Zweibund — the Dual Alliance — Germany and Austria-Hungary united, were the core of the Central Powers, and here join hands. The bars of Germany's flag border the top left, and those of the Habsburg Austrian Empire and ruling house the bottom right.
Schulter an SchulterUntrennbar vereintin Freud und in Leid!'Shoulder to shoulderInseparably united in joy and in sorrow!
"Aft of the mortally wounded enemy, our U-boat crosses her course. The ship lists heavily on her port side and tries to put out lifeboats. A terrible state of affairs must be prevalent on board. The electric generators have stopped and the ship is completely dark. In the sudden sinister darkness down below, surely no one can find the closed bulkhead doors. The invading water, the slanting decks, the suddenly sloping ladders, the boiler's explosion — all that must spread confusion and mortal terror."
Excerpt from the memoir of Austro-Hungarian Captain Georg von Trapp, who had taken command of the submarine U5 and was patrolling the Adriatic Sea the night of April 26-27, 1915. The French fleet also patrolled the Adriatic both to supply their ally Montenegro, and to keep the Austro-Hungarian fleet from breaking out into the Mediterranean. After sighting then losing a French armored cruiser on the preceding days, Von Trapp correctly determined its likely location, and found the ship by moonlight. Closing on it, he fired two torpedoes, both of which struck the Léon Gambetta which went down in nine minutes with 684 of its crew. Von Trapp was Austria-Hungary's most successful submariner. He was later famous as the father of the Von Trapp Family Singers, portrayed on stage and screen in The Sound of Music.
To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander by Georg von Trapp, page 23, copyright © 2007, publisher: University of Nebraska Press, publication date: 2007
1915-04-26, 1915-04-27, 1915, April, von Trapp, Leon Gambetta, Léon Gambetta, submarine
