issued Nov.12th,1981 in commemoration of the 150th death- anniversary of von Clausewitz. As an ensign he had his first combat service at the age of 13. Later he studied at military academies with brilliant results. As captain,aged 26,he took part in the battle of Jena and Auer- stedt,what ended in total defeat for Prussia.He became a french prisoner of war,for one year. In 1812,when Prussia was coerced into an alliance with Napoleon against Russia,Clausewitz resigned from the prussian army and joined the russian army.After Napoleons defeat he rejoined the prussian army as a colonel and took part in the battle of Waterloo. He was mistrusted by the arch-conservative government,but the reformist military leaders were on his side. He became the head of the central general-staff-academy,but was not allowed to teach.In 1818 he was promoted to the rank of a general-major,making him the youngest general in Prussia. In 1831 he took the command of the prussian observation forces in Poland,after his mentor and the great reformer of the prussian army von Gneisenau died from Cholera.But not for long,because he also caught the cholera and died after a short time.(Although possibly from accompanied complications.) Clausewitz,knighted in 1827,came from a typical prussian officers-family.His father fought in the "Seven-Years-War" and his two elder brothers also became prussian generals. But he not famous for his war-record,but as military theorist, teacher and the most eminent military philosopher.
issued Aug.1st,1937 Admiral (Marquis) Heihachiro Togo (1847-1934) As commander in chief of the Japanese Navy,he played a major part in the Sino-Russian-War.In the battle of Tsushima on May 27/28th,1905,he directly commanded the victorious Japanese Fleet.The battle ended with a total defeat of the Russian Baltic Fleet.Russia´s defeat in this war,was the first time in modern history,that a european country was defeated by a non-european nation.Imperial Russia never recovered from this loss. The russian defeat sparked wide-spread revolts in the russian navy. Sergeij Eisenstein famous film "Armoured Cruiser Patjomkin" was inspired by this mutiny.
Self adhesive Montimbramoi stamps from France issued on the 75th anniversary of Charles de Gaulle,s rallying call to the French people in June 1940.
Bob: I'm not sure I understand this issue. Are they miniature sheetlets with a postage stamp on the right. Does the stamp on the right peel off, or is the whole sheetlet the postage. They don't look French to me, although, I don't see many contemporary French stamps. Don
Don.......I believe they are sold as a Collectors booklet of ten . The stamp as you say is on the right and peels off.They are valid for use in France for letters up to 20g in weight. The words France and La Poste are printed on the right hand side of each stamp. A lot of these personalized stamps depict people or events which are not commemorated with normal issues. Bob
Thanks, Bob. You always have some interesting stuff to show. It might prove challenging to collect each of these on cover with non-philatelic usage. Don
I do not like personalized stamps and am quite happy,that the major-catalogues do list the basic stamps only and not different illustrations. I wonder at what price the de Gaulle lables were sold.I guess not at face,but with a handsome surtaxe. I admire the general,but not for the part he played in WW II. The Resistance had not much impact onto the (german) occupation- forces,but caused a needles death to many,many people,who otherwise could have survived the war relatively unharmed. I think the cooperative policy of the Maréchal Pétaint was the best possible at the time. But after the war de Gaulle was wise to help linking France and Germany together in the wider frame of a united European Union. stamp issued Jan.14th,1988 This and of course getting out of Algeria and the colonies in Africa makes him a really great man.
issued May 10th,1937 Maresuke Nogi (1849-1912) was an army general.He led the japanese siege and conquest of Port Arthur in the Russio-Japanese War of 1905,setting the seal on Russia´s defeat. However with the loss of 58.000 death,nearly double the Russian losses, - his two sons died in the battle -,he felt guilty to have diminished the abilty of the emperor and Japan for further warfare.He asked the Meiji-Emperor to give his consent to commit suicide.However Mutsuhito denied permission. When in 1912 the emperor died,Nogi was no longer bound to his order. He and his wife committed seppuku.
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (1847-1934) was a Prussian-German general,who retired due to his age of 64 in 1911. When the war broke out in 1914,he was reactivated,but could not get a command.When the Russians invaded Eastern-Prussia and looked like marching on to Berlin,Hindenburg got the commandof the definding armies.On the fourth day of his appointment,he started a counter-attak,what resulted in a comprehensive defeat of the Russian Army.(Battle of Tannenberg) Soon after that,he became the commander in chief on the eastern front. In December 1916,when the war seemed to go nowhere in the West, Hindenburg became chief of the General Staff.His second in command, Ludendorff,was the "maker",but Hindenburg was the "leader". De facto Hindenburg and Ludendorff ruled Germany from then on, nearly in a dictatorial way,till the end of the war.The emperor and the government were sidelined and it was Hindenburg,who demanded and insisted on ending the war in 1918.He advised the emperor to go into exile in Holland and gave over the power to the new republic. He remained in his military position till the end of state of emergency in June 1919. Out of retirement again,he was elected as Reichspräsident in 1925. He was and still is the only head of state of Germany ever,who was elected directly by the German people.He remained as president till his death in 1934. Shown stamps: top left: 50 (+50) pfg.,issued Sept.26th,1927,commemorating his 80th birthday. (from a set of 4) top right: definitive,issued Sept.1,1928 (from a set of 19,showing Hindenburg and his predecessor F.Ebert) lower left: "Hindenburg in Medaillion" definitives,three sets,issued 1932/1936 lower right: Hindenburg death-commemoration-issue, issued Sept.4th,1934 (from a set of 6)
Hi, here are two "personal" stamps I picked up during a tour of the French WWl battlefields 2 years ago. Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929) was a key French military commander during World War I. He joined the infantry during the Franco-Prussian War, eventually becoming head of the war college. Named commander of the XX Army Corps at the outbreak of World War I, Foch helped secure victory at the First Battle of the Marne. Australian General Sir John Monash (1865-1931) won several major battles and is much venerated by the French especially for saving villages from the enemy's advances. There are also two Australian stamps featuring the hero Monash, as well as a University named after him. He was knighted by the King while in France - a battlefield honour.
Ferdinand von Schill 1776-1809 was a prussian cavallerie-officer. He led a "Frei-Chorp",a semi-official unit of volunteers fighting against the french troops in the Napoleonic Wars.After Prussia´s defeat and the coerced peace treaty in 1807,he fought on in a kind of guerilla-war. The king of Prussia tolerated his actions,but had to appease the French as well. von Schill was a firebrand,who overestimated quite often his own abilities and those of his forces.When in 1809 Austria tried to end the french occupation,von Schill started the same in Prussia. When Austria had to surrender,Prussia tried to stop his actions. Napoleon´s brother,Jerome,King of Westphalia,put a bounty of 10.000 francs on his head. In autumn 1809 von Schill did conquer Stralsund.However when the French counter-attacked with more than 6000 soldiers,his troops were outnumbered by far and were defeated.Some of his soldiers could escape,about 600 became prisoners of war.Out of them about dozen were excecuted,by drawing lots.Later most of his officers were also excecuted. von Schill was shot dead,when trying to escape,after his defeat. His head was severed and sent to Jerome.His body was buried without the head,what was given back and buried in a different place many years later.
Issued Oct.27th,1960,commemorating the 200th birth-anniversary of August Wilhelm Anton Graf Neidhardt von Gneisenau. As a young student,after he had squandered his grandfather´s inheritance,he joined the army.First that of Austria,but soon that of Brandenburg-Ansbach. He was sent to America to fight in the War of Independence. But when he arrived in 1782,the war was almost over and he saw no action. Back in Germany he joined the prussian army and with some protection of the Great King (Friederich II.) he began to rise through the ranks. He took part in the Napoleonic Wars,rising to the rank of a general. Closely associated to the military reformer Scharnhorst and the commander of the prussian army Marshal Blücher,he advocated the establishment of a People´s Army.This included a guerilla-like warfare aigainst the french occupation. However King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and the conservatives mistrusted Gneisenau.The considered him being a "Jakobin",or revolutionary.Gneisenau,as chief of staff had abolished the rule, that officers had to come from the nobility. After the defeat of Napoleon,Gneisenau was sidelined,but was never- the-less promoted to the rank of a Fieldmarshal. But against all resistance of the conservatives and the king,reforms of the army were introduced,so that the prussian army became the most powerfull army of the 19th century. In 1830 Gneisenau went to the eastern provinces,to help Russia to quell an uprise of Poles in Russian Poland. He caught the Cholera and died from it in Posen (Poznan) in 1831.
