1942 New Years Greetings Card
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	CREW OF THE BATTLESHIP "TIRPITZ" MY COMRADES
	Your Commander is speaking to you now. During the last hours of the year 1942 I whiled you in your midst. I participated in your merriment and reminisched with you of the now past year, of which we all dreamed last January, during the dash from Wilhelmshaven to Drontheim, it would present us with a variety of sorties to the northern seas, the Arctic-seas, to the North Atlantic or to the French coastline with success and laurels of victory. Comrades. We know, why the High-Command so far did not send us to the happy-go-lucky war against merchant vessels in the vast extending oceans. We grit our teeth and relent to the superior decission, even if it is so often difficult. We are soldiers and we obey. I thank all of you, my officers, petty officers and crew at this hour that you in spite of all this, are willing and happy, dauntless and tireless, day after day you did your excersises, training and duties, that you obedient and faithfull in good soldier-like manhood fullfilled your obligations, and that you today like always are inspired by pugnatious spirit and unyielding desire for victory, ready for combat at any time. Myself, as your Commander, am responsible to my Fuehrer, our High Commander of the Navy and the Chief of the Fleet, that the Battleship "Tirpitz" and its crew remains the strongest and sharpest sword of the German forces, and I know that I can rely on you, my Comrades. So let us enter the new year as Adolf Hitler's truest and best soldiers with unyielding faith in our victory and Germany's future and with the sure expectation that for us too the grand hour of our valiant probation will arrive! I wish all of us a happy fortunate Year 1943!
	HAIL COMRADES
Page 3	English Translation

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