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Sunday, January 23, 2005
*Pensacola City Council has approved in concept an ambitious plan to develop a community park and museum on the downtown waterfront
*Tourism forecast bleak, thousands of would-be tourists will have no place to stay, officials from Perdido Key to Navarre Beach estimate 50 percent to 60 percent of lodging available before Hurricane Ivan will be repaired or replaced by the storm’s first anniversary
-Pensacola News Journal, 1-23-05
second struck her starboard side but did not prove fatal.
Now U9 turned to loose off her last remaining torpedo, her Captain making sure he did not miss, it ran both straight and true, struck home to sink Cressy within 15 minutes.
U9's First Watch Officer watches in horror through the periscope.
Oberleutnant z. S. Johannes Spiesz, the U-Boats First Watch Officer made this revealing comment: "In the periscope, a horrifying scene unfolded. We present in the conning tower, tried to supress the terrible impression of drowning men, fighting for their lives in the wreckage, clinging to capsized life boats."
Some are rescued.
The Dutch Merchant ships Flora and Titan, plus British Trawlers JGC, and Corainder combed the devastated area looking for survivors to pick up, Flora arrived in Holland with 286 rescued British sailors, who were returned to England. Strictly speaking, Holland being neutral should have interned them for the duration of the war, but the Dutch authorities saw fit to flout that convention.
In all, only 837 were hauled from the carnage, but 1,459 Officers and men died from the three British cruisers.
U9 survived the war.
U9 saw out WW1, to surrender on the 26th. of November 1918, and was broken up at Morecombre in 1919.
Conclusion.
This patrol by armoured cruisers was later abandoned. A Court of Inquiry sought someone to blame, and most of the Senior Officers involved were castigated, Captain Campbell for not zig zagging, and for not ordering out the Destroyers after the weather had moderated. Rear Admiral Christian for not issuing clear orders to Captain Drummond, Rear Admiral Campbell for not being available and missing the action in his ship, and for his poor showing at the Inquiry, he had come up with the lame excuse: "He did not know what the purpose of his command was." How pathetic, and from a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy, he was obviously quite unfit, in my view, to be in command.
Most of the blame fell upon the Lords of the Admiralty ( quite properly I believe ) for persisting in ordering this patrol, that was dangerous with the old cruisers sent out, was of limited value anyway, and against all the advice of the sea going Senior Officers.
A sad affair resulting in such a high loss of life, many of them Cadets and Reservists.
It is so easy for those who are in charge in time of war, but who are safe at home, to make fatal decisions that wind up, sending service personnel to their death. But then, has anything really changed so many years and so many warlike operations later?
Medal struck in Germany.
To mark this victory, a Medal was struck in Germany, it was a bust of Captain Lieutenant Otto Weddingen, in uniform.
Post Script.
Otto Weddingen sank the British Cruiser HMS Hawker in October 1914, he changed command to U29, and in February of 1915 sank four Merchant ships. He had published his book: "The First Submarine Blow," and had been awarded the prestigious decoration Pour le Merite ( The Blue Max ) but did not live to enjoy his success. He died on the 18th. of March 1915, when U29 was rammed by the British HMS Dreadnought, and sliced in half.
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