Part of The KB41 Collection On This Day Series
The grouping here shows a Feldpost envelope sent on this day 22/12/1943 thus marking its anniversary of 79 years since its posting. The Feldpost is accompanied by items, these are not directly related but accompany the post to give further context and detail to the Feldpost. Such items would have been common items that Soldaten of the Wehrmacht would have been issued, purchased or sent whilst in service. Unfortunately there is no remaining letter with this Feldpost but there is still so much information we can obtain from the envelope alone!
The Feldpost envelope here is clean and neatly written on a textured envelope seen with hand cancel and Feldpost cancel. The information detailed in the crisp handwriting shows the addressee in addition to its location as seen detailed on the lower right hand side of the letter but also seen sectioned off on the right side is the Feldpost information of the sender.
The Feldpost reads in German from left to right:
abs: LH. W. Oesterle, L 45135,
München 2
(Within the circle of the Feldpost hand-cancel seen with Eagle) -
- Diennelle Feldpost Pin- Nr. L 45135 . Briefempl
( 22.12.43 15-16 )
Feldpost!
Fam.
Rudolf Oesterle
Offenburg i/B,
Steinstraße 17
Translated to English it reads as:
abs: LH. W. Oesterle, L 45135,
Munich 2
(Within the circle of the Feldpost hand-cancel seen with Eagle) -
- Diennelle fieldpost pin number. L 45135. post office
( 22/12/43 15-16 )
Field post!
Family
Rudolph Oesterle
Offenburg i/B,
Steinstrasse 17
The Feldpost is addressed to the "Fam" (family) of Rudolf Oesterle who can be seen to reside in Offenburg on Stein street, number 17. Offenburg "Open Borough" is situated in the south-western region of Germany in the Baden-Württemberg . Offenburg is the largest administrative capital and city of the Ortenaukreis. The i/B is in reference to " im Breisgau" the county in which Offenburg is located. The family would receive this Feldpost knowing it is from their relation, likely their Son, by that of Rudolf Oesterle. Rudolf has also clearly underlined "Feldpost" and "Offenburg i/b." These both being vital pieces of Information for the Reichspost to see. Feldpost being underlined as Feldposts were free with sending home and to the front and if miss-understood the family may have to pay postage charges associated to receive the mail. The "Offenburg i/B" being underlined as it is the location and county of his family's residence. Above this the date hand-cancel shows "22/12/1943 - 15.16" This showing the date in which it was cancelled , 22nd December 1943 between the 15th and 16th hours of the day (3-4 o'clock).
The side writing seen sectioned off by a line has the return address and Feldpost number of Rudolf Oesterle to which his family can respond. This information is just as vital as without it the family may not be able to respond. This return address was critical as when units were reformed or in transit the Feldpost numbers or code may change, thus it was vital the correct Feldpost information and details were mentioned so that a return of mail could be received.
The Feldpost information reads as " abs: LH. W. Oesterle, L 45135, - Munich 2". This reads as Absender "L.H. W. Oeserle, L 45135. Munich 2". It is not known what L H W may stand for could suggest Luftwaffe Headquarters with the "W" standing for a rank ? That of "Wachtmeister" also commonly referred to as Feldwebel. This is then followed by the important Feldpost Number "L 45135". The L suggest branch of Service, that of Luftwaffe in this instance with the number telling us the unit to which Rudolf would be attached. Munich 2 also suggesting the region of which the Feldpost is categorised under.
The unit to which Rudolf is attached was 2. Batterie leichte Flak-Abteilung 721 (o). This with known Feldpost records from the period highlight the location and unit to which Rudolf would have been attached to. It is known that from the 1st of November 1943 (Until its change on 1st January 1944) Rudolf would have been located in Karlsruhe, South West Germany with the 20th Flak Brigade (Stab/Flak Regiment 68). Rudolf would likely have been assigned here to defend the region on Flak anti-aircraft guns. With the fall of the Reich it can also be suggested that Rudolf (If he survived) would have been engaged conflict with Western Allies.
The other items seen surrounding the Feldposts are items that are associated with service and that may have belonged to a member of the Wehrmacht or in this case Flak personnel. The wallet seen to the left open with small amount of coins seen bearing dates from 1940-1941 that would have been used to purchase items from within the Reich, this seen in addition to the "Fünf Reichsmark" (5 Reichsmark) a note that was in use from 1940 till the fall of the Reich in 1945. The lack of further money is not only to over-crowd the post with additional notes but Soldaten often spent their money and would request money (As seen in our other Feldpost shared of that of Hans Herbet) so the lack of money seen in this post would reflect the possible lack of money a Soldat may own. In addition to this other items seen attached are that related to smoking, seen here is a Cigarillo box accompanied with a box of matches. Hanseaten Cigarillos being small cigars, likely produced in the Hamburg region of Germany. The small box costing 10 pfennigs. The Welt- Holtzer being a brand of matches also likely to be owned by Soldaten.
This is a crisp example of a Feldpost that has been kept showing the details and information of the 2. Batterie leichte Flak-Abteilung 721 (o) in the later stages of the war. This shows that Feldposts were still being sent even this late into the war, in this instance all be it from with Germany as a country and not its occupied countries. The fall of the Reich being visible at this period left morale low and worry among the Wehrmacht, so messages home and correspondence among families and service men was vital. This is a crisp example a Feldpost and the detail that can be extracted from the Feldpost even without the letter. We will never know what was written as the letter is lost to time but it can be suggested that it was full of re assurance, heartfelt messages and best wishes to his family. Hopefully no bad news and most importantly a seasonal greeting of " Frohe Weihnachten".