To:
KOMMANDANT ROHARDT.
SMS RHEINLAND.
JUTLAND.
31.5.1916
(Just over 2” inches in diameter & mounted with a crossed pair of superbly executed 15ct Gold Anchors on a German Imperial Period hallmarked .835 silver medal.)
The Unique German Imperial Navy Captains’ Medal (1916) with Original and contemporary naming to Captain, later Admiral Heinrich Rohardt who captained SMS RHEINLAND at The Battle of Jutland.
[SMS RHEINLAND]
This ship was one of the German Navy’s Twelve x 11” inch gunned main high seas fleet Nassau-Class battleships. She and her four sister ships were built between 1907-1910 as a response to the Royal Navy’s HMS Dreadnought which was launched in 1906.
SMS RHEINLAND was heavily engaged by British destroyers in close range night fighting during the Battle of Jutland on 31st May-1st June 1916.
It was the Rheinland which closely engaged and severely pounded the armoured cruiser HMS BLACK PRINCE from under 2500 yards (basically point blank range). Black Prince scored two direct hits on the Rheinland which killed 10 men and wounded 20. The first shell from Black Prince knocked out Rheinland’s four forward searchlights and damaged her forward funnel. The second shell hit the forward transverse bulkhead and bent it inward but did not penetrate the hull.
HMS Black Prince was later engaged by SMS Ostfreisland which obliterated her, after this she quickly sank with the loss of all hands.
Captain Heinrich Rohardt was born on 18th July 1871 and later became a Rear Admiral.
A Unique & Excellent item fit for the finest collection of Battle of Jutland memorabilia.
£1950