100792 | GERMANY & GREAT BRITAIN. HMS Courageous satirical cast iron Medal.

100792 | GERMANY & GREAT BRITAIN. Satirical cast iron Medal. Dated 1939. "Totentanz (Dance of Death) Redux" type: The sinking of the HMS Courageous (70mm, 91.71 g, 12). By G. Goetz.

 

DIE HIOBSBOTSCHAFT AN CHURCHILL (bad news for Churchill), Death, wearing cape, advancing right, holding scroll inscribed with a swastika and TORPED. / VON / DEUTSCH. / "U" / BOOT / 18 SEPT 1939 in six lines / RULE BRITANNIA!, the British Isles (as Neptune) standing left in the ocean, holding trident, hoisting the HMS Courageous over his shoulder, and wearing man purse decorated with Union Jack. Edge: A few light marks as made, otherwise plain.

 

Engstrom 4. Choice Mint State. Charcoal-gray surfaces and charming relief. A haunting and scarce type.

 

Carrying on the tradition of his father, Guido Goetz also had a career as a medalist, issuing some satirical pieces in the vein of the elder Goetz, Karl. Just as World War I and its aftermath were important to the work of the father, so too was that of World War II to the son, with a number of satirical medals designed with this backdrop. Drawing upon the skeletal approach of Walther Eberbach's Totentanz series, some of Guido's issues portray Death as a skeleton taking sadistic glee in the downfall of his enemies.

 

The HMS Courageous was built for the Royal Navy during World War I, serving as the class leader of the Courageous-class cruisers. Following the war, she was rebuilt as an aircraft carrier in the 1920's, being used in this role briefly during World War II. In the opening weeks of the war, not long after the torpedoing of the SS Athenia, the Courageous was also torpedoed and sunk, this time by U-29, losing 519 of her crew.

 

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