Warships Battleship Bismarck A Survivor,s Story.pdf

Battleship

Bismarck

A Survivor's Story

By Baron Burkard von Müllenheim-Rechberg

Translated by Jack Sweetman

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Table of Equivalent Ranks

1 The Bismarck and Her Captain

2 The Bismarck Joins the Kriegsmarine

3 Sea Trials and Battle Practice

4 Plans for Commerce-Raiding

5 Operation Orders for Exercise Rhine

6 Another Postponement and Last Liberty

7 Hitler Comes Aboard

8 Departure from Gotenhafen

9 A British Naval Attache in Stockholm

10 Grimstadfjord and the Journey North

11 Alarm in Scapa Flow

12 Lütjens's Operational Decisions

13 First Contact with the Enemy

14 The Hood Blows Up

15 Lütjens's Alternatives

16 Parting with the Prinz Eugen

17 Direct Course for St. Nazaire

18 Attack by Swordfish Torpedo Planes

19 The Admiralty Steps Up the Pursuit

20 Contact Shaken Off

21 The British Compute the Bismarck's Position

22 A Fateful Sunday

23 The Bismarck's Dummy Stack

24 Catalinas from Northern Ireland

25 The Bismarck is Rediscovered

26 Tovey's Hopes Are Pinned on the Ark Royal

27 The Mortal Hit

28 Destroyers Ordered to Tovey's Support

29 The Last Night Aboard the Bismarck

30 Attempts to Save the Fleet War Diary

31 A Last Visit to the Bridge

32 Tovey Sets the Time of the Final Action

33 The Last Battle

34 The Bismarck Sinks

35 Survival

36 Exercise Rhine in Retrospect

Appendix A The Seekriegsleitung's Operation Order for Exercise Rhine

Appendix B General Orders for the Atlantic Operation

Appendix C British Forces Deployed Against the Bismarck During Exercise Rhine

Appendix D The Rudder Damage: Were All Possibilities of Repair Exhausted?

Appendix E Record of the Action Between the Rodney and the Bismarck on 27 May 1941

Appendix F A Break in the Code?

Annotated Bibliography

Preface

It is somewhat unusual to write a personal account of something that happened nearly forty years

after the event. However, the idea of writing this book was born while I was still standing on the

upper deck of the sinking Bismarck on 27 May 1941: since there is no vantage point from which

the whole of this giant ship is visible, I thought, will it ever be possible for anyone, even an

eyewitness, to assemble the countless details of the battle now ending into a complete and

coherent account? If so, who would do it and when? Given the uncertainty of my own fate and

against the background of the war, it was an absurd thought and it left my mind as quickly as it

had entered it. But it did not die.

I had to resist the temptation to spend the endless time I had on my hands as a prisoner of war in

England and Canada in making notes about the ship's operations while they were still fresh in my

mind, because, in that status, I had no way of safeguarding secret, or even confidential, papers.

The only thing I could do was keep my recollections as intact as possible and rely on written

records to fill in at least some of the gaps later.

In May 1949 I received a letter from Dr. Kurt Hesse, a writer on military affairs. He wrote to me

at the suggestion of Admiral Walter Gladisch, one of our former Fleet Commanders, urging me

to publish my unique story. He thereby encouraged me to do what I had first thought about doing

eight years earlier. But at that time there were several reasons why I had to push it into the back

of my mind again: so much of Germany was still lying in ruins that it did not seem an appropriate

time to write on a military subject; not enough time had elapsed for me to be able to write about

something that touched me so deeply; I was studying law at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University;

I had to finance not only my schooling but my subsistence, no easy task in the immediate

postwar years, and at the same time engage in the urgent and time-consuming business of seeking

a new profession.

During my years of service overseas as consul general and ambassador of the Federal Republic

of Germany, many people, particularly foreigners, told me, "you must write about the Bismarck

someday." But not until 1975, when I retired, did I have the time and other prerequisites to deal

responsibly with the subject; by that time the British had returned the official records of the

German Navy to the Federal German Archives.

Much had already been written, both at home and abroad, on the operations and sinking of the

Bismarck. Naturally, none of the writers was able to provide the reasoning behind the crucial

tactical decisions that the Fleet Commander, Admiral Günther Lütjens, made during the ship's

Atlantic sortie. Nor, of course, can I, but in the pages that follow I have tried to put myself in

Lütjens's place and frame of mind and I believe that, having been an officer in the ship, I can

make a contribution to the history of the Bismarck and Exercise Rhine.

This book is dedicated to the memory of all who died as a result of the sinking of the Bismarck

but especially to the memory of her commanding officer, Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann. As

captain of a flagship, he served in the shadow of his Fleet Commander, and did not have the

opportunity to demonstrate the outstanding leadership of which he was capable.

Burkard von Müllenheim-Rechberg

Herrsching am Ammersee

November 1979

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Jürgen Rohwer and Vice Admiral B. B. Schofield for permission to use

their track charts of Exercise Rhine; Fregattenkapitän Paul Schmalenbach, second gunnery

officer in the Prinz Eugen during Exercise Rhine, for photographs of the battle off Iceland;

Kapitänleutnant Herbert Wohlfarth, captain of the U-556 in May 1941, for permission to use the

certificate proclaiming the U-556 the guardian of the Bismarck ; and Herr Rolf Schindler, for

preparing the track charts for publication.

I would also like to thank the following people and institutions for their advice and deeds:

Captain Robert L. Bridges, USN (Ret.), Castle Creek, New York, U.S.A.; Herr Joachim Fensch,

Weingarten, Federal Republic of Germany; Mr. Daniel Gibson Harris, Ottawa, Canada, who was

assistant to the British naval attache in Stockholm in May 1941; Herr Franz Hahn of the Military

Historical Training Center, Mürwik Naval School, Federal Republic of Germany; Dr. Mathias

Haupt of the Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, Federal Republic of Germany; Herr Bodo Herzog,

Oberhausen, Federal Republic of Germany; Herr Hans H. Hildebrand, Hamburg, Federal

Republic of Germany; Konteradmiral Günther Horstmann, German Navy (Ret.), Basel,

Switzerland; the Department of Photographs of the Imperial War Museum, London, England;

Mr. Esmond Knight, London, England, who was a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer

Reserve aboard the Prince of Wales in May 1941; Dr. Hansjoseph Maierhöfer of the

Bundesarchiv-Militärachiv-Freiburg, Federal Republic of Germany; Mr. Philip Mathias, Toronto,

Canada; Mrs. Mary Z. Pain, London, England; Fregattenkapitan Dr. Werner Rahn, Mürwik,

Federal Republic of Germany; Dr. Hans Ulrich Sareyko, Aüswärtigen Amt, Bonn, Federal

Republic of Germany; Kapitän zur See Hans-Henning von Schultz, German Navy (Ret.),

Ramsau, Federal Republic of Germany, who was the intelligence officer aboard the Prinz Eugen

during Exercise Rhine; Herr Torsten Spiller of the Deutsche Dienststelle ( WASt ), Berlin, Federal

Republic of Germany; and Mr. Tom Wharam, Cardiff, Wales.

I want to convey my special thanks to those who have prepared this English-language edition. I

am grateful to my translator, Dr. Jack Sweetman, who has succeeded admirably in retaining the

flavor and spirit of my story; to my technical adviser, Dr. Karl Lautenschlager, whose expertise

in naval matters, especially those pertaining to the German Navy, earned my great admiration; to

Mr. Thomas G. Webb, who did the excellent painting of the Bismarck that appears on the jacket

of this book; and to my editor, Mrs. Mary Veronica Amoss, Senior Manuscript Editor of the

Naval Institute Press, who demonstrated rare skill in making my story appear as if it were written

originally in English. Others at the Naval Institute Press to whom I would like to express my

gratitude are Mr. Thomas F. Epley, Editorial Director, for many invaluable suggestions and for

his careful management of my book from start to finish; Miss Beverly S. Baum, Design Manager,

for the painstaking care with which she designed the book; Mrs. Marjorie B. Whittington,

Administrative and Editorial Assistant, for her many typings of the English-language manuscript

and her conscientious handling of all matters relating to photographs and drawings; and Miss

Rita Connolly, Production Manager, who, in face of great odds, successfully maintained a tight

production schedule.

B.v-M-R.

Translator's Note

For assistance in the preparation of this translation, it is a pleasure to record my thanks to:

Lieutenant Commander George L. Breeden III, USN, Lieutenant Fred H. Rainbow, USNR, and

Lieutenant Commander Paul Stillwell, USNR, whose expert advice was invaluable in dealing

with technical matters; the author, Baron Burkard von Müllenheim-Rechberg, who kindly read

and commented on the translation of his book; Mary Veronica Amoss, Senior Manuscript Editor

of the Naval Institute Press, who eliminated many infelicities of expression; and, last but never

least, my wife, Gisela, who helped in countless ways.

J.S.

Table of Equivalent Ranks

Kriegsmarine

United States Navy

Royal Navy

Grossadmiral

—

Generaladmiral

Fleet Admiral

Admiral of the Fleet

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