Helmuth Brinkmann

Helmuth Brinkmann (12 March 1895 – 26 September 1983) was a ''Vizeadmiral'' in the ''Kriegsmarine'' during World War II who captained the heavy cruiser . Prior to World War II he commanded the aviso , Adolf Hitler's state yacht. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Brinkmann surrendered to British troops in 1945 and was held until 1947.

Operation ''Rheinübung''

Goal

The goal of Operation ''Rheinübung'' (Rhine Exercise) was for ''Prinz Eugen'' and the battleship , under the command of Brinkmann's Crew 1913 classmate Captain Ernst Lindemann, to break into the Atlantic and attack Allied shipping. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder's orders to the task force commander, Admiral Günther Lütjens, the Chief of Fleet aboard the ''Bismarck'', were that "the objective of the ''Bismarck'' is not to defeat enemies of equal strength, but to tie them down in a delaying action, while preserving combat capacity as much as possible, so as to allow ''Prinz Eugen'' to get at the merchant ships in the convoy" and "The primary target in this operation is the enemy's merchant shipping; enemy warships will be engaged only when that objective makes it necessary and it can be done without excessive risk."

Events

At 02:00 on 19 May 1941, ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'' left Gotenhafen and proceeded through the Baltic Sea and out towards the Atlantic. Unknown to Lütjens, the British had intercepted enough signals to infer that a German naval operation might occur in the area. The German task force was first encountered by the Swedish seaplane-cruiser on 20 May heading north-west, past Gothenburg. The British Admiralty was informed through a Norwegian officer in Stockholm who had learned of the sighting from a Swedish military intelligence source. Alerted by this report, British Admiralty requested air reconnaissance of the Norwegian coast. A Spitfire reconnaissance aircraft found and photographed the German task force in the Grimstad fjord (), near Bergen, at 13:15 on 21 May. On the evening of 23 May at 19:22, the German force was detected by the heavy cruisers and that had been patrolling the Denmark Strait in the expectation of a German breakout. ''Bismarck'' fired five salvos without scoring a direct hit. The heavily outgunned British cruisers retired to a safe distance and shadowed the enemy until their own heavy units could draw closer. However, ''Bismarck''s forward radar had failed as a result of vibration from the heavy guns firing during this skirmish, and Lütjens was obliged to order ''Prinz Eugen'' to move ahead of ''Bismarck'' in order to provide the squadron with forward radar coverage.

Battle

The hydrophones on ''Prinz Eugen'' detected a foreign ship to port at 05:00. The Germans sighted the smokestacks of two ships at 05:45. The British ships started firing at the German task force at 05:53. Vice-Admiral Lancelot Holland planned on targeting ''Bismarck'' first, but due to the reversed battle order, and opened fire on the ''Prinz Eugen'' instead. The commander of the ''Prince of Wales'', Captain John Leach, detected this error and ordered his guns swung around to fire on ''Bismarck''. The German task force was still waiting for the order to commence firing, which Admiral Lütjens did not give immediately. Two minutes into the battle ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'' started firing at ''Hood''. At 05:57 ''Hood'' was hit by ''Prinz Eugen'', igniting reserve ammunition stored on deck, and starting a fire. The fifth salvo by ''Bismarck'', fired at a range of about at 06:01, was seen to hit ''Hood'' abreast her mainmast. It is likely that one shell struck somewhere between Hood's mainmast and 'X' turret aft of the mast. A huge jet of flame burst out from ''Hood'' from the vicinity of the mainmast. This was followed by a devastating magazine explosion that destroyed the aft part of the ship. This explosion broke the back of ''Hood'', and she sank in only three minutes, her nearly vertical bow last to descend into the water.

Afterwards

Following the explosion, ''Prince of Wales'' was targeted by both German ships and disengaged from combat after seven direct hits, four by ''Bismarck'' and three by ''Prinz Eugen'', at about 06:09. In the afternoon of 24 May, Admiral Lütjens, ordered ''Prinz Eugen'' to break away from the battleship ''Bismarck'' and operate independently against the enemy's merchant shipping. ''Prinz Eugen'' and ''Bismarck'' separated at 18:14 that evening. ''Bismarck'' was sunk by the concentrated effort of the Royal Navy on 27 May 1941 while ''Prinz Eugen'' arrived safely at Brest, France on 1 June 1941.

Awards

* Iron Cross (1914) 2nd Class (10 October 1915) & 1st Class (24 July 1920)Dörr 1995, p. 95.
* Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 (15 October 1934)
* Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy () (8 October 1937)
* Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class & 1st Class (9 June 1941)
* High Seas Fleet Badge (5 April 1942)
* Order of Michael the Brave 3rd Class (30 May 1944)
* German Cross in Gold on 25 March 1942 as ''Kapitän zur See'' on heavy cruiser ''Prinz Eugen''
* Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 17 May 1944 as ''Vizeadmiral'' and commander of the Black Seas FleetScherzer 2007, p. 244.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Boyne, Walter (1997). ''Clash of Titans: World War II at Sea''. New York: Simon & Schuster. .
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brinkmann, Helmuth
1895 births
1983 deaths
Military personnel from Lübeck
Imperial German Navy personnel of World War I
Reichsmarine personnel
Vice admirals of the Kriegsmarine
Recipients of the Gold German Cross
Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 1st class
Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United Kingdom