First Battle of the Marne – Vassincourt

Of all the postcards I inherited from my grandfather, the ones I find the most fascinating are the ones depicting locations from World War One. We are surrounded by so many images nowadays that we forget it was not always the case. Those postcards most likely served a very important illustrative purpose. I’m not sure newspapers even had pictures at the time.

This one depicts the church of the small village of Vassincourt, in the Meuse department, and it shows the damage the building sustained during the First Battle of the Marne.

Vassincourt is a tiny village of less than 500 inhabitants nowadays, and I had never heard of it before seeing this card.

Here is a picture of what the church looks like nowadays:

(source: Wikimedia)

 

The card was written by “G. Billa,” one of my grandfather’s cousins. I don’t know anything  about him apart from the fact that he was drafted (and he seems to have survived the war – he’s not in the database of soldiers who died then.)

The text says nothing special:

 

May 26th, 1915

My dear Adrien,
You tell me that the views I send you give you great pleasure. Whenever I think I can, I will send you some.
Your cousin
G Billa

 

I think I have a few more cards written by him, but not that many.

Stay tuned for more.