Any WWI buffs out there?

[Alex Franke]

Some of you expressed interest the letters I've been working on, so I thought I'd post about this parallel project as well.

I recently started scanning, uploading, transcribing, and translating a collection of about 350 postcards of the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) sent mostly from my grandfather (an officer in that navy) to my grandmother (whom he was courting at the time).

The dates the cards were written range from around 1914 to 1917, and cover a number of personal and military topics. The photos on the postcards cover the navy and its ships, years raging from about the mid 1850's to the 1910's.

I'm slowly working my way through them as time permits. The first set (with a link that shows all of them) is here:

http://www.thefrankes.com/wp/?p=211

Let me know if they interest you!

[Ed62]

That's really interesting. I didn't have as much time as I would like to spend looking through all that, but I'll be back. Thanks for posting.

My father was in WWI (serving for the U.S.), and it's always interesting to see stuff like that. No doubt he had relatives serving for Germany, although I don't know about any of them.

Ed

[herb fellows]

I had a neighbor who passed away about 15 years ago who used to regale us with stories about 'Kaiser Bill'!

[Richard in Smithville]

That's amazing Alex. My dad served in WWII and I have some stuff that he had kept. We never want to forget what the world went through in these great conflicts.

[Alex Franke]

Thanks, guys. I planning to eventually make these cards sortable and searchable online. There seem to be many that just like the pictures of the ships, and others who like the content of the cards.

I'm finding all of these stories very fascinating!

[Alex Franke]

I'm up to 144 cards scanned (in 18 sets), 112 of which have been transcribed and translated (in the comments of each post). I also created an index page that lists all the sets and their contents.

WWI German Navy Postcard Collection

[Hoover]

My grandfather served in the 42d aka rainbow division. He saw action in Meuse-Argonne, Chateau Theirry and Belleau Wood. He was wounded once, and gassed twice. He refused to talk about his service, saying that reliving **** was not what cared to share with anyone.

[knotley]

I spent a week in the Somme in July.

Toured an area about 20 km in diameter for the week. Over 500,000 dead. About every 4th burial plot was "Known unto God".

My grandfather survived the Somme battle - 801 men of his regiment at 7:30 am, July 1. Less than 80 the next day for role call.

WW1 truly was the war to end all wars.