
Poster Signed by famous U-Boat Commander Erich Topp


U-boat is the anglicization of the German word U-Boot (help·info), itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot (undersea boat). The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns in both world wars were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from Canada and the United States to Europe. The distinction between U-boat and submarine is common in English-language usage (where "U-Boat" is used to refer exclusively to the German naval submarines of the First and Second World Wars) but unknown in German, in which the term U-Boot refers to any submarine.

Erich Topp (1914 - 2005). Topp was the 3rd most successful German U-Boot (submarine) commander of World War II. He joined the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) in 1934, serving his first stint after being commissioned as Leutnant zur See (Ensign) on the light cruiser Karlsruhe in 1937, before transferring to the U-Bootwaffe (submarine fleet) in the same year.He was given his first command – U-57 – on 5 June 1940, leading her on two missions during which the boat managed to sink six ships. She was sunk after a collision with a Norwegian vessel on 3 September 1940.
Topp survived to take command of U-552, with which he mainly operated against convoys in the North Atlantic, sinking 30 ships and crippling several others on ten patrols. One of his victims during this period was the destroyer USS Reuben James, the first US warship to be sunk in WWII on 31 October 1941.A photograph of the destroyer USS Reuben James will be included in the lot for use in framing.

This offering is a photoreproduction of a poster of Erich Topp (as shown), Topp has designated on the poster the # of the U-boats he commanded in WW II.

Price:$225.00

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