Description

1917 picture post card (Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem) to Hungary cancelled by a Feldpost A.O.K.4 30.4.17. datestamp. This canceller was used by the 4th Army Command which at that time was in Beersheba and Gaza. The writer was one of the soldiers from the German forces sent there to assist the Turkish forces in attempting to capture Suez in 1916. They comprised mainly artillery and heavy machine gun companies and included the Flying Corps Unit 300. They were placed under the command of Kress von Kressenstein, along with the 3rd Turkish Infantry Division, and formed the 1st Expeditionskorps. After the Battle of Rafa in January 1917, which cleared the German and Turkish forces from Sanai, the British Forces advanced to Gaza and defeated the Germans and Turks at the First Battle of Gaza in March 1917 and the 2nd Battle of Gaza on 17 to 19 April 1917. This card must have been written in the “stand off” period between April and October when the two forces faced each other along the Gaza to Beersheba line

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