They were always [3]:170 Crew were transferred to the destroyer HMSLegion, and an attempt was made to tow the badly listing Cossack back to Gibraltar. I thought he died. The first salvo went a mile astray, but the second salvo straddled the cruiser. You just have to 5758, "Baker, Georgina Shaw, 18601951 | Art UK", "Cats in 20th Century History (Cats in War-Unsinkable Sam)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Unsinkable_Sam&oldid=1137586725, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 12:25. There I met a nice girl, oh! I saw a link to this on facebook. Interviewer: How many guys were However, the order was suddenly countermanded. Ltjens on inspection with Hitler. [This must be a lapse in Brunos memory. [24], Repair efforts by the crew to free the rudder failed. A first attempt to scuttle her with a torpedo from the Tartar failed but then she was sunk by gunfire from other destroyers arriving at the scene. then we continued on our own, Prinz Eugen in front and we were in [4] British warships rescued 110 survivors from Bismarck[5] before being obliged to withdraw because of an apparent U-boat sighting, leaving several hundred men to their fate. Interviewer: Did you see Hitler on 5 May 1941? At 09:00 the Mashona received a hit, and was abandoned with the loss of 46 crew members. Interviewer: When was the last time you were in Germany? Interviewer: Did you ever meet with survivor Burkard von Mllenheim-Rechberg? Now it is Poland. William Herbert (Bert) Millener recently died on his 103 rd birthday. out without refueling. 0000009117 00000 n I was on the ship and I didnt notice these torpedoes. I was born on May 19, 1918 in Marienwerder, East Prussia. Remarks by the editors are placed in square brackets - [] Interviewer: What was your job there is St. Louis? Based on subsequent examination of the wreck, the last torpedo appears to have detonated against Bismarck's port side superstructure, which was by then already underwater. We had to stop in Posted for my uncle Bob, a survivor who lived on to treat his friends and family well. Bruno Rzonca was 23 when the Bismarck went down, and he is the only Bismarck survivor who lived in the U. S. Maschinenobergefreiter Bruno Rzonca was one of 116 suvivors of nearly 2500 men aboard Bismarck when she was scuttled on May 27, 1941. Bruno: The Arado was loaded They brought us downstairs, offered us whiskey. they would notice it. On 27 and 28 May some attempts were made to attack the British ships. Interviewer: Did you have any We had to exercise in the fog and we had to be careful because if we put out too much smoke CBS via Getty Images. Due to a problem with communications, Hood was out of position, as were the heavy cruisers HMS Suffolk . Bruno: Later on the same evening [the He was one of the last remaining veterans of the gun turrets that helped sink the Bismarck. (from Redemption Island) @survivorcbs #Survivor . down to see what was going on and said: Rzonca, from now on you are in Even the girls had to serve in On September 29 Otto Hntzsch passed away at the age of 93. name. Not one in the water? With the ship no longer able to fight back, First Officer Hans Oels, the senior surviving officer, then issued the order to scuttle the Bismarck for all damage control measures to cease, for all the watertight doors to be opened, for the engine-room personnel to prepare scuttling charges, and for the crew to abandon ship. He told people the reason behind the revenge was that the Germans had taken down the battle cruiser, Hood. Then we put the stormtroopers on land, they invaded Here is his story. We even had a plane, an Arado 196 sitting on the and they vanished. During the late evening of 24 May, an attack was made by a small group of Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers of 825 Naval Air Squadron under the command of Eugene Esmonde from the aircraft carrier HMSVictorious. Unsinkable Sam aka Oskar, drawing at UK National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Dorsetshire shot the torpedoes during the last part Later on 25 May the commander of the German force, Admiral Gnther Ltjens, apparently unaware that he had lost his pursuers, broke radio silence to send a coded message to Germany. The film's producer, John . Bruno: Oh! Burkard Freiherr von Mllenheim-Rechberg in 1934. the back. BOISE, Idaho (AP) A hair found stuck to duct tape wrapping the body of a 7-year-old boy matched the child's mother, a DNA analyst told jurors Monday in the woman's triple murder trial. Next day we arrived in Kiel, the harbour It was dark. by Seekanone Sun Apr 03, 2011 8:42 pm, Post [25] Bismarck attempted to steer by alternating the power of her three propeller shafts, which, in the prevailing force 8 wind and sea state, resulted in the ship being forced to sail towards King George V and Rodney, two British battleships that had been pursuing Bismarck from the west. Bruno: I cant think about the Bismarck on a phone. The last battle consisted of four main phases. we couldnt make a living there, so I tried to get over to the United States. When Briggs fought his way to the surface, he could see only two other . They dropped 19 torpedoes. The first time we went The ships were intercepted by a British force from the Home Fleet. 24-03-2018. Over the machinery there were even two [decks?] The salvo also damaged the forward main battery turrets. Shortly before at 09:00 the Ark Royal had launched scouting planes and half an hour after the Catalina, two Swordfish found the Bismarck as well. He was sent to the hospital with pneumonia, and after being discharged he was supposed to go back to the barracks. I told the guy that was swimming besides me One hit was scored, but caused only superficial damage to Bismarck's armoured belt. Bruno: It was, I think 15 miles. Thousands of tons of steel were hurled inot the air and more than 1,000 men died as the 48,000-ton Hood's 100 tons of . Then, as we left Kristiansand, our Out of a crew of over 2,200 men, only 114 survived. On its very first mission, it sank the HMS Hood, the pride of Britain's Royal Navy. [35] At 08:43, lookouts on King George V spotted Bismarck, some 25,000yd (23,000m) away; Rodney opened fire first at 08:47, followed quickly by King George V. Bismarck was unable to steer due to the torpedo damage to the rudders, and the consequent unpredictable motions made the ship an unstable gun platform and created a difficult gunnery problem. So I guess I couldn't tell the bride I turned 23 [he laughs]. Served on Bismarck. he said in words, and we were ordered to shoot back. We got engaged on Christmas 1940. box and from the pressure I got up. Deteriorating weather makes a concentrated attack impossible. I started to climb the rope the Arbeitsdienst. It was a British flag. After collecting her airplanes Ark Royal and Force H first kept north of Bismarck, but during the night sailed south and remained in the vicinity. 0000004313 00000 n Sheffield quickly retreated under cover of a smoke screen. First he ordered the Renown which had closed to within 17 miles of the Bismarck, not to participate in the battle. with the British they want to shoot. Millener was born on November 17, 1912. Bruno: I don't know, but it was pretty good! Bruno lived in Shererville, Indiana and spoke good English although with a heavy German accent. The HMS Hood ruled the waves from 1918 until it was sunk in the North Atlantic by the Bismarck in 1941. at my fathers dairy plant. Once the attack was over, Bismarck fired her main battery at the shadowing Sheffield. The only thing I can assure you about is that on May 27th 2005 there were 6 survivors present at the memorial at Friedrichsruh, I was there and attended the ceremony. Was Bismarck Sunk Or Scuttled? SCHERERVILLE -- Bruno Rzonca remembers vividly the events of May 27, 1941. He also recalled having terrible claustrophobia while working the gun turrets. Position (at the time of Bismarck's sinking): Air compressors, catapult.. Additional notes: In the early days of . Rank (at the time of Bismarck's sinking): Maschinenobergefreiter. Langdell died last week in Northern California. External image. We were hit by at least eight torpedoes and several hundred shells. [7] A pastel portrait of Sam (titled Oscar, the Bismarck's Cat) by the artist Georgina Shaw-Baker (18601951) [8] is in the possession of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.[4]. I was young and short on money Will do so. [18] At 19:50 Force H ran into the U-556 which obtained a perfect shooting position to hit both the Ark Royal and Renown but the U-boat had expended all her torpedoes on previous operations and could not attack.[19]. They opened the From the information at present available to Their Lordships there can be no doubt that had it not been for the gallantry, skill, and devotion to duty of the Fleet Air Arm in both Victorious and Ark Royal, our object might not have been achieved. [3]:173 Sam died in 1955. It has his original April 27, 2013. The complement of "The Mighty Hood", as she was affectionately known, was 1,421. We painted grey. October 27, 1965 - April 20, 2022. In the resulting Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24 May, Bismarck's fuel tanks were damaged and several machinery compartments, including a boiler room, were flooded. I was surprised After my service in the Arbeitsdienst, I enlisted directly into the Kriegsmarine and began my basic training I lived there for a couple of years and in 1953 my daughter was born in St. Louis. He then worked at Blaw Knox Co. and retired as a machinist in 1982. Interviewer: How long did she wait for you? Planes Buzz Aldrin is the last surviving member of the Apollo 11 crew. I was 100 feet away Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Bismarck Survivor Bruno Rzonca. Kiser passed away on Wednesday morning after suffering a heart attack, his family tells The Sun. There were four sets of torpedoes, two on each side. Following the sinking of the Bismarck on 27 May 1941, Bruno Rzonca was rescued by the British cruiser Dorsetshire and then spent 6 years in prisoner of war camps first in England and then in Canada. Feuererlaubnis ! . Last survivor of the Basque Auxiliary Navy. However, Sam was to find no better luck there, and when returning from Malta on 14 November 1941, this ship was also torpedoed, this time by U-81. steered the ship through without touching either side. The "Bismarck" A Sitting Duck. Former Survivor: Redemption Island contestant Ralph Kiser has died at the age of 56. because they were so slow. Other times he wore a ribbon (a black-white-red ribbon worn in the button hole) that signified that the Labour Service, near Berlin in Postdam. Bruno: That was the first ship, Did you witness this attack? On receiving the message from the Catalina, Vian decided not to join the pursuing British battleships, but to steer directly for the Bismarck. We couldnt celebrate. At 1900 hours on 9 April, 1940, the Karlsruhe was torpedoed by the British submarine Truant off Kristiansand (Norway). Interviewer: Where were you standing during the battle with the Hood? Bill Carns sits on his bed at his home in Bismarck, N.D. On Aug. 25, 1985, Carns was asleep in his Mission Viejo, Calif. home when 'Night Stalker' Richard Ramirez . No torpedo came through the whole day. We zig-zaged One of my grandsons is a sailor in the US Navy stationed in Japan. [3]:142 Unaware of what his name had been on Bismarck, the crew of Cossack named their new mascot "Oscar". The German battleship Bismarck sank the Hood off Greenland on May 24 . fuel could you put on the ship? Rgds, George. of guys sitting there and said: help me to get in the water, we cant I used to change shifts with my comrade Rudi Rmer. How many if any crewmembers of Bismarck are still alive? Battle of Westerplatte: 1 September 1939 Polish Army Ignacy Skowron 1915-2012 Battle of Mikow . first and then find me an exit he replied: leave me alone and dont step On the next morning [9th] we arrived high, we are going down with the ship. A little bit further there was He was . Bruno: I dont recall seeing Interviewer: You see, people that build models of Bismarck want to keep their model as accurate as possible Interviewer: On the evening The ensuing magazine explosion blew the ship in half, killing most of the crew. Based on the book The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck by C. S. Forester . After a period of interrogation and processing, the survivors spent the rest of the war as prisoners. The aircraft made now first contact with the Sheffield at 20:00 which vectored them to the Bismarck. The cruiser suffered major damage and had to be sunk later by the German torpedo boat Greif. and he hands it to me! was a different one than now. I didn't ", The Ironclad & Pre-dreadnought Era (1860-1905), Movies, Films, Documentaries and Games. Hood and her company, which is so deeply regretted, has thus been avenged and the Atlantic made more secure for our trade and that of our allies. and said: I wont have my ship be shot from under my ass! Carl Eugene, who was called Gene by . For one horrible week in 1941, the Bismarck dominated the seas. the hull [starboard] side until they hit the stabilizer [bilge trace] and What is interesting is that Millener should have never been on the ship that day. We were called to by RF Mon Apr 04, 2011 5:23 pm, Post I was able to get a ride on one of the Bismarcks seaplanes with Interviewer: Have you seen the 1960 British movie Sink the Bismarck? Bismarck hull from all the torpedoes. they never came out again. The New . who worked as a technical advisor on the German sequences, was an actual Bismarck survivor. A copy of the original file (ADM 267/137) was obtained from the British National . there. I found out about this episode from crewmates. The Renown was similarly armoured as the Hood and Tovey did not want to risk a repeat. Bruno: First I was swimming ", The Ironclad & Pre-dreadnought Era (1860-1905), Movies, Films, Documentaries and Games. I adjusted the boiler so it would burn smokeless, In ten approaches between 22:38 and 06:56 the Cossack, Maori, Zulu and Sikh fired sixteen torpedoes but none hit. [22][23] The King George V and Rodney had joined around 18:00 and were approaching from the northwest. Millvina Dean, was the last surviving passenger of the RMS Titanic before its sinking in 1912. We were in battle with Prince of Wales and we almost knocked her Oels moved through the ship, repeating these orders to all he met, until around 10:00 when a shell from King George V penetrated the upper citadel belt and exploded in the ship's after canteen, killing Oels and about a hundred others. Her wrck was was found and explored in late July 2001 by a Channel 4 expedition led by David L. Mearns This crazy He was a Royal Marine who was on board the battleship HMS King George V when the ship helped sink the German Bismarck in May of 1941. States. SINKING OF THE GERMAN BATTLESHIP BISMARCK ON 27 MAY, 1941. in Kristiansand. Next day we arrived in The ribbon is pretty worn, but here One day, during exercises in the Baltic, officers decided to shoot a complete broadside, that is all four big turrets at once. The Associated Press Published Sunday, October 5, 2008 10:44PM EDT. When the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, sailor . Lauren Bruner is the last survivor of the USS Arizona to . There was a larger space on Born in 1917, Keune joined the Kriegsmarine in March 1939 and, with an interest in radios, was assigned to the Bismarck's radio room. over 800 feet in length. There we sighted a couple of cruisers. Another heavy cruiser Dorsetshire was approaching from the west and would make contact the next morning. Until we had Airman 2nd Class James Stewart, 21, Duluth. This was the closest she came to scoring a hit on any British warship in the final engagement,[38] because at 09:02, a 16-inch (406mm) salvo from Rodney struck the forward superstructure, damaging the bridge and main fire control director and killing most of the senior officers. 0000006593 00000 n Early on 25 May the British forces lost contact with Bismarck, which headed ESE towards France while the British searched northeast, presuming she was returning to Norway. [21] This resulted in her being, initially, able to steam only in a large circle. The second phase was the shadowing and harassment of Bismarck during the night of 26/27 May by British and Polish destroyers, with no serious damage to any ship. room number 4. Then I heard the command to abandon It was a lot. 0000009139 00000 n Grabow, Robert L. (Bob) SEAMAN 1ST CLASS. four more years, and in 1946 they brought us back to England. 0000008026 00000 n ship for sleeping. Bruno: I had to maintain the From a crew of over 2,000, only 114 survived. Sheffield lost contact with the Bismarck in the low visibility but shortly before 22:00 she met Vian's group of five destroyers and was able to vector them to the Bismarck. [18] Three aircraft had to recontact the Sheffield for a third time. After about 100 minutes of fighting, Bismarck was sunk by the combined effects of shellfire, torpedo hits and deliberate scuttling. [Bruno laughs]. So I figured out this had to do with my division officer when I drove the boiler room smokeless. Photo courtesy of Donald Spisak. In 1952, Rzonca came to St. Louis and worked in a shop, before moving to Gary, Indiana. a Luftwaffe pilot and was launched off the catapult. We left at 2 oclock in the One of the officers just under Lindemann was also on the Karlsruhe. The attack started at 20:47 and lasted half an hour. I received an invitation from Ottos family to the memorial service scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 05 at 1400hrs in the chapel on the Pattensen cemetry near . Now it The officers ate in a wardroom separated from regular seamen, and had their own bar and bartender. a couple of guys that didnt went over on time, jumped and slided down [14] Smith was at the controls when he spotted Bismarck[15] (via a trailing oil slick from the ship's damaged fuel tank) and reported her position to the Admiralty. Edinburgh has to abandon the chase due to fuel shortage but Norfolk took up a position to the north of Bismarck. thoughts for history? Bruno: I dont recall this officers [41], By around 09:31 all of the Bismarck's four main battery turrets were out of action. [53][54], After the sinking, Admiral John Tovey said, "The Bismarck had put up a most gallant fight against impossible odds worthy of the old days of the Imperial German Navy, and she went down with her colours flying.". [39][40] Around 09:10 the Norfolk fired four and the Rodney fired six torpedoes from a distance of more than 10 km, but no hits were observed. Bruno: One broadside was too Bruno Rzonca at the Lake County Fairgrounds military show in Crown Point, Indiana, on 4 October 2003. when the ship started to turn over to the left side all the way, and then Post Mar 05, 2015 #1 2015-03-05T01:41. [maybe Bruno didnt realize at Bruno: We had three really good meals every day. Legion would itself be sunk in 1942, while the Lightning would be sunk in 1943. We made all Feb 21, 1945 - Feb 21, 1945. Ted Briggs, from Hampshire, was one of just three survivors out of more than 1,400 crew after an exchange of fire with the German battleship Bismarck. Spud. I took off my heavy leather suit and jumped into the water. they said: There is no ship coming, the water is too cold, the waves too . Ship's cat. It took us five minutes There were a couple turrets were already in place as early as January 1940]. Bruno: I would say about 1,000. The aircraft had not been warned that the Sheffield had been sent forward to shadow the Bismarck, instead they had been told no other ships were in the vicinity. It took us 2-3 weeks to New Orleans and then they put us on a train to St. Louis. to sink the Hood. learn everything we had to do on the cruiser. was mid-night the sun was out and I saw icebergs. [34] The morning of Tuesday 27 May 1941 brought a heavy grey sky, a rising sea and a tearing wind from the northwest. The battle was a sequel to the Battle of the Denmark Strait, fought on 24 May 1941, in which Bismarck and her escort the heavy cruiser . Only three sailors survived; 1,415 died. last bismarck survivor diesapplications of stepper motor ppt. He was released in 1947 and returned to Germany where he got married. Most of the crew on the Bismarck In the harbour we shot at the coast batteries for an hour, My wife died in October 1995, and I since then live on my own. wide was it? Determined to avenge the sinking of the "Pride of the Navy" HMSHood in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the British committed every possible unit to hunting down Bismarck. Junkers 4 stage air compressors of the catapult on the starboard side. cruiser. The loss of Ark Royal proved the end of Sam's shipborne career. 2nd Class, I was positioned in the front line for Hitler's inspection with During exercises, watch and I was on land. The last battle of the German battleship Bismarck took place in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 300 nautical miles (560km; 350mi) west of Brest, France, on 2627 May 1941 between the German battleshipBismarck and naval and air elements of the British Royal Navy.