Bismarck and the Brandenburgers

[Gudbrandur]

There still is a big mystery in the Bismarck story concerning the count of the living and the dead. She had 2400 crew as to record, the living and the dead where 2249, that leaves me with 151 names missing from the acount. As I have indicated earlier She left Germany for the Reinubung with the crew of 2249, for Norway where She picked up the 151 Brandenburgers all Krigsmarine specialists in asault from the sea. The name of the mission indicates a river to be used for practical purposes in the Atlandic, I belive this river to be the Icelandic ,"Ölfusá" that onshore, had the biggest airfield," Kaldadarnes", the British could use for Uboat detection. Karl Dönitz of the Uboats wanted that airfield out of the way in the spring of 1941 using the Brandenburgers and the Bismarck.
Where can I find the names of the 151 Brandenburgers that I suspect went down with the Birmarck in 1941.

Gudbrandur

[Herr Nilsson]

I'm afraid your post is three days late.

[alecsandros]

I'm afraid your post is three days late.

[Gudbrandur]

The missing Brandenburgers on the Bismarck mission belonged to the German Abwehr intelligence service. They were under the command of Wilhelm Canaris, from Abweher II, the 2. Kompanie, commandos speaking English, Portuguese and Frence and came from North Africa, UK and USA. Part of the unit was in Denmark and Norway and was preparing for Operation Sealion, the invation of England in the spring of 1941, when they were sent on the Operation Reinubung, onboard the Bismarck. The missing Brandenburg commandos were a special unit of the OKW, German Armed Forces High Command. The Abweher II of the 2. Kompanie were a special mission, long range Sabotage unit. Some came from the Kustenjagerabteilung operating in Norway in the spring of 1941.

The Bismarck mission in the spring of 1941 was an OKW mission, with a direct order from No. One, Hitler, and connected to the Operation Sealion and Operation Reinubung. Mission objectiv, to invade England.

[Herr Nilsson]

She had 2400 crew as to record...

Which record?

[culverin]

Sorry gents, but this thread has left me sorely disappointed and somewhat bemused.
Could you stop talking in riddles.
When a warship is lost, there are 2 distinct groups of individuals onboard.
Her crew.
Her non crew.
Both however are always included in the total of all those either killed in action, where an individuals body is recovered or dies subsequently, or those missing in action where they were on the ship at her loss but whose body was never recovered.

Would you be good enough to enlighten us to the reason such Brandenburgers may have been onboard.
Sealion by now was history, why would they have taken passage in Bismarck of all ships and an inevitable fate.
This was not some bit part amateurish outfit, but their presence on Bismarck would have been a major distraction and irritation.

[RF]

This was not some bit part amateurish outfit, but their presence on Bismarck would have been a major distraction and irritation.

And would have been fully recorded and documented at the time.

Only they weren't - because they didn't exist.

[Gudbrandur]

Investigating clandistine operations is always difficult to do. It is the nature of the thing. Carl Dönitz did try again using the Brandenburgers to perform a sabotage mission to Iceland in 1942. I have a document on that plan sent to me from Freiburg. Don´t forget, Carl Dönitz was translating German documents over to English for the Americans as a POW, together with other high ranking German Krigsmarine officers. I thought it was a bad joke when I saw this in writning. This fact was a Top secret until resently. Someone needs to go back to the orginal German documents in German and retranslate the work of Carl Dönitz and his high ranking German officers.

[RF]

Could you explain how it is that nobody on board Bismarck noticed the presence of these supernumaries? Could you explain why none of the accounts of the Bismarck included any mention of this operation? And why none of the Fleet orders made any mention of such an operation which would require the authorisation of the Fuhrer to proceed?

The KM did not have any combat troops or equivalent of the RN Royal Marines and kept the SS out of naval activities. The only use of KM personnel for ground combat duties occured long after the Bismarck operation, and then were completely defensive in nature - such as defence of naval bases against ground attack.

Had the KM developed naval assault troops (and not doing so was a significant blunder) they could have been put to far better use than a sortie to Iceland, given that the long eastern and southern coastlines of England presented numerous targets for commando attacks.