Post #77544 by Atomic Cocktail on Mon, Feb 23, 2004 9:33 PM

On 2004-02-23 17:27, aquarj wrote:

This is the same medal as shown in Mark Blackburn's book on page 217 (see first post for title).

The "W" on the original Medal is for Kingdom of Württemberg. "1914" is for the start of the First World War as The Iron Cross is a German award for valor issued only during wartime (since 1813). Considering the war only started in August of 1914, and given the lag in manufacturing and awarding the medal, not to mention the hatred of Germans around the world at the time (for the violation of Belgian Neutrality), I find improbable that the design was appropriated for a surfing medal from 1914.

I think someone, somewhere along the line was given "the business" in regards to the Duke story.

It's still a cool surfing medal though.

Another interesting (but useless) bit of info is that the red enamaled medal from the sixties is also similar to the Imperial German Hansieatic Cross (Erste Kategorie für Surfende Angriffe)