijela vojnika za Hrvatsku FLAK legiju bilo je u Wiener Neustadtu. Tamo je bio moj otac 1943....Poslije su ih poslali u Oldenburg, Kirchellen... zarobljen kod Hamburga od strane 8. britanske armije 1945."
"Some soldiers of the Croatian FLAK legion were trained in Wiener Neustadt. My father was there in 1943... Later they were sent to Oldenburg, Kirchellen... he was captured near Hamburg by members of 8th.British Army in 1945."
THIS FELDPOST CARD ONLY CONFIRMS WHAT MR.PEŠUT WROTE.
20.12.1915 Feldpost card from SMS Arpad to Zagreb , text in Croatian.
Arpad was Habsburg class battleship with crew of 630 men. It took part in bombardment of Ancona on 23.05.1915 after Italy entered war and later in 1917 took short part in bombardment on Italian battlefield, but most of the war was stationed in Pula(Pola) naval base. MFP Pola cancel and Arpad Dienststemple.
9.1944 registered official feldpost letter from Fp.16296A, Stab Pionier-Bataillon 392 (Kroat.) Inf.division to BERLIN. Kenn number 771 in Feldpost cancel and on R-sticker.
Registered mail from 392. Croatian Infantry division is very rare.
