(Free throughout the Reich)
Posted 16 November 1944 in Buchsweiler (Unterels) to the Deutsche Arbeitsfront
Zabern.
In 1944, Buchsweiler and Zabern (Bouxwiller and Saverne) were part of Grossdeutsches Reich (The Greater German Reich). Today they are in France.
The special cancellation publicizes the mediaeval romanticism of Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine), the frontier region between Germany, France and Belgium that was taken by German forces in June 1940. In 1944, Patton’s advance from the Moselle was counter-attacked by the Sth Panzer Army on 18 September, but not long delayed. His 3rd Army resumed its advance into Lorraine, and besieged Metz which fell on 22 November. (Metz is about 50 miles northwest of Buchsweiler.) The 3"' Army then fought its way to the River Saar across which it secured beachheads by 15 December 1944. The above cover, then, was posted during a period of intense fighting, hardly a time when romanticism could be appreciated.