Description
GERMANY – POSTCARD – OTTO WEDDIGEN – U-BOOT COMMANDER AND POUR LE MÉRITE WINNER
Otto Weddigen was one of the early heroes of WW I. He was also the first officer of the Kaiserliche Marine to be awarded the Orden Pour le Mérite. He and his small U-9 sank three armored British cruisers (H.M.S. Hooue, HMS Aboukir, and H.M.S. Cressy) in little more than an hour on 22 September 1914. For this exploit he was awarded the 1914 Iron Cross 1st Class (A high ranking award for a war which had begun six weeks earlier.) The Knights with Swords of the Hohenzollern House Order and the Pour le Mérite would follow shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, Weddigen and new command the U-29 were lost when they were rammed by a British battleship.
This postcard shows in color two sinking British armored cruisers and the U-9. There is also a portrait of Otto Weddigen within a green wreath topped by a Hohenzollern crown and his name in a banner at the bottom. All of this is superimposed on a German national flag.
This postcard is in excellent condition and has never been mailed. There is a lengthy message written in 1917 two years after the death of Weddigen
