WW I era Military Christmas & Other Holiday Cards

[world war I nerd]

An interesting Christmas Card printed by the 29th Engineers for the G-2 (Intelligence) section of AEF, General Headquarters in France.

 

Front of card.

[world war I nerd]

Back of the above GHQ Christmas card.

[world war I nerd]

Last entry for this year's lot of AEF Christmas cards, which, by the way, begins back on post no. 92.

 

Not really a card at all ... It's the official mailing coupon which was needed by family and friends at home who wished to send a 1918 Christmas parcel to their loved one serving overseas in France. Without this coupon, no Christmas package could be mailed. The size of the 1918 Christmas packages was also strictly limited.

 

This all came about as a result of the unexpected amount of Christmas mail, i.e. packages, that overwhelmed both the American postal service, as well as the AEF's overseas postal service. During the Christmas of 1917. The tons and tons of packages destined for the men and boys serving in the AEF took up so much space on the limited number of cargo ships available at the time, they delayed huge amounts of critically needed military supplies from reaching France. In addition, the family's of many soldiers sent numerous packages, many of them large, containing unnecessary items such as fur coats, bed sheets and gramophones, to name but a few. The result being that the amounts of important military supplies such as replacement shoes and winter underwear shipped overseas fell far less than what was urgently needed.

 

Thus in 1918, each soldier was allowed only one package that could be no heavier than 3 pounds and not larger than 9 X 4 X 3 inches in size. Needless to say, numerous letters were written by the Doughboys telling their family precisely what to pack, and what not to pack in their diminutive Christmas boxes.

[mikie]

That's the spirit! The Christmas spirit! Merry Christmas to you!