PLM of U-Boat Ace Otto Hersing

[Gordon Williamson]

Photo taken last week at the U-Boot Archiv. All of Hersings awards , and a whole load of other personal possesions including his chess set and his favourite easy chair, were donated by the Hersing family to the Archiv.

Unfortunately the awards are in a sealed, not just locked, case so the photo had to be taken without flash through glass, and then lightened using photo software.

Interesting that the award seems to be the same Wagner type, where the feet of the eagle are not aparent, that I posted a few weeks back.


Gordon

[JensF.]

Gordon,

this is a real beauty of a PLM. Fantastic! Have you got pics of his other awards too?

Best regards

[Gordon Williamson]

Sorry, no, this is the only one I got shots of. None of his other awards were quite so impressive ( EK2, EK1, Eiserne Halbmond , U-Boot Abzeichen etc) I spent my four days at the Archiv going through the wartime photos making copies (came back with around 500) and just at the last minute ran around taking snaps of some of the exhibits on display. The enamel is much paler blue than this image suggests because it was so heavily under exposed.

I did get some nice photos of WWI U-Boat crews wearing the U-Boat tally ribbons though.

Gordon

[Daniel Krause]

Hi Gordon,
are You sure it is his piece? I know, the oak leave was only given to Generals for a won battle. Richthofen should get the oak leave but "only" got the Red Eagle 3rd class with crown and swords, because he has not "won a battle".

Greetings

Daniel

[Daniel Cole]

I have a question too. I always thought that the PLMs with the connected UR were copies/replacement 1957 pieces from Steinhauer and Luck. Am I wrong? Is this his issue piece?
Cheers,
Dan Cole

[Gordon Williamson]

Interesting points. I am no expert on exactly who were awarded the PLM with Oakleaves. Certainly Hersing wonr the PLM, and I know that the Oaks were awarded to Major or above, not just Generals. Further than that, I profess ignorance.

The lists of winners are far from conclusive. A photo in Edkins book clearly shows Korvettenkapitaen Dohna-Schlodien wearing the Oakleaves yet he isn't listed in the list of Oakleaves winners in the same book.


As to the connected u and r, it may be that the S&L replacements had this feature, I don't know, I haven't seen one. However, it is a definite feature of original period Wagner crosses. David Edkins book shows such a piece, with connected u and r, being the piece actually awarded to Oberleutnant Berthold in October 1916. This one also has the Baroque suspension, so the u-r factor does not give any indication of date.


Gordon

[Daniel Cole]

Here's my PLM which is a Steinhauer and Luck post WW2 copy. You can clearly see the UR is connected.

Hersing was awarded the PLM #62 on June 5, 1915. There is no mention of him winning oakleaves in William Hammelman's book "The History of the Prussian Pour le Merite Order, Volume III", that goes for zu Dohna-Schlodien as well. He is certainly photographed wearing what appears to be a PLM with oakleaves.

Page 661 of the same work shows the PLM with the connect UR. It does mention that some original pieces appear to be connected by not as oviously as in this example.

I would bet this display did infact belonged to Otto Hersing, why not, , but is a second piece of his, not his issue PLM. I'm certainly no expert just my opinion.

Dan Cole

[Glenn2438]

Otto Hersing is not listed as having won the Oakleaves to his PLM in Brinkmann's book. Similarly the naval "Ehrenrangliste" only shows him with the PLM.

Incidentally the two sources above plus Hildebrand's/Zweng's PLM book also show Dohna-Schlodien as only being a recipient of the PLM. However the latter source also uses a photo of the Count wearing Oakleaves!

Glenn

[Gordon Williamson]

Dan,

I see what you mean. The Steinhauer PLM is very close indeed. Only very close examination shows slight differences in the shape of some of the letters (The "e" for instance having thicker "tails" on the Steinhauer-also the horizontal stroke to the F. The eagles also seem slightly off centre -bigger tails on the right, smaller on the left). I wonder if , as with their Knight's Crosses, they restrck them on original tooling.

The blue is also much paler (although the "Hersing" piece is lighter than the photo shows, the actual colour is somewhere between what you see there and the much paler blue of the Steinhauer.)
Of course if the piece is indeed Hersings, and I have no reason to doubt it, it could equally be a replacement bought "between the wars" which is the period at which Rick Lundstrom's PLM expert pal dated mine, and mine is identical to the "Hersing" one.

Gordon

[Igor Starikow]

Hello!

Does anyone of you know the list of Decorations & Awards which Korvettenkapitän Otto Hersing got during his career, especially during WW I?

Thanks a lot

Igor