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- 2018: we commemorate the centenary of the memory of these Tahitians having participated and
lost their life on all the operations of the Great War. So, more than hundred of our elders were involve on October 25th, 1918 in the army ranks of the south pacific mixed Battalion (BMP) in the taking back the village of Vesles-et-Caumont. Several of their names are engraved on the war memorial of the Pouvana’a a O’opa avenue.
The illustration of this philatelic issue, translates the last move of the Tahitian and New Caledonian hordes against the German positions deducted in the ruins of the church of the Village of Vesles and Caumont. Ernest Salmon in its book the perfumed island wrote:
The brown man, son of god Oro, fights as a lion !
"At night of October 25th, 1918, the Oceanians crossed the swampy zone flooded by the rains of
the previous days. The men made of their bodies of the bridges on which their companions lean to cross the cold water. In the early morning, the south pacific mixed Battalion dashes. The enemy took by surprise, reacts by its firing of machine guns and mortars. Men fall, the wounded persons call in for help. Army medics run to aid of their wounded companions. Soldiers
reduce the German resistance with their grenades.
The farm of Petit-Caumont was retaken at first, then on the sound of the clarion the ligne 79 was taken.
The enemy attacked back violently but the conquered positions are holded" From the book of Jean-Christophe SHIGETOMI, Poilus tahitiens, les établissements français d’Océanie dans la Grande Guerre.
The south pacific mixed battalion had won its fame in the taking back of the village of Vesles-et-Caumont. The Medal of Honor “Croix de Guerre” highlighted on stamp, recalls the belonging of the 10th army. The Village of Vesles-et-Caumont, during the commemoration of the battle of Vesles-et-Caumont, will dedicate a special section to the philatelic from French Polynesia.
The French Polynesia Post office with the cooperation of the association Polynesian Memory is proud to join the remembrances of the centenary of the Great War and its armistice of November 11th, 1918.
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| Unit price: 580 FCFP (4,86 €) |
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