Month: December 2024

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France 1987, implying Marshal Leclerc liberated France with his American tanks and Sengalese Askari troops

In 1940, France was conquered by Germany in a few months despite having a larger Army and hosting a large British force. Quite embarrassing and partly a result of being only ready to return to World War I trenches not a battle of maneuver. France did have a tank general, recently promoted, with a fake name and too much money in his pocket. Why not talk up his tiny role in liberation. Is that better than just forgetting? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

American troops had done the bulk of the work liberating France. They tended to stop before major cities already abandoned by the Germans to allow the Free French forces march in first. This was also done out of nervousness as to reception. So this stamp shows the Liberation of Strasbourg in November 1944. Leclerc may not really have been really his name but he definitely looked the part of a Marshal of France. The tank on the stamp is an American Sherman, but you can’t expect the average stamp user to know tank models. Notice the troops commanded by Leclerc are not shown, if they were French???

Todays stamp is issue A1101, a 2.2 Franc stamp issued by France on November 28th, 1987. It was a single stamp honoring Marshal of France Leclerc on the 40th anniversary of his death in an American airplane gifted to France. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Philippe de Hautclocque was a junior officer in the French Army during the fall of France. He was briefly taken prisoner as he tried to run away disguised as a civilian refugee. The Germans found his French Army pay stub in his pocket. Upon Armistice, French soldiers were allowed to return home to their families. His wife had gone to southern France where she had family. She had obtained an identity card under the alias Leclerc thinking that would make life easier for him. He decided to apply for a visa to Spain and leave his family behind and make his way to Free French Forces in Britain. He got his visa but took several tries to get over the border as he was carrying far too much cash. Once in Spain, he presented himself to the British Embassy and they arraigned his travel to Britain. He decided to continue to use the name Leclerc and General de Gaulle promoted him and assigned him to armor.

The Free French forces recruited Askari troops from their African colonies, mainly Senegal and outfitted them with equipment given by America. His tank force, which he called the Leclerc division, guarded the flank of British forces in North Africa and Italy. It deployed to France well after D Day in 1944. His force did win one fight with the Germans when his division came upon an understrength brigade of Panther tanks. He complained that the Panther tank that the Germans had built for themselves was better than the Sherman tanks that had been gifted France by the USA. America’s surprise that Leclerc had not been beaten by force one quarter Leclerc’s size was greater than their disdain for his insolence and American General Patton award the Silver Star medal to now General Leclerc. He marched into Strasbourg unopposed.

Strasbourg was held by Leclerc’s Senegalese troops and an American all black division. Strasbourg was important to Germany as many residents were of German heritage. A counterattack was launched from Colmar that was one of Germanys last. Eisenhower considered abandoning Strasbourg but realized it would be bad PR while the Battle of the Bulge was also raging further north. He instead moved in many more American soldiers but put them under French command to make it appear the French were holding their ground, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/06/11/wurttemberg-1945-an-ex-vichy-general-goes-from-jail-to-commanding-americans-in-their-zone-of-germany/ . Strasbourg did not refall to the Germans but the battle went on into February 1945, long after most German troops were out of France.

After the European war ended, Leclerc, he had legally changed his name by now, lead a 25,000 troop expedition whose mission was to reclaim French Indochina from the Japanese, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/09/vichy-fights-on-for-empire-in-indochina/  . Before his troops arrived off Vietnam, he struck a deal with Ho Chi Minh that Vietnam would be independant but a part of the French communitity and his troops would be welcome for five years to provide security. This meant his army would not have to fight but France would not be getting back Indo China. French were outraged, Leclerc was fired and the deal was not ratified. It should have been of course.

Leclerc was next assigned to Algeria where he died in the crash of an American B-25 bomber in French service. Posthumously Leclerc was made a Marshal of France. The current French tank, the Leclerc is named for him. The previous French tank, the AMX 30 was an updated copy of the German Panther tank that Leclerc had so many problems with.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Leclerc not so much for his war service but rather for what he nearly pulled off in Vietnam. Imagine all the misery avoided if he had been listened to. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

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South Korea 1957, Japanese poisoning the last Emperor leaves you with Syngman Rhee

Korea had been occupied by Japan for 40 years when they were defeated. So who could run Korea? The last Emperor was poisoned in 1920. Well luckily a pro western “provisional government” had been set up in China and received much funding to play lets pretend. After the USA occupied Southern Korea back comes no longer Provisional but appointed President Syngman Rhee, a man who had only been away a few decades. If you smell a fish, for gosh sake don’t join the Bobo league. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The printing on this stamp might lead you to believe this stamp was North Korean instead of South Korea. The fact was in the 1950s there was not much difference between the two in terms of economic development. This stamp might imply South Korea liked their tigers, but perhaps not enough. In 1900 you could have found Siberian tigers in Korea. By 1990, both Koreas had lost them though Siberian tigers still exist across the North’s border with Russia.

Todays stamp is issue A121, a 30 Hwan stamp issued by South Korea in 1957. This was from the final redrawing of an issue that had been around since 1953 but had to reflect the hyper inflation of the period. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

Japan began formally administering Korea in 1905. The Emperor was forced to abandon his Throne in 1910. He was poisoned in 1920. After which there was a large uprising against the Japanese. The Japanese brutally put down the uprising and sent the leaders that survived into exile in China, Some of those folks gathered in Shanghai under Syngman Rhee and began putting forth that the rebellion was not inspired by the murder of the Emperor but instead that they were inspired by a speech given in English  by former USA President Wilson laying out points of peoples movement toward independence and democracy. Syngman Rhee had been a Christian Missionary and worked with the YMCA. Obviously the fish is begining to smell but the USA and the KMT in China began supporting this Korean “Provisional Government”.

During World War II it was decided that Korea was one of the occupied nations needing liberation from the Axis, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/01/09/usa-1943-korea-is-listed-as-a-country-to-be-liberated/  . Syngman Rhee, remember this is nearly a quarter century after the rebellion of 1920 came out of a retirement in Hawaii to go to Washington to be a part of liberation. After Japan’s surrender in 1945, Americans landed unopposed at Inchon and the Russians crossed into the North. The division was only to be tempoary although the Soviet Army left after a communist regime was set up in the North. The American occupation of the south continued and Syngman Rhee was made President in 1948. He was 73. The north refused Korea wide elections and the UN endorsed Rhee’s regime as the legitimate government of all Korea.

Rhee was an outsider to Korea so not all were ready to support him. Much of the development had been owned by Japanese and while such things were quickly nationalized in the North, in the South there was less change. Rhee began to label all opposition to him as communist spys from the North. Several hundred thousand suspected trouble makers were rounded up and sent to a series of reeducation camps known as the Bobo League. When the North invaded the South in 1950 prisoners at the camps were liquidated before South Koreans withdrew south.

After the end of the war the camps did not reopen but resistance still grew. The constitution was reinterpreted to allow Rhee to seek reelection. His last reelection effort in 1960 at age 85 was helped immensely by his opponent having died before election day. Protest got large and the USA sent a plane to get Rhee safely out of the country. On the flight out,  Rhee’s Austrian wife went to the cockpit and gave the American pilot a large diamond. Rhee’s first wife had been Korean but remember  he had spent so many years abroad and his second wife had been an interpreter at the League of Nations. Rhee had spent much time there with his hand out, excuse me, making his case for the Korean people. Rhee died in 1965 and afterward his body was returned to Korea. After Rhee’s death his wife Franziska moved to Austria for a few years but from 1970 was able to return to Korea and live in the old family home with her adopted son and his family.

From the exile years, Syngman Rhee and his soon to be wife Franziska

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering how these folks come of out of nowhere to fill the void in an ex colony. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

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Sweden 1872, new King, new gold backed money, industrialization and sending off the spare sons

Sweden fought it’s last war over 200 years ago. That in itself might have guaranteed fast development. Fast development means much change and dislocations. Some of those changes still show their effects. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This bulk postage, (if only it was unused) puts the numeric value front and center. Sweden had just followed Germany’s lead and moved to a gold instead of a silver backed currency. They had also entered a monetary union with old rival Denmark. Remember at the time Sweden controlled Norway, and Denmark controlled Iceland, so if not for those pesky Russians in Finland, Scandinavia was coming together and taking off.

Todays stamp is issue A5 a 12 Ore stamp issued by the Kingdom of Sweden in 1872. It was a 32 stamp issue that came out over several years and had to take into account the currency change. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1 used. Sometimes old bulk postage issues are worth much more unused and that is the case here. The unused value of this stamp rises to $225. An imperforate pair of them rises to $1,000.

Agriculture was changing rapidly in 19th century Sweden. There was a move from village based large communal farms under rich often absentee landowners to smaller much more productive personally owned farms. You can guess this lead to what to do with excess sons. Farms tend to want to get bigger not be subdivided between heirs. So what to do with the excess boys. Well even with a pacifist foreign policy, there was still military conscription offering that traditional relief valve. There was also fairly rapid industrialization in the growing cities. What perhaps changed  Sweden the most was sending over a million immigrants to North America. At the time the population of Sweden was under 5 million.

In the short run sending them off made sense. Some returned having made a fortune. The ones that stayed had less competition and more was being done for them. Schooling became much more complete and began taking on a more physical component to retain fitness absent farm work. Mandatory gymnastics that resembled Asian martial arts were added for both boys and girls. Far more skiing that at the time took on a military flavor became common.

At first there was political change but in the 19th century it was mostly finessed. Up until the 1870s there was no Prime Minister and the legislature was a single house comprising wealthy landowners. New King Oscar II slowly allowed a few changes. The new Prime Minister was just the old Foreign Minister and there would now be a new bicameral legislature. The old order mostly survived though and why not, things were working.

One thing that might not have worked so well was letting all those young men go abroad to make their lives away. More education and living in cities leads to later and smaller families. Now Sweden finds itself short of people and as opened itself up to much immigration. The population is still only 10 million with a quarter of those being of immigrant heritage. One third of children have at least one foreign born parent. With the change lead to the new Somalis and Syrians learning to love gymnastics and skiing or will Sweden have to change to accommodate to what the new folks love?

Well my drink is empty and I may have another while I brood over my copy of todays stamp being used. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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West Germany 1970, showing off a little of Munich in the excitement leading up to the 1972 Olympics

When Bavaria was a separate German Kingdom, much work was done transforming Munich into an important cultural center. This legacy meant there was still a lot to show off when it was Germany’s time again to shine at the Olympics. We know the 1972 Olympics didn’t come off the way West Germany hoped, but this stamp lets us go back to the runup when people were excited that it might. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This semi postal issue, the surcharge went to Olympic promotion, shows off some of the architecture of Munich. In this case the Residenz Palace. This housed the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach when in Munich. The castle was started in 1385 as a sanction against the City of Munich after an uprising against King Stephen III. The castle was much expanded over the years and is today the largest urban palace in Germany. The facade shown on the stamp is the Konigsbau, which was added by King Ludwig I in 1835. The Wittelsbachs are of course no longer in residence. I did a stamp of the last Bavarian Kings here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/11/14/bavaria-1900-with-king-otto-too-crazy-to-rule-the-prince-regent-peacefully-eases-into-germany/     . As a result when war damage was repaired, it was done in a much simpler style. The current Wittelsbach pretenders still reside in the separate Nymphenburg  Palace, which sounds like a fun place to live, but not for locked up Otto.

Todays stamp is issue SP299, a 10 +5 Pfennig stamp issued by West Germany on June 5th, 1970. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

Munich was awarded the 1972 Olympic Summer Games over bids from Madrid, Montreal, and Detroit. The slogan for the Olympics was the “Cheerful Games”. They went all out on new Olympic venues and the female hostesses dressed in traditional Beer Garden atire. For the first time there was an official mascot for an Olympics, a dachshund plushtoy named Waldi. The course of the marathon was laid out in the shape of a dachshund. Is it just me or does all of this sound a little out of Germany’s comfort zone. Well maybe Bavaria is a little different.

Waldi and pretty girl from Munich

God did not grant Germany a cheerful Olympics. Israeli athletes were attacked and held during the second week of the games by Palestinians. There was a shoot out eventually at a military airport and 11 athletes, a German police Sargant, and all but three of the attackers were killed. Germany perhaps compounded their black eye by trading the facing trial attackers for hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615. Israel over the next years hunted down and killed two of the Palestinian attackers in operations that very much resembled Nazi Hunters from the decade before.

The Olympics were not a success. They had also cost three times what Mexico spent on the 1968 games. Waldi took a little bit of a hit to his reputation. The dachshund was supposed to represent resistance, tenacity, and agility. These are good things for an athlete. There were however now unofficial posters of Waldi using the Olympic Tower as a fire hydrant.

Well my drink is empty and and I will pour another to toast Waldi. Sure the Olympics didn’t work, but Germany was asking an awful lot from one of it’s plush toys. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.