This topic is going on and on, and it must be the best in here!!! Nice .. Interesting cards, and other things, even wood ornaments!! I love the "Solange noch die Eichen wachsen" art, and Deutsche Tagen cards are always interesting, those days link to the time before Hitler got political active. Here a simple card from me to say thanks to you guys ...
An Engeland. In Erinnerung an die Mordtaten des "Baralong". To England. In memory of the "Baralong "murders. Nice postcard but also very grim.
The Baralong was a Q-boat, or, a decoy-ship. That means, a merchant-boat with hidden weapons, the Baralong was equipped to destroy submarines. This card is about the Baralong incident, or better the first scandal the Baralong caused during WWI.
In 1915, the German submarine U-27 attacked a US passenger ship, called Nicosian. Nicosian put out an SOS signal, and the British Baralong responded. Baralong used a neutral US civilian merchant flag to aproach Nicosian, and used Nicosian as a cover to hide their weapons away from the sight of U-27. The German submarine had stopped the attack when they saw the Nicosian was civilian, and waited, and emerged from the water, when they thought Baralong wanted to rescue the shipwrecked Nicosian-crew. When the Baralong came from behind the Nicosian, it opened fire on the defenceless submarine, and sunk it.
The Baralong rescued the Nicosian-crew, but the German submarine-crew swam to the burning Nicosian instead because they didnt trust the Baralong, that shot at them out of nowhere. Baralong opened fire on the German crew that jumped from the sinking submarine, and shot German crew-members in the water. The Baralong even sent a patrol to the Nicosian and hunted the Germans on that ship. All Germans got killed. Ofcourse Germany saw that as murder. A gruesome exemple of how cruel war is.
The German eagle, carrying the German Kriegsmarine flag .. In the background, you probably not see the Baralong or U-27, but the Nicosian. The submarine was the U-27, and that was the first submarine that sank another submarine during WWI. After WWI, Baralong was sold to Japan.
Read a good article about the Baralong here and here.
The card was send on july 28, 1916, it has a II. Erlaß Seebataillon stamp, but Id need to go thru things like this to tell anything about it, also I didnt take time to try solve what the handwriting says at the back, so nevermind that.
