First Battle of the Marne – Vassincourt

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

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

These days, Vassincourt is a tiny village with fewer than 500 inhabitants. I had never heard of it before seeing this postcard.

Here is a picture of the church as it looks a century later:

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

The text is 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 have a few more cards written by him, but not that many.

Stay tuned for more.