Naval History Forums

Ciao Matthias and all,

well as it is evident a 'personality' was involved into an ' incident' on May 5th, 1941 on Bismarck, ... but the ship was not 'directly' involved ....

You know the sailors do have particular skill to move on a ship, ..
and that ' personality' was well known to be a guy that was not much expert about ships at all, ... so he had to pay the price for it, ....

.. incident on board Bismarck, .. military salute on board Tirpitz from the Flottenchef, .. what a day it was,.. better stay with the feet on the ground we say in Italy.

Lets put it on this way and close it here, .. better to talk about ships my friend

Ciao Antonio

Hi Antonio,

are you mildly suggesting that Der Fuhrer slipped and slammed his ass on the Bismarck's deck ?

What a great pic would that make !

The most important German leader for future generations to remember (as he tought of himself) on such an inconvenient posture.

It is stunning how a peculiar character like him could cause, and did cause, all that grief and death.

Something we should always bear in mind as a lesson for the future when choosing our political leaders.

Great photos, anyway. Thanks for sharing Jose.

Ciao my friends

Luca

Ciao Luca,

the sea GOD's decided that somebody had to pay the price of not been so skilled about Naval stuffs, .... that's life

Ciao Antonio

Sea so often does not forgive great sailors and brave men, and takes their lives...



Surely it does not have mercy of idiots and cowards...

After all these many years, this photo still remains a mistery to me.

José M. Rico wrote:What can you guys tell about this photo? When was it taken?


(Photo negative property of Thomas Schmid).

Hello everybody,

@ Jose',

We are surely in the spring of 1941, not at the commissioning on August 1940 because we can see the swastika banner already painted on the ship main deck stern and that was done in Hamburg on December 1940.

Now we need to find out the occasion of Kpt zur See Lindemann speech, ... and this can be AH birthday on April 20th, ... or Otto von Bismarck birthday on April 1st ...

Does anybody knows precisely the KM sailors uniform change date, ... from winter ( dark ) to summer ( white ) ?

I must have it somewhere ...

Bye Antonio

Antonio Bonomi wrote:Does anybody knows precisely the KM sailors uniform change date, ... from winter ( dark ) to summer ( white ) ?

Sundays and holidays during the summer half of the year (between March 20th and September 22nd) and during home leave.

There are a fuel hose and two life belts in the background. In the other picture is the towing rig for taking on respectively dicharging fuel visible near Dora. It's the quarterdeck because the "Trossenkneifer" (cable pincer?) of the stern anchor is visible. The fueling gear of the quarterdeck was used for discharging fuel. It's likely that this picture was taken near a date when fuel was discharged.

Hello everybody,

@ Herr Nilsson,

I asked that question because on Tirpitz on the same period of 1942 ( April ) I noticed the uniform change with white for the April 20th, 1942 ( it was a Monday ... ... was it considered a holiday the AH birthday ??? ) speech by Kpt zur See Karl Topp in FaettenFjord.

April 1st, 1941 was a Tuesday ( Otto Bismarck birthday ) .... while April 20th, 1941 ( AH birthday ) was a Sunday so they should have had the white uniform if I follow your logic above ...

I checked Bismarck sailor uniforms on May 5th, 1941 for AH visit ( Monday ), ... and they were still wearing the same dark one.

Based on those inputs the photo should have been taken on Tuesday April 1st, 1941 and Otto von Bismarck birthday celebration speech, ...

The ship as you stated seems to have been doing maybe fuel refueling exercise at sea, ... and we know they did it with Prinz Eugen at sea few times and we can check the date on the Prinz Eugen KTB now.

Bye, Antonio

„Führers Geburtstag“ was a holiday.

OTOH the dress code could be ordered different from regulation. Peaked caps for example had to be white after April 20th for all Officer, but you will hardly find a picture with white caps at all.

May 1st is a holiday as well. I don‘t believe it was April 1st, because there was no fueling exercise before April 7th.

Hello everybody,

@ Herr Nilsson,

I see and I agree with you.

Another input we have is that D-Dora turret does not have yet the base turret painted with the RAL 7016 color used for Op. Rheinubung, ... so that must be taken in account too.

We will get close, even if I still miss the reason of the Lindemann speech if it was not Otto Bismarck or AH birthday, ...

Maybe the Baron book can provide some food for thoughts ...

Bye, Antonio

Herr Nilsson wrote:OTOH the dress code could be ordered different from regulation. Peaked caps for example had to be white after April 20th for all Officer, but you will hardly find a picture with white caps at all.

There are several photos of Lindemann wearing a white cap in May 1941 before Rheinübung.
However during Hitler's visit on 5 May he was still wearing the blue cap.

Herr Nilsson wrote:May 1st is a holiday as well. I don‘t believe it was April 1st, because there was no fueling exercise before April 7th.

What about Lindemann's birthday, 28 March?

Yes, I know, but according the regulation all officers had to wear white caps.

Considering that there is the fuel hose March seems to be too early.