Ohrdruf military training area, sent as field post in 1916 – cards of garrisons and training areas are a collecting field of their own

Field post card via the rear-area post office (Etappenpost) 244 to Vienna, with a disinfection note

Field post cover 1916 with the postmark of the field post office of the 15th Infantry Division, addressed to the Post-Rechnungs-Amt in Berlin

What is field post?

Field post is the mail between soldiers and their families at home. In both world wars ordinary letters and cards up to a certain weight were free of postage – instead of a stamp they bear the endorsement “Feldpost” and the field post postmarks.

For collectors, field post is part of postal history: postmarks, routes and endorsements tell where and when an item travelled. In addition there are field post picture postcards with views of garrisons, military hospitals and occupied areas.

Field post in the First World War

• Field post offices (Feldpostexpeditionen and Feldpoststationen) of divisions and corps – their postmarks name the unit or the station.
• Unit cachets (Briefstempel) confirm the sender and replace the stamp.
• Rear-area post, naval ship post and military hospital mail – often scarcer than ordinary field post.
• Pre-printed field post cards and field post picture postcards in great variety.
• Prisoner-of-war mail – items to and from prisoners, often via aid committees or the Red Cross.

Field post in the Second World War

Instead of the unit designation the items bear a field post number, and the postmarks give no place name. There were special admission stamps for air field post letters and parcels, and many items show traces of censorship by field post inspection offices. On covers from 1933–1945, historical symbols of that period are made unrecognisable in the images in our shop.

What collectors look for

Selling field post

We buy field post as part of postal history – single items as well as collections and bundles of family letters. We do not buy medals, badges or other militaria.