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Description: ^ Rare Deluxe Pattern Imperial German Naval Officers Dress Dagger Presented to One of the Highest Scoring German U-Boat Commanders Oberleutnant zur See Herbert Pustkuchen, the dagger has one piece ivory grip, retaining the original wire binding. Fine quality gilt Imperial crown top pommel, cross guard with anchors to both sides of the central cartouche. Press stud release button to the reverse of the cross guard. Housed in its deluxe pattern ornamented and hammered scabbard with two hanging rings. Artificial double edged damascus blade with cut double fullers. To one side of the blade is etched in German gothic script “Pustkuchen s/l Pfeffer v. Salomon”. The blade has some light surface staining. Edge of the blade is etched with makers details of “J. ROBRECHT HOFL.BERLIN”. Accompanying the dagger is the original velvet backed undress belt and two piece dagger hangers with gilt metal lion head fittings. The dagger blade measures 23cms, overall 39 ½ cms. Herbert Pustkuchen was born on 28th December 1889 in Detmold. He was a career naval officer, joining the Kaiserliche Marine as a Seekadett on 1st April 1908. He rose through the officer ranks, finally achieving the rank of Oberleutnant zur See on 2nd May 1915. Pustkuchen made his name in the German submarine service. He commanded the following U-Boats UC-5, UB-29 and UC-66. It was while commander of UC-66 that he met his fate, he was killed when his ship was attacked and sunk by a Curtis Flying Boat just off of the Isles of Scilly on 27th May 1917. Whilst commander of UB-29, he was involved in the infamous attack on the passenger ship SS Sussex which was en-route from Folkstone to Dieppe. Without any prior warning to the SS Sussex, UB-29 fired a torpedo from 1400 yards, ripping off the front of the ferry’s bow. Out of the 325 passengers on board, at least 50 were killed and many more wounded. The ship managed to stay afloat and was towed to safety. Amongst the passengers were a number of American citizens, at this time America was still reeling with anger after the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. Germany had already been warned by the US president, Woodrow Wilson, about the tactics used by U-Boat commanders and this incident now threatened diplomatic relations between Germany and the United States of America. It was after this incident that the “Sussex Pledge” was made, meaning that all German U-Boats would have to surface before attacking any merchant ships and passenger ships had to be spared. This greatly reduced the effectiveness of the German U-Boat programme. Herbert Pustkuchen ranks 31st amongst 37 commanders who sank over 100,000 tons of allied shipping during WW1. He was awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class as well as the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern on 19th November 1915. Categories: WW1 German Militaria