High Seas Fleet Badge (German: Das Flottenkriegsabzeichen) is a German military decoration (worn on the lower part of the left breast pocket of the naval service tunic, underneath the 1st class Iron Cross if awarded, or equivalent grade) awarded for service to the crews of the High Seas Fleet, mainly of the battleships and cruisers, but also those ships that supported them operationally for which there was no other award given. Required qualifications included e.g. active duty on 1 or more 12 week cruises, wounds or sinking in action.
Although the award was instituted in April 1941, it could be awarded for actions that took place prior to this date and could highlight the struggle against the British fleet.
Read more about High Seas Fleet Badge: Criteria
Famous quotes containing the words high, seas, fleet and/or badge:
“Since the war nothing is so really frightening not the dark not alone in a room or anything on a road or a dog or a moon but two things, yes, indigestion and high places they are frightening.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“In some unused lagoon, some nameless bay,
On sluggish, lonesome waters, anchor’d near the shore,
An old, dismasted, gray and batter’d ship, disabled, done,
After free voyages to all the seas of earth, haul’d up at last and
hawser’d tight,
Lies rusting, mouldering.”
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“On the middle of that quiet floor
sits a fleet of small black ships,
square-rigged, sails furled, motionless,
their spars like burned matchsticks.”
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“Signor Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances.
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
You call me misbeliever, cutthroat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)