ITD 3

The main topic of this post is an interesting field correspondence card. With this capital letter, the addressee is notified that the postal control number of the unit of the beloved son, husband is changing. Letters must be sent “Ab heute”, i.e. immediately, to field mailbox 403.

It should be known that there were many district field post offices on the extensive front lines. Each had its own number. We know about a total of 650 such serial numbers, but there were also other post offices, mainly in larger administrative centers. The postal service also followed the fighting soldiers, so they did not use the civilian postal service, but the post offices that moved with the front. The mailboxes were therefore usually assigned to larger troop units, and to front sections. Therefore, if one or another unit was transferred to another front section, the mailbox responsible for correspondence changed, and thus the postal code written on the letters also changed.

We see the field postcard of the Third Infantry Division with the pre-printed notification. The card was sent on September 20, 1916, from the old post office no. 64. It is known that the 3rd division was then transferred from the South Tyrolean front (the command was in Trent) to the area around Sebastiano. Based on available information, PO Box 403 operated from October 1916 to July 1918 and was set up specifically for the troops of the 3rd Division.

Next to the interesting card, I am attaching the division’s beautiful Kappenabzeichen. At the center of this is the alpine flower, as the unit was called the “snow weed division”.