A sad & evocative 

World War Two German

Kriegsmarine

Im Memorium Death Card

(Sterbebild)

for  

Matrosen-Gefreiter

Josef Spielhofer

crewman aboard

Unterseeboot U-130

Commanded by

Oberleutnant-zur-See Siegfried Keller

and part of the 

4th U-boot Flottilla

U-130 was a Type IX-C submarine

laid down in Bremen on August 20th 1940

and commissioned into the

U-bootwaffe on June 11th 1941

In her 6 combat patrols, she sent 21 Allied ships to the bottom,

but on her 6th and final sortie she was depth-charged by 

American  Destroyer

USS Champlin

west of The Azores on March 12th 1943,

and all 53 crew-men tragically went down with the submarine.

Awarded the 

Iron Cross 2nd Class

and 

U-boot Qualification Badge

Matrosengefreiter Josef Spielhofer

is remembered on the 

Kriegsmarine's

U-boot Ehrenmal 

at Moeltenort in Kiel

A 'single' death card

 measuring approx 4.25" x 3" and in good condition, 

it features 20 year old Josef in his

Reefer Jacket,

whilst accompanying it is the original

death notification cutting carried in his home-town newspaper 

that shows him in his traditional 'square rig' uniform.

A sad but impressive duo from the 

Second World War German Home Front...

(Photo courtesy of the Tomahawk Films WW-II German Archive)

Thanks for looking..!