joe campbell Posted March 9, 2006 Posted March 9, 2006 found some lovely, interesting, and i thinkreasonably priced ($5 each) postcards atthe SOS.hope you enjoy!first is herr ludendorff.
joe campbell Posted March 9, 2006 Author Posted March 9, 2006 next is a commemorative card, the title at the bottomsaying "to england. in memory of the murdered of the ship 'baralong'".
joe campbell Posted March 9, 2006 Author Posted March 9, 2006 a bit of a political bent,with the russian bear being asked"will you dance nicely now?".
joe campbell Posted March 9, 2006 Author Posted March 9, 2006 a slightly mushy home remembrance...love the EK and the red/white/black format.
joe campbell Posted March 9, 2006 Author Posted March 9, 2006 on the back:"Der grosse Krieg 1914/1915""eingeschlossene russiche Abteilung in den Karpathen".a russian unit fighting in the carpathians?
joe campbell Posted March 9, 2006 Author Posted March 9, 2006 no man's land...the arrows point to where the person writing on the back saysthey were "hangin' out"....spooky.comments/thoughts appreciated!joe
Schießplatzmeister Posted March 9, 2006 Posted March 9, 2006 Hello Joe:These are really great cards! I think that interesting items like this are too often overlooked. I find the card showing the encirclement of the Russian detachment in the Carpathians most interesting. This is a soldier's worst nightmare. Fighting on a mountainside on a narrow trail in the snow with enemy forces above AND below. The chances of surviving this sure look remote for them!I'm glad that you found these for a good price at the SOS where in my opinion too many things were terribly overpriced. A good find!Best regards,"SPM"
Tony Posted March 9, 2006 Posted March 9, 2006 I have a soft spot for postcards Joe. I especially like the no man's land card and it's great if you can understand that scruffy, often mauve writing on the back.Tony
joe campbell Posted March 9, 2006 Author Posted March 9, 2006 tony and SPM - i am pleased you like them! it is nice to beable to find a legitimate piece of history andnot need a bank loan for it!my mentor did the translating. he insists,however, that i will continue to get betterif i continue practicing. we read/translatesections of nimmergut on a fairly regular basis.the sutterlein and scrawling on docs/cards isnot something i'm too hopeful about...joe
Guest Rick Research Posted March 9, 2006 Posted March 9, 2006 It was not the murdered OF the ship "Baralong" but those murdered BY the Baralong--that was the most notorious of many English "Q-ships" which lured submarines fighting by the then suicidally restrictive legal rules of engagement in close and then popped out guns and sank the surfaced, law-of-the-sea-abiding submarines.In this particularly notorious case, the BRITISH atrocity was the stuff Germany was so often accused of--on 19 August 1915, U-27 under Kapit?nleutnant Bernhard Wegener had lawfully stopped the British army mule transport "Nicosian," and was preparing to sink her, having ascertained that she was a legal military target, and after getting the crew and passengers aboard off safely. "Baralong" came up and sank the U-27 (the fault of its lookouts paying insufficient attention***).German survivors were shot in the water. More were gunned down attempting to climb the Nicosian's ratlines... and in the most blood-curdling part of this stain on the Royal Navy's honor, the few cowering German sailors who were hunted down below the Nicosian's decks were butchered in cold blood. Witnesses report at least 24 German were murdered.British wartime embargo on the story was foiled when American passengers on the "Nicosian" returned home and reported the incident. ***Since the Baralong had steamed up under the American flag, this led to a brief frost in relations between the two nation's and may explain the suicidally gentlemanly Wegener's lack of caution-- he had assumed that the "neutral" vessel was coming in to pick up the "Nicosian's" crew and passengers.As in similar First War crimes at sea where the perpetrators were never brought to book--by either side-- the atrcity was compounded by an Admiralty white-wash which resulted in the commander of the "Baralong," Lieutenant Commander Godfrey Herbert, being awarded the DSC.It was, of course, PRECISELY this sort of incident that led to the UNrestricted submarine warfare offensive... an obvious military necessity but a public relations catastrophe for Imperial Germany.
joe campbell Posted March 10, 2006 Author Posted March 10, 2006 heckuva follow-up, rick!you just made this card all that muchmore valuable to me. this is quite astory, and a perspective i was completelyunaware of. i suspect many are not aware of it.my "thanks-ricky-you've-done-it-again" thanks!joe
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