This I think is a very important point, as none of Bismarcks' senior officers or indeed hardly anybody in constant close contact with them survived.Karl Heidenreich wrote:I believe all misconceptions born from the lack of information about what Lindemann and/or Lutjens thought, believe or want to do in those critical moments. We have accounts from other sources but not from these two persons, the most important ones in Bismarck.
But we do have evidence from those that did survive, from Lutjens lengthy radio messages after turning directly for France, character winesses who knew Lutjens and Lindemann well, as well as their actions during the sortie. From that I think an accurate picture can be constructed, even though an element of conjecture has to be brought in.
We all live in liberal democracies where (I hope) we all hate war and the death, distress and damage it causes. My understanding of the conduct of naval leadership is, to use the terminology applied in ''Star Trek'' that the''Prime Directive'' for a commander is the safety of his command and crew. That is the responsibility of excercising command, of giving orders that must be obeyed without prevarication.
Inevitably the political environment in which a commander has to operate is crucial in how this is carried out, I have just commented on that in my above post.
But the question for me, and the crucial point is, how well did Lutjens and Lindemann perform in adherence to the ''Prime Directive?''
This is another reason why I proposed elsewhere in this forum the suggestion that Admiral Wilhelm Marschall might have been a more appropriate choice as Fleet Commander - he had more experience of the world, he was more flexible and less fatalistic. Maybe he would have performed better, maybe not.
There was also a poll on this website asking whether Bismarck should have been scuttled before the final action of 27 May. I voted ''No'' because I believe that a warships duty is to fight, not surrender or give up.
But if it is the case that the leaders simply give up, they abdicate responsibility and leave 2,200 men to be slaughtered in return for nothing then quite honestly the Bismarck should have scuttled as the poll proposed.