Branch: Kriegsmarine
Born: 28 March 1894 in Altenkirchen, Germany.
Died: 27 May 1947 in the North Atlantic.
Ranks:
Kapitän zur See 1
April 1938
Fregattenkapitän 1
October 1936
Korvettenkapitän 1
April 1932
Kapitänleutnant 1
January 1925
Oberleutnant zur See
7 January 1920
Leutnant zur See 18
September 1915
Oberfähnrich zur
See
Fähnrich zur See 3
April 1914
Decorations:
Iron Cross 1914
2nd Class
1st Class 27 September 1919
Gallipoli Star
Honour Cross for Combatants 6 December 1934
Service Award 2nd to 4th Class 2 October 1936
Service Award 1st Class 16 March 1938
Spanish Naval Merit Cross 3rd Class 6 June 1939
Spanish Naval Merit Cross in White 21 August 1939
Spanish Naval Merit Cross in Gold 3rd Class 21 August 1939
Swedish Royal Order of the Sword 11 January 1941
War Merit Cross 2nd Class with Swords 20 January 1941
Clasp to the Iron Cross 1939
2nd Class May 1941
1st Class May 1941
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 27 December 1941
High Seas Fleet Badge 1 April 1942
Commands:
Bismarck
Takes command on 24 August 1940
Ends command on 27 May 1941
Other: Personnel
Articles:
Ernst Lindemann was born on 28 March 1894 and became the only
commandant of the battleship
Bismarck
during its eight months of service during the Second World
War. Ernst Lindemann joined the Kaiserliche Marine in 1913,
and subsequently after his basic naval training, served on
a number of vessels during the First World War as a wireless
telegraphy officer. Aboard SMS Bayern, Ernst Lindemann took
part in Operation Albion in 1917. Later on after the First
World War, Ernst Lindemann served in assorted staff and naval
gunnery training situations. Within a year of the Second World
War starting Ernst Lindemann was assigned commandant of the
battleship
Bismarck,
at the time the largest warship in commission anywhere in
the world and the pride of the Kriegsmarine.
Ernst Lindemann was commandant of their battleship
Bismarck
in May 1941 during Operation Rheinübung. The battleship
Bismarck
and the heavy cruiser
Prinz
Eugen under the command of Admiral
Günther
Lütjens were to break out of their base in German
occupied Poland and attack British merchant shipping lanes
in the Atlantic Ocean. The naval task force's first major
battle was the Battle of the Denmark Strait which led in the
sinking of HMS Hood. Within week later, on 27 May, Ernst Lindemann
and most of his crew lost their lives during
Bismarck's
last engagement.
Ernst Lindemann was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross
of the Iron Cross, an honour that recognised extreme courage
on the battlefield or outstanding military leadership. On
6 January 1942 the medal was presented to his widow, Hildegard.
Ernst Lindemann was born on 28 March 1894 in Altenkirchen
in the Westerwald, Rhine Province. Ernst Lindemann was the
first of 3 children of Dr. jur. Georg Heinrich Ernst Lindemann
and Maria Lindemann, née Lieber. Known as Ernst, Georg
Lindemann was a probationary judge (Gerichtsassessor) and
later president of the Prussian Central Land Credit Company,
a Prussian credit bank.
Ernst Lindemann was christened into the evangelistic Church
on 26 April 1894. The family moved to the Charlottenburg area
of Berlin, Germany where they lived at 6 Carmer Street, in
1895. His younger brother Kurt Lindemann was born in 1896,
followed by a 2nd brother, Hans-Wolfgang Lindemann, in 1900.
The family moved again in 1903, this time to their own home
in the Dahlem area of Berlin, Germany near the Grunewald forest.
During 1910, when Ernst Lindemann was sixteen, his uncle Kapitän
zur See Friedrich Tiesmeyer was in command of the light cruiser
SMS Mainz October 1909 to January 1910 of the Kaiserliche
Marine, at that time holding the rank of Fregattenkapitän.
At a family reunion in Hamelin, Ernst Lindemann chattered
with his uncle and discovered of his seagoing adventures in
the Far East. These conversations gave Ernst Lindemann the
idea of a naval career.
Ernst Lindemann graduated from secondary school (Bismarck-Gymnasium)
in Berlin-Wilmersdorf with his diploma (Abitur) in 1912 with
an intermediate to good overall rating. Ernst Lindemann attended
the Royal Polytechnic Institution in Richmond, London, England.
Ernst Lindemann met Charlotte Weil née Fritsche 1899
to 1979, a Berlin singer, in the spring of 1920. The couple
wedded on 1 February 1921, and they had a girl, Helga Maria,
born on 26 February 1924. Ernst Lindemann's job as a naval
officer involved him be away from his family for extended
periods of time. Nevertheless this proved to be too exacting
on the married couple, and they were divorced in 1932. Ernst
Lindemann was engaged again on 20 July 1933 to his youngest
brother's sister-in-law, Hildegard Burchard. Hildegard was
fourteen years junior than Ernst Lindemann. They wedded on
27 October 1934 in the St Annen Church in Berlin Dahlem Germany.
The ceremonial occasion was done by Martin Niemöller,
a founding father of the Confessing Church, later incarcerated
as an anti national socialist. They had a girl, Heidi Maria,
born on 6 July 1939.
Ernst Lindemann journeyed with his parents to Flensburg for
his medical checkup on 26 March 1913 at the Naval Academy
at Mürwik. The solid financial background of his parents
made him a desirable applicant for the Kaiserliche Marine,
as the costs connected with a naval training in 1909 were
800 to 1000 Marks each year for 8 years. By comparison, a
metal worker earned 1366 Marks per annum and a teacher 3294
Marks per annum. Only 5 percent of the German population at
the time earned more than 3000 Marks annually. Nevertheless,
the doctor certified him as fit only for limited duties, as
he had pneumonia in childhood which had left him unfit for
service in U-boats. Subsequently after a second medical checkup,
he was admitted on probation, and Ernst Lindemann became one
of the 290 young men of Crew 1913 the incoming class of 1913.
Ernst Lindemann was formally enlisted in the Kaiserliche Marine
as a Seekadett on 1 April 1913.
Ernst Lindemann was assigned to SMS Hertha with 71 of his
comrades, from the cadets of Crew 1913 in May 1930. At that
time, SMS Hertha was under the command of Captain Heinrich
Rohardt, a friend of his uncle Friedrich Tiesmeyer. Coming
on board on 9 May, they were separated into watches comprising
of roughly 18 men each. SMS Hertha left Mürwik and stayed
in Kiel, Germany till the end of the month. On 29 May 1913,
SMS Hertha headed for Swinemünde, where she stayed until
15 June. The next stop, through Sassnitz and Visby, was Stockholm,
capital of Sweden, arriving on 24 June. SMS Hertha remained
in Stockholm until 1 July, before leaving for Bergen in the
Kingdom of Norway. Later on, the voyage carried on to the
Lönne Fjord. Here, Ernst Lindemann met his commander-in-chief
Kaiser
Wilhelm
II for the first time. SMS Hertha then returned to Wilhelmshaven,
Germany, arriving in on 8 August 1913.
One week later, SMS Hertha started a seven month training
cruise from 15 August 1913 to 12 March 1914. The ocean trip
took Ernst Lindemann to Dartmouth in England, Vilagarcía
de Arousa in Kingdom of Spain, Faial Island in the Azores
and as far as Halifax in Nova Scotia. The return voyage went
via Vera Cruz in United Mexican States, Havana in Cuba, Haitian
capital in Haiti, Kingston in capital of Jamaican, Port of
Spain in Trinidad and then to the Canary Islands, Madeira,
and the Spanish mainland, getting back in Germany in the middle
of March 1914, first in Brunsbüttel and two days later
in Kiel, Germany. Ernst Lindemann was promoted to Fähnrich
zur See on 3 April 1914.
With the German proclamation of war in August 1914, all further
training at the naval academy was ceased and the normal mandatory
officer testing was passed over. The entire Crew 1913 was
allotted to respective units in the Kaiserliche Marine. Ernst
Lindemann was assigned to SMS Lothringen, a battleship which
belonged to the 2nd Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet
under the command of Vizeadmiral Reinhard Scheer, acquiring
the position of third wireless telegraphy officer. SMS Lothringen
was largely tasked with policing the North Sea, navigating
back and forth between Altenbruch and Brunsbüttel without
engaging in armed combat. Ernst Lindemann left SMS Lothringen
on 1 June 1915 to attend the wireless telegraphy school at
Mürwik. Ernst Lindemann with success finished the course
and came back in July 1915. Ernst Lindemann then took over
the position of 2nd wireless telegraphy officer and was promoted
to Leutnant zur See on 18 September 1915.
SMS Bayern went on sea trials at Kiel Canal. On 19 March 1916,
Ernst Lindemann was transferred to the freshly commissioned
battleship SMS Bayern under the command of Captain Max Hahn,
with the same rank of 2nd wireless telegraphy officer. SMS
Bayern, with her eight 38 cm guns, was the most powerful ship
of the fleet. It Her crew had been mostly assigned from SMS
Lothringen, which remained to serve as a training ship. Onboard
SMS Bayern, now under the command of Captain Rohardt, Ernst
Lindemann took part in Operation Albion in September to October
1917. Operation Albion's objective was the invasion and occupation
of the Estonian islands of Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Muhu, then
part of the Russian Republic. At 507 hours on 12 October 1917,
SMS Bayern hit a mine whilst manoeuvring into her barrage
location to secure the landing beaches at Pamerort. 7 sailors
were killed. In spite of mine damage, SMS Bayern attacked
the coast defence battery at Cape Toffri on the southern tip
of Hiiumaa. SMS Bayern was discharged from her responsibilities
at 1400 hrs that day. Temporary repairs were made on 13 October
in Tagga Bay before SMS Bayern to Kiel, Germany on 1 November
1917.
Later after the armistice in 1918, SMS Bayern collectively
with the bulk of the German High Seas Fleet was interned at
Scapa Flow, the home of the British Grand Fleet. SMS Bayern
got there on 23 November 1918 with a skeleton crew of only
175 men, including Ernst Lindemann, who was then ordered to
return to Germany, arriving in Kiel on 12 January. On 21 June
1919, Admiral Ludwig von Reuter ordered the interned fleet
to be scuttled, and SMS Bayern sank at 1430 hrs.
Once Ernst Lindemann came back to Germany, it was dubious
whether he could stay on, on active military service. Because
of the Treaty of Versailles which was signed on 28 June 1919,
the German Navy was downsized to 15,000 men, including 1,500
officers, while the German Navy was renamed the Reichsmarine
in the era of the Weimar Republic. Whilst Ernst Lindemann
had finished 5th in the Class of 1913, Ernst Lindemann stood
a good chance of being kept on. Ernst Lindemann served temporarily
in the Dahlem Protection Company a part of the Protection
Regiment of Greater Berlin June to July 1919, before Ernst
Lindemann became adjutant to the recently created chief of
the Naval Command Department on 1 August 1919 to 30 September
1922, at the time under the command of William Michaelis.
The Naval Command Department was directly subordinated to
the Admiralty Staff. At the same time, Ernst Lindemann had
the position of adjutant in the Fleet Department. During this
assignment Ernst Lindemann was promoted to Oberleutnant zur
See on 7 January 1920.
Ernst Lindemann's following assignment on 1 October 1922 to
30 September 1924 was onboard the battleship SMS Hannover,
where Ernst Lindemann served as a watch and division officer.
During this appointment, Ernst Lindemann attended an officers'
course at the ships' gunnery school in Kiel, Germany between
5 February and 3 May 1924. Then, Ernst Lindemann took command
of the 1st Artillery Company of the 3rd Coastal defence Department
in Friedrichsort in Kiel, Germany on 1 October 1924 to 26
September 1926. Ernst Lindemann commanding officer was Korvettenkapitän
Otto Schultze, a former First World War U-boat commandant
and later Generaladmiral of the Kriegsmarine. Whilst in that
position, Ernst Lindemann was promoted to Kapitänleutnant
on 1 January 1925.
Ernst Lindemann following appointment was on 27 September
1926 to 6 September 1929 placed him on the Admiral's staff
at the Baltic Naval Station, first as a staff officer then
as assistant to the chief of the station, which was under
the command of Vizeadmiral
Erich
Raeder. Then, Ernst Lindemann was transferred to the Elsass
serving as the second gunnery officer and Fähnrichsoffizier
officer in charge of cadets, and responsible for the onboard
training of the officer cadets, from 7 September 1929 February
1930. Whilst keeping the same rank, Ernst Lindemann was then
transferred to the pre-dreadnought
Schleswig-Holstein.
On 30 January 1933, the National Socialist German Workers'
Party, under the leadership of
Adolf
Hitler, came to power in Germany, introducing a period
of naval rearmament. In 1935, the Reichsmarine was renamed
the Kriegsmarine. Between 22 September 1931 and 22 September
1934, Ernst Lindemann was a senior lecturer at the Naval Gunnery
School in Kiel, Germany. Ernst Lindemann was then assigned
to the SMS Hessen under the command of Commandant Hermann
Boehm and served as first gunnery officer from 23 September
1933 to 8 April 1934. Ernst Lindemann was promoted to Korvettenkapitän
on 1 April 1932. On 9 April 1934, Ernst Lindemann was ordered
to the Wilhelmshaven Shipyard, Germany on April and November
1934 for training in ship building and familiarisation with
the pocket battleship
Admiral
Scheer, under the command of Commandant
Wilhelm
Marschall.
Whilst on their pocket battleship
Admiral
Scheer, Ernst Lindemann once again served as 1st gunnery
officer, and in that position Ernst Lindemann took part in
the Spanish Civil War from 24 July 1936 to 30 August 1936.
Thepocket battleship
Admiral
Scheer had to make ready for the mission on short notice,
the order came from Admiral Rolf Carls on 23 July 1936 at
1345 hrs. The normal 48 hours needed to organise the ship
was cut down to 12 hours, necessitating a lot of the crew
and particularly Ernst Lindemann. As the first gunnery officer,
Ernst Lindemann was accountable for managing and storing all
ordnance stores. The pocket battleship
Admiral
Scheer and the pocket battleship
Deutschland
(
Lützow)
left Germany on 24 July at 800 hours. Ernst Lindemann's main
duties included commanding the German landing companies and
acting as diplomatic aid and interpreter for
Wilhelm
Marschall. These landing parties comprised of up to 350
men, which included 11 officers, 15 non-commissioned officers
and 266 Navy personnel, or roughly a third of the crew. Whilst
on the homecoming voyage to Germany, pocket battleship
Admiral
Scheer stopped at Gibraltar on the morning of 25 August
1936.
Wilhelm
Marschall and Ernst Lindemann and other officers met with
the British Governor and Rear Admiral James Somerville. Later
on Ernst Lindemann returned to Germany, he was promoted to
Fregattenkapitän on 1 October 1936.
During 1936 and 1938, Ernst Lindemann was an consultant and
later head of the ship building section at the Naval High
Command, and simultaneously a adviser to and later chief of
the Naval Training Department. On 1 April 1938, Ernst Lindemann
was promoted to the rank of Kapitän zur See. On 30 September
1939, one month after the outbreak of the Second World War,
Ernst Lindemann succeeded Heinrich Woldag as commandant of
the Naval Gunnery School in Wik in Kiel, Germany after Heinrich
Woldag took command of the heavy cruiser
Blücher.
Ernst Lindemann was disappointed by the fact that as commandant
of the Naval Gunnery School he would never come into direct
contact with the opposition. While Ernst Lindemann received
the news that he had been hand-picked to be the first commandant
of the battleship
Bismarck,
Ernst Lindemann was honoured by the confidence that had been
bestowed on him but doubted that he would be able to get battleship
Bismarck
ready for action before the war was over. Ernst Lindemann
uncertainties indicate that he was convinced the war would
end in a prosperous outcome for Germany by mid 1940. Before
commanding battleship
Bismarck,
Ernst Lindemann had never held any shipboard command, a situation
rare if not unique in the Kriegsmarine. However, Ernst Lindemann
had served solely on ships with a gun calibre of at least
28 cm, and he was Germany's leading gunnery expert. In 1940,
Ernst Lindemann ranked 2nd out of Crew 1913 and was regarded
an spectacular leader.
Ernst Lindemann arrived at the
Blohm
& Voss shipbuilding works in Hamburg, Germany at the
beginning of August 1940. battleship
Bismarck's
keel had been laid on 1 July 1936 and she was launched on
14 February 1939. Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg
joined battleship
Bismarck
as 4th gunnery officer in June 1940, and he would become the
highest ranking officer to survive battleship
Bismarck's
last battle on 27 May 1941. So much of what is currently known
about battleship
Bismarck's
last days is accredited to his account as a witness. Ernst
Lindemann made Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg
his personnel adjutant and taught him to refer to the ship
as he rather than she, Ernst Lindemann believed the ship too
powerful to be referred to as a female. Ernst Lindemann commissioned
the battleship
Bismarck
on 24 August 1940. Ernst Lindemann showed a good deal of attachment
to the ship and was well-thought-of by his crew.
The Battleship
Bismarck
left the Kiel Fjord on the morning of 28 September 1940 heading
east. Subsequently after an quiet voyage through rough oceans,
The Battleship
Bismarck
arrived at Gotenhafen the next day. The Battleship
Bismarck
executed a number of sea trials in the comparative safety
of the Bay of Danzig. On 30 November 1940, Ernst Lindemann
had set a number of trials for the crew, which they surpassed
at. Whilst at high speed trials, the battleship
Bismarck
reached a top speed of 30.8 kn, surpassing the design speed.
Nevertheless, one failing promptly became evident, without
the rudders and using only the propellers, the battleship
Bismarck
was just about impossible to manoeuvre.
The battleship
Bismarck
left Hamburg for the first time on 15 September 1940. In November
1940, Von Müllenheim-Rechberg was sent to the Naval Gunnery
School at Wik to finish his heavy gun training classes, which
stopped his position as Ernst Lindemann's personal adjutant.
Ernst Lindemann's new adjutant was the signals officer Lieutenant
Wolfgang Reiner. The battleship
Bismarck's
heavy guns were first test fired in the 2nd half of November,
and the battleship
Bismarck
was proven to be a very stable gun platform. During the 1940
Xmas festivity aboard the battleship
Bismarck,
Ernst Lindemann and the bulk of the officers, noncommissioned
officers and sailors went on home leave. 1st gunnery officer
Korvettenkapitän Adalbert Schneider relieved Ernst Lindemann
as the battleship
Bismarck's
commandant during his absence. Ernst Lindemann spent his leave
with his wife and daughter and came back on 1 January 1941.
In 28 April 1941, the battleship
Bismarck
and crew were ready, and stores were brought aboard for a
three month tour. Ernst Lindemann advised Oberkommando der
Marine (Naval High Command), Marinegruppen Nord und West (Naval
Groups North and West) and Fleet Command that the battleship
Bismarck
was ready for action. The Chief of Fleet Admiral
Günther
Lütjens and his fleet staff held drills for the first
time aboard the battleship
Bismarck
on 13 May, assessing the communication chain between Fleet
Command and the battleship
Bismarck's
officers.
Adolf Hitler
came with Generalfeldmarschall
Wilhelm
Keitel, his previous naval adjutant Commander
Karl-Jesco
von Puttkamer, and his Luftwaffe adjutant Oberst Nicolaus
von Below, among others visited the battleship
Bismarck
on 5 May 1941. Großadmiral
Erich
Raeder was not present.
Adolf
Hitler was taken on a tour of the battleship
Bismarck
by Admiral
Günther
Lütjens and inspected the individual battle stations.
Adolf Hitler
and
Günther
Lütjens also met in private and talked about the
risks of a tour in the North Atlantic Ocean. Subsequently
after this meeting,
Adolf
Hitler and the officers of the battleship
Bismarck
had luncheon in the officers' mess, where
Adolf
Hitler spoke about United States of America unwillingness
to enter the war. Ernst Lindemann openly took issue with
Adolf
Hitler, conveying his opinion that the possibility of
the U.S. entering the war could not be eliminated.
The goal of Operation Rheinübung (Rhine Exercise) was
for the battleship
Bismarck
and the heavy cruiser
Prinz
Eugen under the command of Ernst Lindemann's Crew 1913
classmate Kapitän zur See
Helmuth
Brinkmann to break into the Atlantic Ocean and engage
Allied merchant shipping. Großadmiral
Erich
Raeder's orders to the task force commandant Admiral
Günther
Lütjens were that the objective of the battleship
Bismarck
isn't to defeat enemies of equal strength, but to tie them
down in a delaying action, whilst conserving fighting capacity
as much as conceivable, so as to allow heavy cruiser
Prinz
Eugen to get access to the merchantmen in the convoys
and The primary target in this operation is the enemy's merchant
shipping, enemy warships will be engaged only if that objective
makes it essential and it can be done without unreasonable
danger.
On 19 May 1941 at 0200 hrs, the battleship
Bismarck
and heavy cruiser
Prinz
Eugen left Gotenhafen and continued through the Baltic
Sea and out toward the Atlantic Ocean. Unbeknown to
Günther
Lütjens, the British had intercepted sufficient signals
to deduce that a German naval operation could happen in the
area. The German task force was first ran across by the Swedish
seaplane cruiser Gotland on 20 May heading North West past
Gothenburg. The British Admiralty was advised through a Norwegian
officer in Stockholm, capital of Sweden who had learned of
the sighting from a Swedish military intelligence informant.
Alarmed by this report, British Admiralty called for air reconnaissance
mission of the Norwegian coast. A Spitfire reconnaissance
aircraft discovered and photographed the German naval task
force in the Grimstad fjord, near Bergen, at 1315 hrs on 21
May. During the evening of 23 May at 1922 hrs, the German
naval force was discovered by the heavy cruisers HMS Suffolk
and HMS Norfolk that had been policing the Denmark Strait
in anticipation of a German naval breakout. The alarm was
sounded and Ernst Lindemann declared at 2030 hrs over the
intercom system Feind in Sicht an Backbord, Schiff nimmt Gefecht
auf. (Enemy sighted to port. Engage!) The battleship
Bismarck
fired 5 salvos without scoring a direct hit. The heavily outgunned
British naval cruisers withdrew to a safe distance and shadowed
the opposition until their own heavy naval units could draw
closer. Nevertheless, the battleship
Bismarck's
forward radio detection and ranging had failed as a result
of vibration from the heavy guns firing during this encounter,
and
Günther
Lütjens was compelled to order heavy cruiser
Prinz
Eugen to move ahead of the battleship
Bismarck
in order to furnish the naval squadron with forward radio
detection and ranging coverage.
During the Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24 May 1941, HMS
Hood was sunk, in all likelihood by the battleship
Bismarck.
The hydrophones on heavy cruiser
Prinz
Eugen discovered a foreign ship to port at a 0500 hrs.
The German naval force seeing the smokestacks of two ships
at 0545 hrs, which the first gunnery officer Korvettenkapitän
Adalbert Schneider at first reported as two heavy cruisers.
The first British salvo gave away them to be battleships,
but not until the British naval task force turned to port
was their specific identity discovered. The British naval
ships began firing at the German naval task force at 0553
hrs. Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland decided on targeting the
battleship
Bismarck
first, but due to the reversed German battle order, HMS Prince
of Wales and HMS Hood opened fire on the heavy cruiser
Prinz
Eugen as an alternative. The commander of the HMS Prince
of Wales Captain John Leach discovered this error and ordered
his guns swung around to fire on the battleship
Bismarck.
The German naval task force was still awaiting for the order
to start firing, which Admiral
Günther
Lütjens did not give straightaway. Two minutes later,
after several inquiries by Schneider, was permission given
to open fire, an impatient Ernst Lindemann replied: Ich lasse
mir doch nicht mein Schiff unter dem Arsch wegschießen.
Feuererlaubnis! (I'm not letting my ship get shot out from
under my arse. Open fire! At 0601 hrs, the 5th salvo by the
battleship
Bismarck,
fired at a range of about 18,000 m, was seen to hit HMS Hood
abreast her mainmast. It's likely that one 38 cm shell struck
someplace between HMS Hood's mainmast and X turret aft of
the mast. A vast jet of flame burst out from HMS Hood from
the area of the mainmast. These were accompanied by a devastating
magazine explosion that demolished the aft part of the ship.
These explosions broke the back of HMS Hood, and she sank
in only 3 minutes, her nearly upright bow last to descend
into the water.
The battleship
Bismarck
firing at HMS Prince of Wales on 24 May 1941 as seen from
heavy cruiser
Prinz
Eugen. Following the explosion, HMS Prince of Wales was
targeted by both German ships and withdrew from combat after
7 direct hits, 4 by the battleship
Bismarck
and 3 by heavy cruiser
Prinz
Eugen, at about 0609 hrs. During this brief engagement,
HMS Prince of Wales had also hit the battleship
Bismarck
3 times, 1st striking the commandant boat and putting the
seaplane catapult amidships out of action. The 2nd shell passed
right through the bow from one side to the other. The third
struck the hull underwater and burst inside the ship, flooding
a generator room and damaging the bulkhead of an adjoining
boiler room, partly flooding it. The damage caused to the
battleship
Bismarck
by these two shots allowed 2,000 t of water into the battleship
Bismarck.
Ernst Lindemann and
Günther
Lütjens at this point disagreed on how best to carry
on the mission. Ernst Lindemann, as commandant of the battleship
Bismarck,
was directed by the tactical position, and wanted to hunt
down the damaged HMS Prince of Wales. The German naval task
force did not know the ship to be HMS Prince of Wales, but
knew that it was a King George V class battleship.
Günther
Lütjens, evidently aware of the fleet order to avoid
unneeded contact with similar enemy naval units, disapproved
this without discussion. Ernst Lindemann and
Günther
Lütjens also disagreed on where to take the ship
for repairs, Ernst Lindemann recommended reconstructing their
path through the Denmark Strait and coming back to Bergen,
Norway.
Günther
Lütjens overrode him and ordered a course set for
Saint-Nazaire, France. In the afternoon, Admiral
Günther
Lütjens ordered heavy cruiser
Prinz
Eugen to break away from the battleship
Bismarck
and work independently against the enemy's merchant shipping.
heavy cruiser
Prinz
Eugen and the battleship
Bismarck
parted at 1814 hours that evening. heavy cruiser
Prinz
Eugen made it safely at Brest, France on 1 June 1941.
No direct witnesses to this difference of opinion came through
the sinking, but Matrosengefreiter Heinz Staat, the helmsman
on the bridge, recollected a phone call between the 1st Watch
Officer, commandant Hans Oels, and a fleet staff officer which
recommended that Ernst Lindemann had been trying to sway
Günther
Lütjens to engage the enemy. A courier coming back
to his companions below spoke of dicke Luft (thick air or
a bad atmosphere) on the bridge.
The battleship
Bismarck
was sunk less than a week later, after a concentrated attempt
by Britain's Royal Navy. At 2330 hrs on 24 May an attack was
made by a small group of nine Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers
of 825 Naval Air Squadron under the command of Eugene Esmonde
from the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious. One hit was scored,
which killed Oberbootsmann Kurt Kirchberg, but caused only
trivial damage to the battleship
Bismarck's
armoured belt. In mid-morning at 1030 hrs on 26 May, a Royal
Air Force Coastal Command Catalina reconnaissance aircraft
from 209 Squadron Royal Air Force spotted the battleship
Bismarck
approximately 700 nautical miles west of Saint-Nazaire. The
British naval battle group Force H, under the command of Admiral
James Somerville, whose main units were the aircraft carrier
HMS Ark Royal, the World War I era battlecruiser HMS Renown
and the cruiser HMS Sheffield, was ordered to stop the battleship
Bismarck.
At 1915 hours that evening, 15 Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers
from HMS Ark Royal launched an attack. The air raid alarm
was sounded on the battleship
Bismarck
at 2030 hrs. Approximately fifteen minutes into the attack
the battleship
Bismarck
was possibly hit by one torpedo, and at around 2100 hrs another
single torpedo obstructed the battleship
Bismarck's
rudder in a 12° right turn. Damage control parties toiled
to regain manoeuvering control and uncoupled and centred the
starboard rudder, but failed to free the port rudder. With
asymmetric power applied, speed reduced to 8 kn, the battleship
Bismarck
was on a convergence course with the Royal Navy units on the
chase. The alarm sounded again at 2300 hrs when destroyers
of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla under the command of Captain
Philip Vian attacked the battleship
Bismarck.
During the night the battleship
Bismarck
was targeted by constant torpedo attacks by HMS Cossack, Sikh,
Maori, Zulu, and ORP Piorun, denying Ernst Lindemann and the
crew much needed respite.
The battleship
Bismarck's
alarm sounded for the last time at 800 hours on the morning
of 27 May 1941. HMS Norfolk sighted the battleship
Bismarck
at 0815 hrs, and the battleship HMS Rodney opened fire on
the battleship
Bismarck
at 0848 hours. The battleship
Bismarck
returned fire at 0849 hrs. Further involved in the final battle
were the battleship HMS King George V and the cruisers HMS
Norfolk and HMS Dorsetshire. Torpedo bombers did not take
part in the final battle. The battleship
Bismarck's
forward command location was hit at 0853 hrs, and both forward
gun turrets were put out of action at 0902 hrs, killing Adalbert
Schneider in the main gun director. The after command position
was destroyed at a 918 hours and turret Dora was out of action
at 0924 hrs. The battleship
Bismarck
experienced further heavy hits at 0940 hrs, ensuing in a fire
amidships, and turret Caesar went out of action after a hit
at 0950 hrs. All weapons fell silent at 1000 hrs. Short of
fuel, HMS Rodney and HMS King George V had to withdraw preceding
to the battleship
Bismarck's
sinking. The Germans were organising to scuttle the battleship
Bismarck
when three torpedoes fired by HMS Dorsetshire hit the ship's
side armour. The battleship
Bismarck
sank at 1036 hrs at position roughly 300 nautical miles west
of Ouessant (Ushant). The cruiser HMS Dorsetshire rescued
85 men, and the British destroyer HMS Maori rescued 25. A
further five sailors were rescued by German U-boat
U-74
under the command of Korvettenkapitän Eitel-Friedrich
Kentrat and the weather observation ship Sachsenwald. The
Befehlshaber der U-Boote (U-boats Commander-in-Chief)
Karl
Dönitz had ordered
U-556
under the command of Korvettenkapitän Herbert Wohlfarth
to pick up the battleship
Bismarck's
war diary. Out of torpedoes and low on fuel, Wohlfarth requested
that the order be transferred to
U-74.
U-74
failed to reach the battleship
Bismarck
on time and the war diary was never retrieved.
Burkard von Müllenheim-Rechberg saw Ernst Lindemann for
the last time at around 0800 hrs on the command bridge just
before the final battle. Burkard von Müllenheim-Rechberg
described the generally levelheaded, bantering and optimistic
Ernst Lindemann now as demoralised and withdrawn. Burkard
von Müllenheim-Rechberg tried to talk to him and was
ignored, and later wondered whether this was attributable
to battle fatigue or whether the disagreements with
Günther
Lütjens had worn him down.
The Ernst Lindemann family plot at Cemetery Dahlem, Berlin,
Germany inscription in memory of Kapitän zur See Ernst
Lindemann. Ernst Lindemann's body was never recovered, and
it is thought that he,
Günther
Lütjens and other officers probably died when shells
from the British warships hit the battleship
Bismarck's
bridge at 0902 hrs. When Robert Ballard discovered the wreck
in 1989, he found that most of the forward superstructure
had been blasted away by shellfire and there were more than
50 shell holes around the area of the conning tower. This
may support the hypothesis.
As an alternative, Ernst Lindemann may have left his combat
position when the battleship
Bismarck's
controls were rendered unusable, and prior to the lethal hit
on the command position, in order to give the command to abandon
the ship. The surviving Matrose Paul Hillen who had managed
to escape to the upper deck in the final phase of the battle,
said that he had seen a group of 20-30 people standing at
the bow, among them a man with a white peaked cap. Generally
on a German naval vessel at sea, a white cap is worn only
by the commandant. Additionally, the surviving Maschinengefreiter
Rudolf Römer, who at the time was already in the water
laid claim that he had seen Ernst Lindemann standing on the
bow, near the battleship
Bismarck's
forward 38 cm turret, Anton. He was said to be with his combat
courier, a leading seaman, and evidently trying to sway his
courier to save himself. In this account, his courier took
Ernst Lindemann's hand and the two walked to the forward flag
mast As the ship turned over, the two stood briefly to attention,
then Ernst Lindemann and his courier saluted. Whilst the ship
rolled to port, the courier dropped into the water. Ernst
Lindemann carrying on his salute while clinging to the flag
mast went down with the battleship
Bismarck.
On Wednesday, 28 May 1941 Ernst Lindemann was posthumously
named in the daily Wehrmachtbericht, an information bulletin
issued by the military headquarters of the Wehrmacht the amalgamated
armed forces of Germany. To be singled out on an individual
basis in the Wehrmachtbericht was an honour and was entered
in the Orders and Decorations' section of one's Service Record
Book.
Ernst Lindemann's comrades of Crew 1913 all got hold of the
young widow after his death. The former head of Crew 1913,
Kapitän zur See Klüber, contacted Mrs Ernst Lindemann
in the fall of 1941 and offered her an honorary membership.
Shortly after Christmas on 27 December 1941, exactly seven
months after the sinking of the battleship
Bismarck
and the death of its commandant, Kapitän zur See Ernst
Lindemann received a posthumous Knight's Cross of the Iron
Cross. Ernst Lindemann received this high award because the
Oberkommando der Marine felt that his skilled leadership importantly
contributed to the destruction of the British battlecruiser
HMS Hood and the damage inflicted on the British battleship
HMS Prince of Wales. Ernst Lindemann was the 94th recipient
of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in the Kriegsmarine.
Ernst Lindemann's 1st gunnery officer Korvettenkapitän
Adalbert Schneider had been awarded the Knight's Cross of
the Iron Cross on 27 May 1941. Traditionally, the commanding
officer would have received this award before any other crewman
was so honoured. This exception had been criticised by several
circles in the Wehrmacht. It is thought likely that Ernst
Lindemann's cousin, the former General der Kavallarie Georg
Lindemann, stepped in. Grand Admiral
Erich
Raeder, with whom Ernst Lindemann shared a 20 year camaraderie
dating to the early days of the Reichsmarine, presented the
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross to Mrs Ernst Lindemann on
Tuesday, 6 January 1942, in Dahlem.
Erich
Raeder went on to furnish moral and emotional support
to Ernst Lindemann's mother and widow.
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