What does this mean ?

[Conor Dodd]

Here it goes bought this today what I need translated is on the back

Cheers

Conor

[Conor Dodd]

The back

[Conor Dodd]

Zoomed in

[iain mchenry]

Hi Connor,

Well, just as I was reading your thread, in walked a German soldier who is a friend of mine! I got him to have a look at the writting and this is what he thinks. (Where a word is unreadable I have marked with an X)

" This english soldier X X X son from my commander X X from the first line returned."

I will speak to a few more of the German squaddies this evening and see what they come up with.

Regards

Iain

[Aurel Sercu]

Conor,

A bit different from what Iain's German squaddy saw ...

Dieser englische soldat wurde an der (Somme ???) von mir und meinem Kameraden ................und ........... der 1. Linie zurückgetragen.

This English soldier was, at the Somme (???), ....... by me and my comrade and (was) carried back ............................ the 1st line.

Someone else is free to correct, and fill in the missing pieces of course.

Aurel Sercu

[paul guthrie]

Conor questions when you want answers. Do you know who he is? What is this? It looks like an English post card of a British soldier not a picture the German captured and mailed. I am missing something. Could a soldier have been carrying a post card of himself? Strange.

[ianw]

Quite likely that our man Fred was brought in by his German rescuers with the card from Cousin Richard in his pocket . Also quite likely that the Germans thought it was a picture of the man they had rescued since a soldier was pictured and could have had a family resemblance.

[ianw]

Paul,

I received your email about postcards and their popularity but cannot respond to you email - box full ?

I think in this mass phone age we usually underestimate the importance of the PC in the early 20th C and perhaps don't believe in a postal system that could often offer same day delivery (via 6 or more deliveries a day !)

[egbert]

"This English soldier was carried back from 1st line by me and my comrade xy at the Somme"

Note: carry back in this sense means, this guy was most likely wounded and was carried back (stretcher/backpack?) by the 2 Germans , probably for treatment to medical facilities

[Conor Dodd]

Many thanks for all the replies I think that the person that was brought back is the person in the photo just because it looks as if the German writing was there before the black English writing, pity there isn't any full name on it

Conor

[ianw]

Conor,

I think the English writing must pre-date the German since it is where you would write such a greeting on a blank card. You would not choose to overlap the German writing were it there already.