WEDDIGEN'S LAST CRUISE.

Taihape Daily Times, 24 January 1919, Page 2

WEDDIGEN'S LAST CRUISE.

BATLESHIP. The circumstances in which Commander Weddigen, of the German submarine Xo. 29, met his fate, have long been known in naval circles, but hitherto the press has not been encouraged to repeat the story. The facts are now narrated in the "Times history of the war. AccdrTJkig to the German papers, Otto Weddingen, before leaving on his last cruise, made. a vow that he would not return until ho had 'strafed' certain units of our Grand Fleet. That he meant what he said was evidenced by his subsequent movements up to the thrilling moment when the ram of H.M.S. Dreadnought crashed into U 29 and sent her and all her occupants to a watery grave. Weddigen was probably the most efficient submarine officer in the German navy, and the humane methods he practised during his short career as a commerce-de-stroyer were in favourable contrast to the fiendish brutality known by his colleagues. His destruction of the three "Cressy" Cruisers was undoubtedly a clever feat, but everything was in his favour, and for technical skill and hardihood the exploit cannot compare with the work of our own submarines in the Dardanelles and the Baltic, where the conditions were whollv adverse.