In my collection Italy I have a stamp from the period of the First World War, with an overprint Ortpostmarke from the town of Codroipo in the province of Udine. But the reason for this release was unknown to me. Until now.
In October 1917, the Austro-Hungarian army occupied eighteen small towns in northern Italy after the battle of Caporetto, but their army mailbus was burned and destroyed. After the battle, the Austrian soldiers sent their letters home using provisional stamps made by the officer in charge of the army post, Lieutenant Covasech. He made 18 sets of four stamps each (complete set of 72 stamps) for the 18 cities they had recently occupied. He made this creation using local match-stamps with the overprint "Ortspostmarke".
Most of his supply of provisional stamps were destroyed by him two days later when a new army mail wagon was delivered. After all, the lieutenant kept five sets and unused copies ended up in the hands of collectors. These are rare stamps. They were used by the soldiers for only 60 hours (less than 3 days).
An extensive discussion of the history of these stamps can be seen in the 1992 video below. The video lasts 36 minutes and the quality is video-quality from that time, but still worth watching.
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