Briefverkehr im Deutsch-Dänischen Krieg 1864/65

  • Mojn Nordlicht


    Thanks for your elaborate answer and (again!) providing a wealth of facts and details, which I've not been able to uncover myself - highly appreciated!!


    About the military letter's 6 skilling endorsement.. I'm surprised as well. I haven't explored this area too much, but my general understanding is, that unfranked letters were normally "penalized" with +2 skilling in addition to the normal 4 sk. rate -while Feldpost was free of charge for sender and receiver. If it's not simply an error by someone in the mail-expedition, then I have no good explanation for this...


    Being an SH collector with a passion for numerals, I regard a cover with 230 Høruphav as the "holy grail" (well... contested by a 214 Pellworm cover :) ). I'm a keen admirer of DKKW's excellent thread on numerals (dk-sh numeral collectors are well-equipped with the ArGeSH catalogue + that thread bookmarked!) and long before I became a member of this board, I have been wanting to ask, if someone has a picture of such as 230 cover to upload to the forum. DKKW makes a mention of two of such covers - my guess is, that there are very few, if any, besides those two in existence.


    Cheers
    Ole

  • Mojn


    Checked my sources, and found that a major reason why the sailing route sometimes was changed from Korsør-Sønderborg to Korsør-Høruphav, was that the Prussian artilley at the Gammelmark battery, was able to reach both Sønderborg city and the harbor (appr. 4 km distance). In Høruphav pontoon bridges were setup in the harbour to accommodate the increased traffic of Danish cavalry, artillery, civilian passengers and goods. Supposedly there were at lot of problems with stolen cargo in Høruphav, as people regarded non-guarded cargo at the harbor as "belonging to everyone".


    The attached map gives an impression of the geography and locations of the battery, Sønderborg and Høruphav.


    Cheers
    Ole

  • Moin,


    while Feldpost was free of charge for sender and receiver


    May be I was not precise enough regarding the Danish field post in my last posting. Surprisingly the Danish field post was not free of charge. So your (unfranked) letter was correctly charged with 6 Skilling.


    A piece out of my collection shows the more often usage of a stamp. These stamps were cancelled with numerals from 221 to 225. At that time the field post office was in Sønderborg.
    By the way, the places shown on your map are still worth to be visited. From Gammelmark you can still even see the famous Düppeler Mühle (Dybbøl Mølle) which was a visible target of the Prussian artillery.


    Kind regards,
    nordlicht

  • Mojn


    I re-read your first post and I misunderstood first time. I automatically assumed these letters were free of charge - quite surprising, yes. Thanks for correcting this.


    That is a very attractive and interesting cover that you present. The feldpost numerals on cover are difficult to find these days! Was is transported on the Sønderborg-Korsør route ?


    Cheers
    Ole