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With such a wide ranging topic for display it proved to be a little difficult at times to keep up with what was being showed and to do justice to many items that were displayed. However, most of the items displayed were postcards - leaflets were in the minority. Keith Tranmer started off the proceedings and he included a picture postcard (ppc) of an artists' impression of the sinking of the SMS Zenta by a French Squadron on 16 August 1914; he also showed 1938 ppc's issued during Hitler's occupation of Austria - including philatelic feldpost marks and Winter Relief cards depicting flags of various military units. On a completely different topic he showed a safe conduct pass (leaflet) from the Malayan Emergency. Alistair Kennedy, as was to be expected, showed cards from a variety of different nationalities, countries, campaigns and theatres of war. Included were 19th Century stationery pc from Norway; German navy and army in SW Africa 1900's; large variety of British WW1 Field Service pc's and other pc's for a variety of uses: "Am Coming Home", address cards, next-of-kin cards and hospital re-direction cards; 1939 Children evacuation cards; welfare cards for US Army; 1938 Czechoslovak mobilisation; finally military pc from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Italy, China and Finland. Michael Goodman showed a selection of ppc's of the Czechoslovak Army and Air Force in the UK during the period 1941-45. Peter High showed a ppc of a model of the WW1 New Zealand hospital ship Maheno - the model was used to raise money. HMNZHS Maheno appears to have been the most prolifically photographed vessel of the War ! He also showed a poster of a Japanese hospital ship coming into port - a recently acquired item. Peter Burrows also had a wide variety of items to show. He started off with a pc from the Ladies Patriotic Committee of New Zealand; numerous "Arrived Safely" cards - pictorial from the US and plain from Canada (started in 1916); also some Australian cards. Then there were the "Arrived in England" and "Arrived in East Coast" cards (also 1916) and British cards issued in the Mediterranean (Salonika) (in 1915). For WW2 he included a Canadian League War Services produced ppc of the Welcome Room at Montreal in British Colombia; produced to enable troops to send same home. Jim Hamlin showed ppc's with an anti-communist theme - including from the Spanish Civil War and Vichy France. His main display was a fascinating collection of ppc of the Eastern Front, German ppc's including one commemorating the destruction of the 1,000th Soviet tank. He also showed leaflets that were dropped on the Russian front during WW2. Albert Coles showed some early c.1900 ppc of Australian troops, including the New South Wales Artillery and the Victorian Mounted Rifles; he also showed ppc of HMS Powerful in Australia during 1911. The there was HMAS Sydney after it had sunk the Emden and a variety of ppc's associated with the Australians at the Dardanelles. He then showed ppc of the Australian Base Weymouth together with Daily Mail ppc of Australian Forces. For WW2 he displayed HMS Platypus and maritime mail from HMS Jarvis. Lorraine Maguire collects postcards and so she thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon's displays - she displayed items from WW2 official NZ war artist Captain Peter McIntyre (1910-1995); ppc's from Crete and a variety of WW1 ppc's depicting NZ troops as well as NZ YMCA cards (Macines) and comic ppc's; Light Horse memorial; WW2 Christmas cards and - most unusual - WW1 silk handkerchiefs. Keith Lillywhite included WW2 US leaflets dropped on Germany, German leaflets dropped on the Allies and Italian propaganda cards amongst his display. John Leathes showed a miscellany of ppc's with a naval theme, largely submarines and also a selection of wartime humorous cards. He also displayed a 1940's Russian naval pc together with a couple of anti-German leaflets. He also showed commemorative ppc's thanking the Allies with artist's impressions of Op Manna (RAF) and Op Chowhound (USAAF) - the 1945 air drop of food to the starving civilians in Holland. Peter O'Keeffe displayed a selection of Field Service pc's, acknowledgement cards and Middle East Christmas Greetings cards. |