Haut-Rhin : le détachement d’armée GAEDE

This book is dedicated to the Gaede army detachment ("Armee-Abteilung Gaede"), renamed "Armee-Abteilung B" in 1916. This army detachment includes all German troops, mainly reserves, operating in the Haut-Rhin between the Swiss border and a line Ribeauvillé-Marckolsheim. The franking stamps used by these units are still a poorly known. This collection topic is rarely addressed probably because of the absence of philatelic documentation on the question but also because of the complexity of the German military organization.

This book is a general presentation of the franking stamps and date stamps used by the German army in the sector defended by the Gaede army detachment, without constituting an exhaustive catalog of the postal marks used in this sector. The date stamps of the military post (Feldpost) have been studied in detail for the period before February 15, 1917, when the date stamps were muted and then standardized, making it impossible to differentiate them with certainty.

Some particular military units as well as prisoner of war camps are presented in the last chapter: mountain units, infantry battalions of the Landsturm, workers' battalions ("Armierungsbataillon")}, construction, exploitation and railroad protection units.

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