Wehrpass Oberleutnant Soltau, Bismarck Artillery Officer

Anything about the crew, families, origins, etc.
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Oberbootsmann
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Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2016 8:31 am

Wehrpass Oberleutnant Soltau, Bismarck Artillery Officer

Post by Oberbootsmann »

Hello. I would like to show one of the center pieces of my collection:

A Bismarck Officer crew member Wehrpass which is probably the most interesting one existing.
And it has never been in a private collection before.

It belonged to "Oberleutnant zur See Georg Soltau" who was Artillery Officer for "Forward Close Range Weapons" on the Bismarck.

His career started on April 4th 1936 and ended on May 27th 1941 when the Bismarck sank with him.

During his training he served on many known ships (e.g. SSS Gorck Fock, Kr. Emden) before serving 9 months on the Bismarck and of course he took part in the battle with the "Hood".
On May 27th 1941 he died when the Bismarck sank.

Another very interesting thing is that he had 2 times flight training at Flugzeugführerschule (Flight school) Parow and Warnemünde where he was trained as a flight observer.

It is to be assumed that he also was a crew member of one of the 4 Bismarck ship planes "Arado AR 196" among his primary duty as an Artillery Officer.

Can someone confirm that he was a crew member of one of the aircrafts aboard Bismarck?

I've tried to attach some scans but I got informed that they are too large which I can't believe as the had an approx. size of 350 kb.

Regards, Matthias
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RF
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Location: Wolverhampton, ENGLAND

Re: Wehrpass Oberleutnant Soltau, Bismarck Artillery Officer

Post by RF »

Oberbootsmann wrote: Sun Jul 24, 2016 9:09 am

Another very interesting thing is that he had 2 times flight training at Flugzeugführerschule (Flight school) Parow and Warnemünde where he was trained as a flight observer.
Sounds like training as an artillery spotter for the ship gunnery control. Whether as an artillery officer he would still have those duties I would have thought unlikely, a non com would be more likely to be used.
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
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