Battleship Bismarck (2 page)

Above all, however, the new version of the work delves into politics. I have included events and ideas that affected me as a citizen, which I was in addition to being a professional naval officer. But to keep political content within bounds, I have proceeded along strictly autobiographical lines, sketching only those events and ideas that actually touched my life. And I describe them according to my knowledge and perception at the time; all subsequent reflections are expressly identified as such. This expansion of the scope of the book has allowed me to utilize politically oriented entries in the personal diary of Captain R. N. T. Troubridge, British naval attaché in Berlin, 1936–39. The family of the late Captain Troubridge kindly granted me permission to use this record following the appearance of the English-language edition of the first edition of my book. His comments show Troubridge to have been an unusually sharpsighted observer of the German political scene in the years immediately before the war.

Altogether, the present work will expand my previous, purely naval narrative into a general historical record. Here I have tried to show something of the inner tension felt by those Germans to whom doubts about the Hitler state came early. In the course of years the conformity of our views revealed in an ever clearer light the women and men who, sooner than others, identified the stranglehold from which it was imperative to free our fatherland, and fought in the German Resistance. Their clear vision, their suffering as patriots, their courage, and their sacrifice of life and liberty determined the dedication of the second edition of this book.

Burkard Baron von Müllenheim-Rechberg

January 1987

*
“Brown” refers to the brown shirted uniforms worn by members of the Nazi
Sturmabteilung
or SA (storm troopers).

Preface to the First Edition

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 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 Baron 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 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 attaché 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. Karl Lautenschlager; Dr. Hansjoseph Maierhöfer of the Bundesarchiv-Militärachiv-Freiburg, Federal Republic of Germany; Mr. Philip Mathias, Toronto, Canada; Mrs. Mary
Z. Pain, London, England; Fregattenkapitän 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 helped to prepare this new and expanded 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 Mr. William H. Garzke, Jr., and Mr. Robert O. Dulin, Jr., who provided me unselfishly with technical and editorial assistance; and to my editor, Ms. Naomi Grady, 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 include Dagmar Stock, Mary Lou Kenney, and R. Dawn Sollars.

B.v.M-R.

Translator’s Note

For assistance in the preparation of the translations of both editions, it is a pleasure to record my thanks to: Commander George L. Breeden II, USN (Ret.), Mr. Fred H. Rainbow, and Commander Paul Stillwell, USNR, whose expert advise was invaluable in dealing with technical matters; the author, Burkard Baron von Müllenheim-Rechberg, who kindly read and commented on the translation of his book; Naomi Grady, who eliminated many infelicities of expression; and, last but never least, my wife, Gisela, who helped in countless ways.

Table of Equivalent Ranks

*
Bootsmann
designates the rating or specialty of petty officers and warrant officers. The suffix
moat
designates a senior petty officer. A title without a suffix designates a warrant officer. Other ratings are substituted as appropriate. For example: Maschinenmaat, Obersignalmaat, Oberartilleriemechaniker, Stabsoberbootsmann.