- Otto Weddigen
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Otto Eduard Weddigen
Otto Eduard WeddigenBorn 15 September 1882
HerfordDied 18 March 1915
Pentland FirthAllegiance German Empire Service/branch Kaiserliche Marine Years of service 1901 - 1915 Rank Kapitänleutnant Commands held U-9, 1 August 1914 – 11 January 1915
U-29, 16 February 1915 - 18 March 1915Battles/wars Battle of the Atlantic (1914-1918) Awards Pour le Mérite
Iron Cross First & Second ClassOtto Eduard Weddigen (15 September 1882 – 18 March 1915) was a German U-boat commander during World War I.
Biography and career
He was born in Herford and started his military career in the Kaiserliche Marine in 1901. In 1910 he was given command of one of the first German submarines, U-9.
On 22 September 1914, while patrolling in the region of the southern North Sea known to the British as the "Broad Fourteens", U-9 intercepted the three warships of the Seventh Cruiser Squadron, also known as the Live Bait Squadron. Weddigen fired off all six of his torpedoes, reloaded while submerged, and in less than an hour sank the three British armoured cruisers HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue and HMS Cressy. Sixty two officers and 1,397 men were killed, only 837 survived.
Otto Weddigen was awarded the Iron Cross and, after sinking HMS Hawke and some merchant ships, Prussia's highest military order, the Pour le Mérite. He became one of only six non-Bavarians to receive the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Max Joseph, Bavaria's highest military honor. He also received the highest military honors of the other two kingdoms of the German Empire, the Knight's Cross of Saxony's Military Order of St. Henry and the Knight's Cross of Württemberg's Military Merit Order.
Weddigen died while commanding the submarine U-29. On 18 March 1915 U-29 was rammed by the British battleship HMS Dreadnought in the Pentland Firth. U-29 had broken the surface immediately ahead of Dreadnought after firing a torpedo at HMS Neptune and Dreadnought cut the submarine in two after a short chase. There were no survivors from the submarine.
External links
Categories:- 1882 births
- 1915 deaths
- German military personnel killed in World War I
- German military personnel of World War I
- U-boat commanders
- People from the Province of Westphalia
- Recipients of the Iron Cross
- Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (military class)
- Recipients of the Military Order of Max Joseph
- People from Herford
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