PK Ltnt J.C. Schmitz-Westerholt

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao all,

many of you will recognize this name :

Propaganza Krieg (PK) Lieutenant Julius Ceasar Schmitz-Westerholt

he was the painter on board Prinz Eugen during Denmark Strait battle and the author of the article on Signal magazine of September 1941 that is also available to read on this website.

Does anybody knows more about this gentleman ( town he lived, after war activities, etc etc ).

Any info will help me a lot and it is welcome.

Ciao Antonio

[Ulrich Rudofsky]

Lieutenant Julius Caesar Schmitz was an accomplished marine and railroad artist. He served as a propaganda command officer aboard Prinz Eugen during Operation Rheinübung as “Marinekriegsmaler - navy combat illustrator”. The hypen name – Westerholt was added to his name perhaps by the American or British archivists. He generally signed his name “J. or J.C. Schmitz” on his paintings. He may have been from Westerholt near Wilhelmshaven. The Julius Schmitz water-color sketches of the sinking of the HMS Hood (with handwritten comments by the PG’s KzS Helmut Brinkmann) http://www.kbismarck.com/archives/signalart.html are the artist’s superb interpretation of the action. In 1989, there was an estate sale in Germany by the son of Admiral Lütjens and, among medals, uniforms etc. http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/ ... /Cover.jpg
, another great painting of J. C. Schmitz surfaced: Bismarck and Prinz Eugen in action against HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/ ... 2large.jpg

The picture was a gift to the Lütjens family by the Office of Naval Operations after the death of the admiral. I don’t know what happened to that picture in the auction; the reproduction is small and a lot of detail is lost.

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao Ulrich and all,

instead of writing you in private as I usually often do, I would like this time to write this one to you in public my friend.

You got it !

And you helped me solving a dilemma I was looking for since the beginning of June when I saw something on Bundesarchiv in Koblenz.

It was a very bad photo of a painture, Black/White very damaged and mixed among various Bismarck photo of Denmark Strait battle, something written on the back : painture made by J. Schmitz-Westerholt.

Immediately it took my attention as it was showing something I was only taking in consideration as an hypothesis with very small possibilities since I saw it.

Bismarck showed firing to Hood at the moment she exploded ( so at 06.00 ) and in the same painture the relative position of Prinz Eugen and Prince of Wales ( see photo Nh 69724) clearly showed.

More, in the painture ( more visible with a bigger B/W photo of it ) you can see clearly Prinz Eugen wake on the left of Bismarck.

This tells the whole story of the distance and the course run by both German units till that moment, and Bismarck was running on the starboard of Prinz Eugen and NOT on the port, so when she turned she was already on the starboard, and did not cross the Prinz Eugen wake at 06.03, because she was already there ( see my 3 options map blue track ).

Now photo Nh69722 distance evaluation and closure ratio of Bismarck versus Prinz Eugen to match next photo Nh 69728 are more easy than in the past, thanking this painture done by a battle witness, donated to OKM of Kriegsmarine and to the Lutjens family.

I started the reasearch of this confirmation in June, you Ulrich closed it, well done my friend .

I was ready to modify my maps and now I will do it knowing finally were the painture was ( OKM der KM ) and who had it ( Lutjens family ).

I hope to be able to find who has it now ( I cannot translate the German ).

Ciao Antonio