United States & Worldwide Stamps

1916 cover and two picture postcards to France, two bearing violet "Belgian Armored Car Division," handstamp, endorsed "Division Belges des Auto Blindees Front Sud-Orient, Russie," additional military markings both Russian and Belgian, fine-v.f. (After the fall of Antwerp in October 1914 and the retreat to the Yser, the front line stabilized and since a breakthrough was not forthcoming, there was little use for a highly mobile armored car force. The Russian military attache to the Belgian armed forces suggested that the armored car force could be of use on the Eastern Front. Following protocol, Czar Nicholas made an official request to King Albert. It was decided to send a force of several hundred Belgians to Russia. Since Belgium and Russia were co-belligerents and not official allies, for legal reasons the Belgian soldiers were to be considered as volunteers in the Russian army. The Belgian force sailed from Brest on September 22nd 1915 and reached Archangel on October 13, 1915. By way of Petrograd, they were sent to Galicia where they mainly saw action against Austrian forces. The Belgian armored cars came to be known as effective machine gun destroyers. They continued fighting after the Russian Revolution until the treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed). -