A mass of German troops bear an enormous egg striped in the black, white, and red of the german flag. Atop the egg, a cannon is fired by troops with a Hungarian flag. The target, diminutive in the distance, is Paris, Eiffel Tower gray against the brown city.
The watercolor is labeled,
Husvét . Páris piros tojása . 1918
Easter . Red eggs for Paris . 1918
The front of the card is postmarked 1918-04-05 from Melököveso.
The card is a Feldpostkarte, a field postcard, from Asbach Uralt, old German cognac. Above the brand name, two German soldiers wheel a field stove past a crate containing a bottle of the brandy under the title Gute Verpflegung, Good Food. Above the addressee is written Einschreiben, enroll, and Nach Ungarn, to Hungary. The card is addressed to Franz Moritos, and is postmarked Hamburg, 1918-03-30. A Hamburg stamp also decorates the card.
A hand-painted postcard by Schima Martos. , Germany on registered fieldpost card, 1918, message: Red Egg for Paris, Easter, 1918.
The German advance in Operation Michael in the March, 1918 nearly broke the Allied line, and threatened Paris, putting it once again in range of a new German supergun capable of hitting the city from 70 miles away.

Husvét . Páris piros tojása . 1918



Easter . Red eggs for Paris . 1918



The front of the card is postmarked 1918-04-05 from Melököveso

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Wednesday, May 22, 1918

"— A raid on Tuesday the 21st [May 1918] from 10.45 p.m. to 1.30 in the morning. I was visiting Victor Margueritte, with Jacques Richepin, and the Weylers. The men in the party lay down on cushions on the drawing room carpet and went to sleep. It was a beautiful night. Bombs fell at Versailles and Saint-Cyr.

— On Wednesday the 22nd there was an air raid from 11.30 p.m. until a quarter past midnight, and a further raid from 1.30 to 3.30 a.m., that is, until dawn. A stormy sky with a bright moon. Barrage of fire of unusual violence. Bombs dropped on the Gare d'Austerlitz, the Boulevard de l'Hôpital, the School of Arts and Crafts, the Rue Legendre, and also at Juvisy.

— You are no longer allowed hot water for washing in hotels, except on Saturdays and Sundays."

Quotation Context

Entries from the diary of Michel Corday, a senior civil servant in the French government writing in Paris. The French capital had been struck in March by Gotha bombers and by 'the Paris gun,' a new weapon that the German advance in Operation Michael put Paris within range of. Corday wrote further that the newspapers of May 23 reported the arrest and imprisonment for two weeks of a chauffeur who observed that, 'the damage was tremendous,' referring to a bombed house. The court found this statement both provided information about military operations and would adversely affect morale. Versailles and Saint Cyr, home to the leading French military academy, are south-southwest of Paris.

Source

The Paris Front: an Unpublished Diary: 1914-1918 by Michel Corday, page 346, copyright © 1934, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., publication date: 1934

Tags

1918-05-22, 1918, May, Paris, Paris raid, air raid