The Postcard
A postcard that was published by C. & H. Gurnsey of Paddington, London W. The card was printed in Holland.
The card was posted in Ramsgate using a ½d. stamp on the 18th. August 1917. It was sent to:
Miss E. Pullen,
90, Walmer Road,
Notting Hill,
London.
The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear E,
Had a grand time here
and leaving tonight.
With kind regards,
D."
A Huge Fire in Thessaloniki
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 18th. August 1917, a massive fire destroyed a third of Thessaloniki, Greece, leaving 70,000 people homeless.
For more information on the fire and what caused it, please search for the tag 77SAL63
The Battle of Langemarck
The German Fourth Army was able to hold the lines against the Allied attack, but suffered 24,000 casualties, including 2,100 troops taken prisoner, along with 30 guns and another 5,000 troops missing. The British and French armies suffered 36,190 casualties.
An unusually large amount of rain in August, poor drainage and lack of evaporation turned the ground into a morass. This was worse for the British and French, who occupied lower-lying ground and who had to attack areas which had been frequently and heavily bombarded.
Mud and flooded shell holes severely reduced the mobility of the infantry, and poor visibility hampered artillery observers and artillery-observation aircraft.
Rainstorms and the German defensive success during the rest of August, led the British to stop the offensive for three weeks.
A Bombing Raid on England
Also on that day, a total of 28 German bombers were launched in the seventh and largest raid of Operation Türkenkreuz on England.
However, unfavourable wind conditions hindered flying, and forced aircraft to use up so much fuel that the strike commander ordered the bombers to abort the raid to ensure that most aircraft could return to base.
The striking squadron lost two airplanes in the North Sea, another two were forced to crash-land in the Netherlands, and several more were lost in Belgium.
A Historic Meeting
Also on the 18th. August 1917, English writer Wilfred Owen introduced himself to Siegfried Sassoon while both were staying at the Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh.
Sassoon had been sent to the hospital under military orders after he published "Soldier's Declaration", a protest essay against the prolongation of the Great War.
With Sassoon's encouragement, Owen wrote his two great war poems, "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Dulce et Decorum est", although almost all his poetry remained unpublished until after he was killed in action the following year.
The meeting was dramatized in both the novel Regeneration by Pat Barker and the play Not About Heroes by Stephen MacDonald.
Caspar Weinberger
The day also marked the birth, in San Francisco, of the American politician and 15th. United States Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.
Caspar Willard Weinberger was an American politician and businessman. As a Republican, he served in a variety of state and federal positions for three decades, most notably as Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 1981 to November 1987.
He was indicted on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing government investigations as part of the Iran–Contra investigation, but was pardoned by President George H. W. Bush before facing trial.
Weinberger was a member of the California State Assembly from 1953 to 1959. He also served as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He later became vice president and general counsel for the Bechtel Corporation.
Weinberger's tenure as Secretary of Defense was marked by his hard line against the Soviet Union, in disagreement with the State Department.
He promoted the Strategic Defense Initiative, an orbital weapons program. Weinberger was awarded both the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1987 and an honorary British knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. In 1993, he became Chairman of Forbes magazine.
While residing on Mount Desert Island, Maine, Weinberger was treated for and died from complications of pneumonia at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. He died on the 28th. March 2006, aged 88. He was survived by his wife, their two children, and several grandchildren.
He was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on the 4th. April 2006.
