Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The rank is equal to the army rank of colonel and air force rank of group captain .
125-517: Otto Ernst Lindemann (28 March 1894 – 27 May 1941) was a German Kapitän zur See ( naval captain ). He was the only commander of the battleship Bismarck during its eight months of service in World War II . Lindemann joined the German Imperial Navy ( German : Kaiserliche Marine ) in 1913, and after his basic military training, served on a number of warships during World War I as
250-480: A kapitein-ter-zee . Currently, De Zeven Provinciën -class frigates are commanded by a kapitein-luitenant-ter-zee . Captain of sea and war ( Portuguese : capitão de mar e guerra , formerly spelled capitão-de-mar-e-guerra ) is a rank in most of the Portuguese -speaking navies, notably those of Portugal and Brazil . The term captain of sea and war, like the modern rank of ship-of-the-line captain in
375-623: A World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt a Constitution for the Federation of Earth . In 1961, he became president of the World Council of Churches . He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in December 1966. He gave a sermon at the 30 April 1967 dedication of a Protestant "Church of Atonement" in the former Dachau concentration camp, which in 1965 had been partially restored as
500-629: A wireless telegraphy officer. On board SMS Bayern , he participated in Operation Albion in 1917. After World War I, he served in various staff and naval gunnery training positions. One year after the outbreak of World War II, he was appointed commander of the battleship Bismarck , at the time the largest warship in commission anywhere in the world and the pride of the Kriegsmarine (Nazi Germany's navy). In May 1941, Lindemann commanded Bismarck during Operation Rheinübung . Bismarck and
625-751: A "national revival". Niemöller's autobiography received positive reviews in Nazi newspapers and was a bestseller. However, he decidedly opposed the Nazis' " Aryan Paragraph " to Jewish converts to Lutheranism. In 1936, he signed the petition of a group of Protestant churchmen which sharply criticized Nazi policies and declared the Aryan Paragraph incompatible with the Christian virtue of charity . The Nazi regime reacted with mass arrests and charges against almost 800 pastors and ecclesiastical lawyers. In 1933, Niemöller founded
750-664: A Jew in Nazi Germany , and he also reports on antisemitic statements by Niemöller. Thus, Niemöller's behaviour during the Nazi period makes him a controversial figure. For example, Niemöller said, "The crucial issue was not whether the USA or the USSR would win the next war. The big question rather was whether there would still be a white race in thirty or forty years." In her book Twisted Cross , Doris L. Bergen says, "Martin Niemöller explained how he,
875-604: A Jewish researcher into racism and war crimes committed by the Nazi regime. In a letter to Wiener, Niemöller stated that his eight-year imprisonment by the Nazis became the turning point in his life, after which he viewed things differently. Niemöller was president of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau from 1947 to 1961. He was one of the initiators of the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt , signed by leading figures in
1000-463: A U-boat commander; his offer was rejected. His former cellmate, Leo Stein, was released from Sachsenhausen to go to America, and he wrote an article about Niemöller for The National Jewish Monthly in 1941. Stein reports having asked Niemöller why he ever supported the Nazi Party , to which Niemöller replied: I find myself wondering about that too. I wonder about it as much as I regret it. Still, it
1125-555: A daughter, Heidi Maria, born on 6 July 1939. On 26 March 1913, Lindemann traveled with his parents to Flensburg for his medical examination at the Naval Academy at Mürwik . The strong financial background of his parents made him a suitable applicant for the Imperial Navy, as the costs associated with a naval education in 1909 were 800–1,000 Marks per year for eight years. By comparison, a metal worker earned 1,366 Marks annually and
1250-418: 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. At
1375-624: A few days, the voyage continued to the Lönne Fjord. Here, Lindemann met his commander-in-chief— Kaiser Wilhelm II —for the first time. Hertha then returned to Germany, arriving in Wilhelmshaven on 8 August 1913. One week later, Hertha began a seven-month training cruise (15 August 1913 – 12 March 1914). The voyage took Lindemann to Dartmouth in England, Vilagarcía de Arousa in Spain, Faial Island in
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#17330859751161500-606: A friend of his uncle Friedrich. Arriving on board on 9 May, they were divided into watches consisting of roughly 18 men each. Hertha left Mürwik and stayed in Kiel until the end of the month. On 29 May 1913, Hertha headed for Swinemünde , where she stayed until 15 June. The next stop, via Sassnitz and Visby , was Stockholm , Sweden, arriving on 24 June. The ship remained in Stockholm until 1 July, before leaving for Bergen in Norway. After
1625-529: A hit at 09:50. All weapons fell silent at 10:00. Short of fuel, Rodney and King George V had to disengage prior to Bismarck ' s sinking. The Germans were preparing to scuttle Bismarck when three torpedoes fired by Dorsetshire hit the ship's side armour. Bismarck sank at 10:36 at position 48°10′N 16°12′W / 48.167°N 16.200°W / 48.167; -16.200 , roughly 300 nmi (560 km; 350 mi) west of Ouessant ( Ushant ). The cruiser Dorsetshire saved 85 men, and
1750-724: A period of naval rearmament . In 1935, the Reichsmarine was renamed the Kriegsmarine . Between 22 September 1931 and 22 September 1934, Lindemann was a senior lecturer at the Naval Gunnery School in Kiel. He was then posted to the Hessen under the command of Captain Hermann Boehm and served as first gunnery officer from 23 September 1933 to 8 April 1934. Ernst Lindemann was promoted to Korvettenkapitän on 1 April 1932. On 9 April 1934, he
1875-566: A self-professed antisemite, had come to oppose plans to exclude non-Aryans from the clergy. Even his personal antipathy toward Jews, Niemöller indicated, had not blinded him to the realization that acceptance of an Aryan clause in the church would effectively negate the teaching of baptism." In his book, And the Witnesses Were Silent , Wolfgang Gerlach explains that the Confessing Church was not interested in fighting antisemitism in
2000-524: A teacher 3,294 Marks. Only 5 percent of the German population at the time earned more than 3,000 Marks annually. However, the doctor certified him as fit only for limited duties ( bedingt tauglich ), as pneumonia in childhood had left him unfit for service in U-boats . After a second examination, he was accepted on probation, and Lindemann became one of the 290 young men of "Crew 1913" (the incoming class of 1913). He
2125-532: A temporary closing of the French port of Marseille by sinking ships in the area, by torpedoes, and by the laying of mines. For his achievements, Niemöller was awarded the Iron Cross First Class. When the war drew to a close, he decided to become a preacher, a story he later recounted in his book Vom U-Boot zur Kanzel ( From U-boat to Pulpit ). At war's end, Niemöller resigned his commission, as he rejected
2250-457: A top speed of 30.8 kn (57.0 km/h; 35.4 mph), exceeding the design speed. However, one weakness quickly became apparent: without using the rudders but only the screw propellers, Bismarck was almost impossible to steer. In November 1940, Von Müllenheim-Rechberg was sent to the Naval Gunnery School at Wik to complete his heavy gun training courses, which ended his position as Lindemann's personal adjutant. Lindemann's new adjutant
2375-587: A very conservative home. In 1900, the family moved to Elberfeld where he finished school, taking his Abitur exam in 1908. He began a career as an officer of the Imperial Navy of the German Empire , and in 1915, was assigned to U-boats . His first boat was SMS Thüringen . In October of that year, he joined the submarine mother boat Vulkan , followed by training on the submarine U-3 . In February 1916, he became second officer on U-73 , which
2500-637: A week later, on 27 May, Lindemann and most of his crew died in Bismarck ' s last battle . He was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross ( Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes ), at the time the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany. The medal was presented to his widow, Hildegard, on 6 January 1942. Otto Ernst Lindemann was born on 28 March 1894 in Altenkirchen in
2625-563: Is a rank that appears in several navies. The name of the rank derives from the fact the rank corresponded to command of a warship of the largest class, the ship-of-the-line , as opposed to smaller types ( corvettes and frigates ). It is normally above the rank of frigate captain . In all the Scandinavian countries, the rank stems from the Middle Low German word for war ( orloch ), i.e. war[-ship] captain. Capitaine de vaisseau
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#17330859751162750-516: Is a naval rank corresponding to command of a ship-of-the-line or capital ship . Kapitän zur See ( German: [kapiˈtɛːns t͡suːɐ̯ ˈzeː] , abbreviated KptzS , KZS , or KzS ) is a senior officer rank in the German Navy . In the Royal Netherlands Navy , the rank of kapitein-ter-zee is the third grade of superior officer, equivalent to colonel in
2875-584: Is a part of the rank descriptor, and is used in official publications and documents to distinguish a captain(N) from a captain in the army or air force. It is also important to distinguish between the rank of captain(N) and the appointment of captain, meaning the commanding officer of a ship, regardless of his or her rank. Captains(N) are addressed initially as "Captain" followed by their surname (example: "Captain Bloggins"), thereafter by superiors and peers as "Captain" and by subordinates as "Sir" or "Ma'am". The "(N)"
3000-666: Is a rank in the French Navy , corresponding to that of colonel in the French Army . They usually command the navy's most important ships. Martin Niem%C3%B6ller Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller ( German: [ˈmaʁtiːn ˈniːmœlɐ] ; 14 January 1892 – 6 March 1984) was a German theologian and Lutheran pastor. He is best known for his opposition to the Nazi regime during
3125-402: Is currently known about Bismarck ' s final days is attributed to his account as a witness. Lindemann made Von Müllenheim-Rechberg his personal adjutant and instructed him to refer to the ship as "he" rather than "she"; Lindemann considered the ship too powerful to be referred to as a female. He commissioned the battleship on 24 August 1940. He showed a great deal of attachment to the ship and
3250-750: Is not part of the spoken address. Prior to the unification of the Canadian Forces in 1968 , rank structure and insignia followed the British pattern. In the United States, the O-6 rank of captain exists in four of the uniformed services of the United States : the United States Navy , United States Coast Guard , United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps , and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps . Captain at sea
3375-502: 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." At 02:00 on 19 May 1941, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen left Gotenhafen and proceeded through
3500-429: Is senior to a commander , and junior to a commodore . Typical appointments for captains(N) include: The rank insignia for a captain(N) is four 1 ⁄ 2 -inch (1.3 cm) stripes, worn on the cuffs of the service dress jacket, and on slip-ons on other uniforms. On the visor of the service cap is one row of gold oak leaves along the edge. Captains(N) wear the officers' pattern branch cap badge. The "(N)"
3625-669: Is true that Hitler betrayed me. I had an audience with him, as a representative of the Protestant Church, shortly before he became Chancellor, in 1932. Hitler promised me on his word of honor, to protect the Church, and not to issue any anti-Church laws. He also agreed not to allow pogroms against the Jews, assuring me as follows: "There will be restrictions against the Jews, but there will be no ghettos, no pogroms, in Germany." I really believed, given
3750-689: The Pfarrernotbund , an organization of pastors to "combat rising discrimination against Christians of Jewish background". By the autumn of 1934, Niemöller joined other Lutheran and Protestant churchmen such as Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in founding the Confessional Church , a Protestant group that opposed the Nazification of the German Protestant churches . Author and Nobel Prize laureate Thomas Mann published Niemöller's sermons in
3875-966: The Azores and as far as Halifax in Nova Scotia . The return trip then went via Vera Cruz in Mexico, Havana in Cuba, Port-au-Prince in Haiti, Kingston in Jamaica, Port of Spain in Trinidad and then to the Canary Islands , Madeira , and the Spanish mainland, arriving back in Germany in the middle of March 1914, first in Brunsbüttel and two days later in Kiel. Lindemann was promoted to Fähnrich zur See ( Ensign ) on 3 April 1914. With
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4000-528: The Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24 May 1941, HMS Hood was sunk, probably by Bismarck . 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, which the first gunnery officer Lieutenant Commander Adalbert Schneider initially reported as two heavy cruisers. The first British salvo revealed them to be battleships, but not until
4125-411: The Bismarck ' s armoured belt . In mid-morning at 10:30 on 26 May, a RAF Coastal Command Catalina reconnaissance aircraft from 209 Squadron RAF spotted Bismarck roughly 700 nautical miles (1,300 km; 810 mi) west of Saint-Nazaire. The British battle group Force H , under the command of Admiral James Somerville , whose main units were the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal ,
4250-568: The Charlottenburg quarter of Berlin, where they lived at 6 Carmer Street, in 1895. His younger brother—Kurt—was born in 1896, followed by a second brother, Hans-Wolfgang, in 1900. The family relocated again in 1903, this time to their own house in the Dahlem quarter of Berlin, near the Grunewald forest. In 1910, when Lindemann was 16, his uncle Kapitän zur See Friedrich Tiesmeyer was in command of
4375-604: The German declaration of war in August 1914, all further training at the naval academy was terminated and the normal compulsory officer examination was skipped. The entire Crew 1913 was assigned to various units in the Imperial Navy. Lindemann was assigned to SMS Lothringen , a battleship which belonged to the 2nd Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet under the command of Vizeadmiral (vice admiral) Reinhard Scheer , taking on
4500-516: The Ice Patrol Ship , while naval aviator and naval flight officer captains in the U.S. Navy command aircraft carriers , large-deck amphibious assault ships, carrier air wings, maritime patrol air wings, and functional and specialized air wings and air groups. Maritime battle staff commanders of one-star rank ( commodores or rear admirals lower half) will normally embark on large capital ships such as aircraft carriers, which will function as
4625-576: The Kriegsmarine . In this position, Lindemann was promoted to Kapitänleutnant (captain lieutenant) on 1 January 1925. His next assignment (27 September 1926 – 6 September 1929) placed him on the Admiral's staff at the Baltic Naval Station, first as a staff officer and then as assistant to the chief of the station, which at the time was under the command of Vice Admiral Erich Raeder . From here, he
4750-582: The Russian Republic . At 05:07 on 12 October 1917, Bayern struck a mine while moving into her bombardment position to secure the landing beaches at Pamerort. Seven sailors were killed. Despite mine damage, Bayern engaged the coast defense battery at Cape Toffri on the southern tip of Hiiumaa. Bayern was released from her duties at 14:00 that day. Preliminary repairs were made on 13 October in Tagga Bay before she returned to Kiel on 1 November 1917. After
4875-663: The Wehrmacht . It is thought likely that Ernst Lindemann's cousin, the former General der Kavallarie (General of the Cavalry) Georg Lindemann , intervened. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder , with whom Lindemann shared a 20-year comradeship dating to the early days of the Reichsmarine , presented the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross to Mrs Lindemann on Tuesday, 6 January 1942, in Dahlem . Raeder went on to provide moral and emotional support to Lindemann's mother and widow. To honour
5000-547: The Westerwald , Rhine Province . He was the first of three children of Dr. jur. Georg Heinrich Ernst Lindemann and Maria Lindemann, née Lieber. Known as Ernst, Georg Lindemann was a probationary judge ( Gerichtsassessor ) and later president of the Prussian Central Land Credit Company, a Prussian credit bank. Otto Ernst Lindemann was baptised into the Protestant Church on 26 April 1894. The family moved to
5125-632: The Westphalian Wilhelm University in Münster from 1919 to 1923. His motivation was his ambition to give a disordered society meaning and order through the Gospel and church bodies. During the Ruhr Uprising in 1920, he was battalion commander of the "III. Bataillon der Akademischen Wehr Münster" belonging to the paramilitary Freikorps . Niemöller was ordained on 29 June 1924. Subsequently,
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5250-418: The advancing Western Allies became imminent. However, in the south Tyrol region, regular German troops took the inmates into protective custody. The entire group was eventually liberated by advanced units of the U.S. Seventh Army . In 1947, Niemöller was denied Nazi victim status. Niemöller himself acknowledged his guilt. In 1959, he was asked about his former attitude toward Jews by Alfred Wiener ,
5375-409: The armistice in 1918, Bayern —together with the majority of the German High Seas Fleet—was interned at Scapa Flow , the home of the British Grand Fleet . Bayern arrived there on 23 November 1918 with a skeleton crew of only 175 men, including Lindemann, who was then ordered to return to Germany, arriving in Kiel on 12 January. On 21 June 1919, Admiral Ludwig von Reuter ordered the scuttling of
5500-400: The heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen formed a task force under the command of Admiral Günther Lütjens on board Bismarck. Orders were to break out of their base in German-occupied Poland and attack British merchant shipping lanes in the Atlantic Ocean . The task force's first major engagement was the Battle of the Denmark Strait , which resulted in the sinking of HMS Hood . Less than
5625-524: The light cruiser SMS Mainz (October 1909 – January 1910) of the Imperial Navy, at that time holding the rank of Fregattenkapitän (commander). At a family reunion in Hamelin , Lindemann talked with his uncle and heard of his seafaring adventures in the Far East . These conversations attracted Lindemann to a naval career. Lindemann graduated from the Bismarck- Gymnasium (secondary school) in Berlin- Wilmersdorf with his Abitur (diploma) late in 1912 with an average-to-good overall rating. For
5750-444: The united Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union appointed him curate of Münster's Church of the Redeemer. After serving as the superintendent of the Inner Mission in the old-Prussian ecclesiastical province of Westphalia, Niemöller in 1931 became pastor of the Jesus Christus Kirche (comprising a congregation together with St. Anne's Church) in Dahlem , an affluent suburb of Berlin . Like most Protestant pastors, Niemöller
5875-468: The 1950s on, he was a vocal pacifist and anti-war activist, and vice-chair of War Resisters' International from 1966 to 1972. He met with Ho Chi Minh during the Vietnam War and was a committed campaigner for nuclear disarmament . Niemöller was born in Lippstadt , the Prussian Province of Westphalia (now in North Rhine-Westphalia ), on 14 January 1892 to the Lutheran pastor Heinrich Niemöller and his wife Pauline (née Müller), and grew up in
6000-400: The 1960 black-and-white British war film Sink the Bismarck! The film was based on the novel The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck by C. S. Forester . Kapit%C3%A4n zur See Equivalent ranks worldwide include ship-of-the-line captain (e.g. France, Argentina, Spain), captain of sea and war (e.g. Brazil, Portugal), captain at sea (e.g. Germany, Netherlands) and " captain of
6125-421: The Admiralty Staff. At the same time, he held the position of adjutant in the Fleet Department. During this assignment Lindemann was promoted to Oberleutnant zur See (Sub-Lieutenant) on 7 January 1920. Lindemann's next assignment (1 October 1922 – 30 September 1924) was aboard the battleship Hannover , where he served as a watch and division officer. During this assignment, he attended an officers' course at
6250-401: The Baltic Sea and out toward 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 Gotland on 20 May heading north-west past Gothenburg . The British Admiralty was informed through a Norwegian officer in Stockholm who had learned of
6375-481: The British Governor and Rear Admiral James Somerville . After Lindemann returned to Germany, he was promoted to Fregattenkapitän on 1 October 1936. Between 1936 and 1938, he was an adviser and later head of the ship construction department at the Naval High Command, and at the same time a consultant to and later chief of the Naval Training Department. On 1 April 1938, he was promoted to the rank of Kapitän zur See (captain at sea). On 30 September 1939, one month after
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#17330859751166500-483: The British destroyer Maori saved 25. A further five sailors were saved by German submarine U-74 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat and the weather observation ship Sachsenwald . The Befehlshaber der U-Boote (U-boats Commander-in-Chief) Karl Dönitz had ordered U-556 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Herbert Wohlfarth to pick up Bismarck ' s war diary . Out of torpedoes and low on fuel, Wohlfarth requested that
6625-747: The British task force turned to port was their precise identity revealed. 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 German battle order, Hood opened fire on the Prinz Eugen instead. The German task force was still waiting for the order to commence firing, which Admiral Lütjens did not give immediately. Two minutes later, after multiple inquiries by Schneider, " Frage Feuererlaubnis "? (Permission to open fire?), an impatient Lindemann responded: " Ich lasse mir doch nicht mein Schiff unter dem Arsch wegschießen. Feuererlaubnis! " (I'm not letting my ship get shot out from under my arse. Open fire!) At 06:01,
6750-427: The Church made me pin my hopes on Hitler for a while. I am paying for that mistake now; and not me alone, but thousands of other persons like me. In late April 1945, Niemöller – together with about 140 high-ranking prisoners – was transported to the Alpenfestung . The group possibly were to be used as hostages in surrender negotiations. The transport's SS guards had orders to kill everyone if liberation by
6875-421: The Class of 1913, he stood a good chance of being retained. He served temporarily in the Dahlem Protection Company a part of the Protection Regiment of Greater Berlin (June–July 1919), before he became adjutant to the newly created chief of the Naval Command Department (1 August 1919 – 30 September 1922), at the time under the command of William Michaelis . The Naval Command Department was directly subordinated to
7000-514: The First World War era battlecruiser HMS Renown and the cruiser HMS Sheffield , was ordered to stop Bismarck . At 19:15 that evening, 15 Swordfish from Ark Royal launched an attack. The air raid alarm was sounded on Bismarck at 20:30. Roughly 15 minutes into the attack Bismarck was possibly hit by one torpedo, and at around 21:00 another single torpedo jammed Bismarck ' s rudder 12° to port. Damage-control parties laboured to regain steering control and uncoupled and centred
7125-449: The German Protestant churches. The document acknowledged that the churches had not done enough to resist the Nazis. Under the impact of a meeting with Otto Hahn (referred to as the "father of nuclear chemistry ") in July 1954, Niemöller became an ardent pacifist and campaigner for nuclear disarmament . He was soon a leading figure in the post-war German peace movement and was even brought to court in 1959 because he had spoken about
7250-578: The German Wehrmacht." He voted for Nazis in 1924, 1928, and 1933. He was very much an antisemite. After the war, however, he changed his position. He went on tour around the world to condemn the Nazi cause and educate people about why it's important to protect human rights. Nonetheless, Niemöller's behaviour contrasts sharply with the much more broad-minded attitudes of other Confessing Church activists such as Hermann Maas . Pastor and liberal politician Maas – unlike Niemöller – belonged to those who unequivocally opposed every form of antisemitism and
7375-406: The German landing parties and acting as diplomatic aid and interpreter for Captain Marschall. These landing parties consisted of up to 350 men, which included 11 officers, 15 non-commissioned officers and 266 sailors, or roughly one-third of the crew. On the return voyage to Germany, Admiral Scheer stopped at Gibraltar on the morning of 25 August 1936. Marschall, Lindemann and other officers met with
7500-446: The Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me." Niemöller was a national conservative and initially a supporter of Adolf Hitler and a self-identified antisemite . He became one of the founders of the Confessing Church , which opposed the Nazification of German Protestant churches. He opposed the Nazis' Aryan Paragraph . For his opposition to
7625-414: The Nazis' state control of the churches, Niemöller was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1938 to 1945. He narrowly escaped execution. After his imprisonment, he expressed his deep regret about not having done enough to help victims of the Nazis. He turned away from his earlier nationalistic beliefs and was one of the initiators of the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt . From
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#17330859751167750-501: The Portuguese rank denominations, which both countries still use. Captain of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd class are ranks used by the Russian Navy and a number of former communist states . Within NATO forces, the ranks are rated as OF-5, 4 and 3, respectively. Ship-of-the-line-captain ( French : capitaine de vaisseau ; German : Linienschiffskapitän (in the Austro-Hungarian navy); Italian : capitano di vascello ; Spanish : capitán de navío ; Croatian : kapetan bojnog broda )
7875-457: The United States and praised his bravery. However, Niemöller only gradually abandoned his national conservative views. Even as he opposed the Nazis, he made pejorative remarks about Jews of faith while protecting – in his own church – baptised Christians of Jewish descent whom the Nazis persecuted. In one sermon in 1935, he remarked: "What is the reason for [their] obvious punishment, which has lasted for thousands of years? Dear brethren,
8000-452: 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. 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. During this brief engagement, Prince of Wales had also hit Bismarck three times, first striking
8125-450: The bridge. Bismarck was sunk three days later, after a concentrated effort by Britain's Royal Navy . At 23:30 (local time 19:30) on 24 May an attack was made by a small group of nine Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers of 825 Naval Air Squadron under the command of Eugene Esmonde from the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious . One hit was scored, which killed Oberbootsmann Kurt Kirchberg, but caused only superficial damage to
8250-419: The command to abandon the ship. The surviving Matrose Paul Hillen—who had managed to escape to the upper deck in the final phase of the battle—stated that he had seen a group of 20–30 people standing at the bow, among them a man with a white peaked cap. Normally on a German naval vessel at sea, a white cap is worn only by the commanding officer. In addition, the surviving Maschinengefreiter —Rudolf Römer, who at
8375-418: The commander of a fleet was termed capitão-mor , literally " captain-major ". During the 16th century, the term almirante was used in Portugal to designate the second in command of a fleet. Only during the 18th century would it come to designate the fleet commander - an admiral in the more modern sense. But during the latter half of the 17th century, the term "captain of sea and war" came to designate
8500-407: The commander of a larger man-of-war - the ship of the line that began evolving at that time. When that happened, the Portuguese Navy, as other navies, came to use the term capitão de fragata and capitão-tenente , literally " frigate captain " and "captain-lieutenant", to designate the commanders of smaller warships. When Brazil gained her independence from Portugal in 1822, its navy adopted
8625-426: The commander's boat and putting the seaplane catapult amidships out of action. The second shell passed right through the bow from one side to the other. The third struck the hull underwater and burst inside the ship, flooding a generator room and damaging the bulkhead of an adjoining boiler room, partially flooding it. The damage caused to Bismarck by these two shots allowed 2,000 t (2,200 short tons) of water into
8750-440: The communication chain between Fleet Command and Bismarck ' s officers. Adolf Hitler —accompanied by Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel , his former naval adjutant Commander Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer , and his Luftwaffe adjutant Oberst Nicolaus von Below , among others—visited Bismarck on 5 May 1941. Missing was Grand Admiral Erich Raeder . Hitler was taken on a tour of the ship by Admiral Lütjens and inspected
8875-452: The crew much-needed rest. Bismarck ' s alarm sounded for the last time at 08:00 on the morning of 27 May 1941. Norfolk sighted the Bismarck at 08:15, and the battleship HMS Rodney opened fire on Bismarck at 08:48. Bismarck returned fire at 08:49. Further involved in the final battle were the battleship HMS King George V and the cruisers Norfolk and HMS Dorsetshire . Torpedo bombers did not participate in
9000-454: The earliest days of its existence. The goal was to prevent state intervention in Church business. Niemöller was sent to a concentration camp for his affiliation with the Confessing Church and his opposition to state involvement in Church. While in the concentration camp, he "wrote to a military commander whom he had known in World War I asking to be released from Sachsenhausen so he could serve in
9125-526: The evening of 23 May at 19:22, the German force was detected by the heavy cruisers HMS Suffolk and Norfolk that had been patrolling the Denmark Strait in the expectation of a German breakout. The alarm was sounded and Lindemann announced at 20:30 over the intercom: " Feind in Sicht an Backbord, Schiff nimmt Gefecht auf ". (Enemy sighted to port. Engage!) Bismarck fired five salvos without scoring
9250-421: The fifth salvo by Bismarck , fired at a range of about 180 hectometres (18,000 m; 20,000 yd), was seen to hit Hood abreast her mainmast. It is likely that one 38 cm (15 in) 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
9375-410: The final battle. Bismarck ' s forward command position was hit at 08:53, and both forward gun turrets were put out of action at 09:02, killing Adalbert Schneider in the main gun director. The after command position was destroyed at 09:18 and turret Dora was disabled at 09:24. Bismarck received further heavy hits at 09:40, resulting in a fire amidships, and turret Caesar went out of action after
9500-562: The first rank " (Russia). Any naval officer who commands a ship is addressed by naval custom as "captain" while aboard in command, regardless of their actual rank, even though technically an officer of below the rank of captain is more correctly titled the commanding officer , or C.O. Officers with the rank of captain travelling aboard a vessel they do not command should be addressed by their rank and name (e.g., "Captain Smith"), but they should not be referred to as "the captain" to avoid confusion with
9625-485: The flagship for their strike group or battle group, but a captain will retain command of the actual ship, and assume the title of "flag captain". Even when a senior officer who is in the ship's captain's chain of command is present, all orders are given through the captain. In the Belgian Navy the rank of capitaine de vaisseau or kapitein-ter-zee is the third grade of superior officer, equivalent to colonel in
9750-586: The fleet , and Bayern sank at 14:30. When Ernst Lindemann returned to Germany, it was uncertain whether he could remain on active military service. As a result of the Treaty of Versailles which was signed on 28 June 1919, the former Imperial German Navy was downsized to 15,000 men, including 1,500 officers, while being renamed the Reichsmarine in the era of the Weimar Republic . As Lindemann had finished fifth in
9875-631: The guns had been referred to as "Batterie Schleswig-Holstein" or "Batterie Groß-Deutschland" and were located in the Hel Peninsula , Poland. The battery was destroyed by Canadian forces on the evening of 26 September 1944. Today the structure is partly covered by excavated material from the Channel Tunnel , and only the command bunker with a number of smaller strong points are still visible. Austrian actor Carl Möhner played Captain Ernst Lindemann in
10000-512: The land forces. Its insignia is made up of four bands. He or she commands a capital ship (cruiser, battleship or aircraft carrier) or a shore establishment. Smaller vessels such as destroyers and frigates are commanded by a kapitein-luitenant . In the Royal Canadian Navy , Captain(N) (abbreviated Capt(N); capitaine de vaisseau , abbreviated capv ) is a senior officer rank, equal to an army or air force colonel . A captain(N)
10125-586: The land-forces. His insignia is made up of four bands and he commands a capital ship or a shore establishment (until recently, a kapitein-ter-zee commanded the Onderzeedienst and Mijnendienst , the Netherlands Navy's submarine and mine-laying training establishments). Smaller vessels such as destroyers and frigates are commanded by a kapitein-luitenant ter zee . Until recently flagships such as Tromp -class frigates were also commanded by
10250-474: The late 1930s and for his widely quoted 1946 poem " First they came ... ". The poem exists in many versions; the one featured on the United States Holocaust Memorial reads: "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for
10375-604: The late Captain Lindemann, the heavy naval battery at Sangatte , between Calais and Boulogne was christened "Batterie Lindemann" (the Lindemann Battery) on 19 September 1942 by the admiral in command of the Channel Coast Friedrich Frisius . The battery consisted of three heavy 40.6 cm (16 in) SK C/34 guns housed in casemates, originally intended for the early H-class battleships . Prior to this,
10500-562: The marriage, and they were divorced in 1932. Lindemann was engaged again on 20 July 1933 to his youngest brother's sister-in-law, Hildegard Burchard. Hildegard was 14 years younger than Lindemann. They married on 27 October 1934 in the St. Annen Church in Berlin–Dahlem. The ceremony was performed by Martin Niemöller , a founder of the Confessing Church , later imprisoned as an anti-Nazi. They had
10625-600: The military in a very unflattering way. His visit to North Vietnam 's communist ruler Ho Chi Minh at the height of the Vietnam War caused an uproar. Niemöller also took active part in protests against the Vietnam War and the NATO Double-Track Decision . He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution . As a result, for the first time in human history,
10750-456: The mission on short notice; the order came from Admiral Rolf Carls on 23 July 1936 at 13:45. The normal 48 hours required to prepare the ship was reduced to 12 hours, demanding a lot of the crew and especially Lindemann. As the first gunnery officer, Lindemann was responsible for handling and storing all munitions. Admiral Scheer and the cruiser Deutschland left Germany on 24 July at 08:00. Lindemann's main responsibilities included commanding
10875-458: The navies of France, Italy, and Spain, has deep historic roots. Although the rank was first formally established in the 17th century, the expression had been sometimes been used in the Portuguese and Spanish (as Capitán de Mar y Guerra ) armadas of the 16th century. But generally, in the 16th and early 17th centuries, the captain of a Portuguese man-of-war was simply called a capitão , while
11000-614: The new democratic government of the German Empire that formed after the abdication of the German Emperor Wilhelm II . In 1919, he married Else Bremer (20 July 1890 – 7 August 1961). That same year, he began working at a farm in Wersen near Osnabrück but gave up becoming a farmer as he could not afford to buy his own farm. He subsequently pursued his earlier idea of becoming a Lutheran pastor and studied Protestant theology at
11125-556: The next six months, he attended the Royal Polytechnic Institution in Richmond, London . Ernst Lindemann met Charlotte Weil (née Fritsche; 1899–1979), a Berlin singer, in the spring of 1920. The couple married on 1 February 1921, and they had a daughter, Helga Maria, born on 26 February 1924. Lindemann's job as a naval officer demanded that he be away from his family for long periods of time. This proved to be too demanding on
11250-425: The order be transferred to U-74 . U-74 failed to reach Bismarck on time and the war diary was never retrieved. Burkard von Müllenheim-Rechberg saw Lindemann for the last time at around 08:00 on the command bridge just prior to the final battle. Von Müllenheim-Rechberg described the normally intelligent, humorous and optimistic Lindemann as pessimistic and withdrawn. Von Müllenheim-Rechberg tried to talk to him and
11375-541: The outbreak of World War II, Lindemann succeeded Captain Heinrich Woldag as commander of the Naval Gunnery School in Wik in Kiel, after Woldag took command of the heavy cruiser Blücher . Under his command were three training departments, the gunnery training ship Bremse and Hektor , numerous gunnery training boats, gun carriers, auxiliary vessels, and occasionally Hitler's state yacht, the aviso Grille . Ernst Lindemann
11500-507: The position of 2nd wireless telegraphy officer, a position that fellow officers joked suited his abnormally large ears. He was promoted to Leutnant zur See ( Second Lieutenant ) on 18 September 1915. On 19 March 1916, Lindemann was transferred to the newly commissioned battleship SMS Bayern (under the command of Captain Max Hahn), with the same rank of 2nd wireless telegraphy officer. Bayern , with her eight 38 cm (15 in) guns,
11625-508: The position of 3rd wireless telegraphy officer. Lothringen was mostly tasked with patrolling the North Sea , sailing back and forth between Altenbruch (now part of Cuxhaven ) and Brunsbüttel without engaging in combat. Lindemann left Lothringen on 1 June 1915 to attend the wireless telegraphy school at Mürwik. He successfully completed the course and returned from it in July 1915. He then took over
11750-484: The reason is easily given: the Jews brought the Christ of God to the cross!" This has led to controversy about his attitude toward Jews and to accusations of anti-Judaism . The Holocaust historian Robert Michael argues that Niemöller's statements were a result of traditional anti-Semitism , and that Niemöller agreed with the Nazis' position on the "Jewish question" at that time. American sociologist Werner Cohn lived as
11875-526: The seven-month jail term, he was released by the court after sentencing. However, he was immediately rearrested by Himmler 's Gestapo – presumably because Rudolf Hess found the sentence too lenient and decided to take "merciless action" against him. He was interned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps for "protective custody" from 1938 to 1945. He volunteered in September 1939 to become
12000-401: The ship and crew were ready, and stores were on board for a three-month mission. Lindemann notified Naval High Command ( Oberkommando der Marine ), Naval Groups North and West ( Marinegruppen Nord und West ) and Fleet Command that Bismarck was ready for action. The Chief of Fleet—Admiral Günther Lütjens —and his fleet staff held drills for the first time on board Bismarck on 13 May, testing
12125-537: The ship for repairs; Lindemann advocated retracing their route through the Denmark Strait and returning to Bergen , Norway. Lütjens overruled him and ordered a course set for Saint-Nazaire , France. In the afternoon, Admiral Lütjens ordered Prinz Eugen to break away from Bismarck and operate independently against the enemy's merchant shipping. Prinz Eugen and Bismarck separated at 18:14 that evening. Prinz Eugen arrived safely at Brest, France on 1 June 1941. No direct witnesses to this difference of opinion survived
12250-549: The ship. Lindemann and Lütjens at this point differed on how best to continue the mission. Lindemann, as commander of a battleship, was guided by the tactical situation, and wanted to hunt down the damaged Prince of Wales . (The Germans did not at that time know the ship to be Prince of Wales , but knew that it was a King George V -class battleship.) Lütjens, apparently mindful of the fleet order to avoid unnecessary contact with similar enemy units, rejected this without discussion. Lindemann and Lütjens also differed on where to take
12375-469: The ships' gunnery school in Kiel between 5 February and 3 May 1924. From here, Lindemann took command of the 1st Artillery Company of the 3rd Coastal Defense Department in Friedrichsort in Kiel from 1 October 1924 – 26 September 1926. His commanding officer was Korvettenkapitän (Lieutenant Commander) Otto Schultze , a former World War I U-boat commander and later Generaladmiral (general admiral) of
12500-512: 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 ( 60°19.49′N 5°14.48′E / 60.32483°N 5.24133°E / 60.32483; 5.24133 ), near Bergen , at 13:15 on 21 May. On
12625-454: The sinking of Bismarck and the death of its commander, Captain Ernst Lindemann received a posthumous Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . He received this high award because the Oberkommando der Marine felt that his skilled leadership significantly contributed to the destruction of the British battlecruiser Hood and the damage inflicted on the British battleship Prince of Wales . Lindemann
12750-463: The sinking, but Matrosengefreiter ( Leading Seaman ) Heinz Staat, the helmsman on the bridge, remembered a telephone call between the First Watch Officer , Commander Hans Oels, and a fleet staff officer which suggested that Lindemann had been trying to persuade Lütjens to pursue the enemy. A messenger returning to his comrades below spoke of " dicke Luft " ("thick air" or a "bad atmosphere") on
12875-649: The starboard rudder, but failed to free the port rudder. With asymmetric power applied, speed reduced to 8 kn (15 km/h; 9.2 mph), Bismarck was on a converging course with the Royal Navy units on the chase. The alarm sounded again at 23:00 when destroyers of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla under the command of Captain Philip Vian attacked Bismarck . Throughout the night Bismarck was targeted by incessant torpedo attacks by HMS Cossack , Sikh , Maori , Zulu , and ORP Piorun , denying Lindemann and
13000-401: The time was already in the water—claimed that he had seen Lindemann standing on the bow, near Bismarck ' s forward 38 cm turret, Anton . He was said to be with his combat messenger, a leading seaman, and apparently trying to persuade his messenger to save himself. In this account, his messenger took Lindemann's hand while the two walked to the forward flagmast. As the ship turned over,
13125-580: The two stood briefly to attention, and then Lindemann and his messenger saluted. As the ship rolled to port, the messenger fell into the water. Lindemann continued his salute while clinging to the flagmast, going under with the ship . Lindemann's comrades of Crew 1913 all contacted the young widow after his death. The former head of Crew 1913, Captain Otto Klüber, contacted Mrs Lindemann in the fall of 1941 and offered her an honorary membership. Shortly after Christmas on 27 December 1941, exactly seven months after
13250-456: The various battle stations. Hitler and Lütjens also met in private and discussed the risks of a mission in the North Atlantic. After this meeting, Hitler and the officers of Bismarck had lunch in the officers' mess, where Hitler spoke about America's unwillingness to enter the war. Lindemann openly disagreed with Hitler, expressing his opinion that the possibility of the United States entering
13375-556: The vessel's captain. The naval rank should not be confused with the army, air force, or marine ranks of captain , which all have the NATO code of OF-2. Captains with sea commands generally command ships of cruiser size or larger; the more senior the officer, the larger the ship, but ship commanders do not normally hold a higher rank than captain. In the Royal Navy , a captain might command an aircraft carrier , an amphibious assault ship , or
13500-516: The war could not be ruled out. The goal of Operation Rheinübung (Rhine Exercise) was for Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen —under the command of Lindemann's Crew 1913 classmate Captain Helmuth Brinkmann —to break into the Atlantic and attack Allied shipping. Grand Admiral Raeder's orders to the task force commander—Admiral Günther Lütjens—were that "the objective of the Bismarck
13625-640: The widespread anti-Semitism in Germany, at that time – that Jews should avoid aspiring to Government positions or seats in the Reichstag. There were many Jews, especially among the Zionists, who took a similar stand. Hitler's assurance satisfied me at the time. On the other hand, I hated the growing atheistic movement, which was fostered and promoted by the Social Democrats and the Communists. Their hostility toward
13750-408: The wreck of the Bismarck in 1989, he found that most of the forward superstructure had been blasted away by shells and there were more than 50 shell holes around the area of the conning tower . This may support the theory. Alternatively, Lindemann may have left his combat position when the ship's controls were rendered inoperable—and prior to the lethal hit on the command position—in order to give
13875-543: Was navigator of U-39 . Later he returned to Kiel , and in August 1917, he became first officer on U-151 , which attacked numerous ships at Gibraltar , in the Bay of Biscay , and other places. During this time, the SM U-151 crew set a record by sinking 55,000 tons of Allied ships in 115 days at sea. In June 1918, he became commander of the UC-67 . Under his command, UC-67 achieved
14000-535: Was a national conservative, and openly supported the conservative opponents of the Weimar Republic . He thus welcomed Hitler's accession to power in 1933, believing that it would bring a national revival. In his autobiography, From U-Boat to Pulpit published in the spring of 1933, he called the time of "the System" (a pejorative name for the Weimar Republic) the "years of darkness" and hailed Adolf Hitler for beginning
14125-684: Was assigned to the Mediterranean in April 1916. There the submarine fought on the Saloniki front , patrolled in the Strait of Otranto and from December 1916 onward, planted many mines in front of Port Said and was involved in commerce raiding . Flying a French flag as a ruse of war , the SM U-73 sailed past British warships and torpedoed two Allied troopships and a British man-of-war. In January 1917, Niemöller
14250-418: Was confident the war would end in a favourable outcome for Germany by mid-1940. Prior to commanding Bismarck , Lindemann had never held any shipboard command, a situation rare if not unique in the Kriegsmarine . Nevertheless, Lindemann had served exclusively on ships with a gun calibre of at least 28 cm (11 in), and he was Germany's leading gunnery expert. In 1940, he ranked second out of Crew 1913 and
14375-608: Was considered an outstanding leader. Lindemann arrived at the Blohm & Voss shipbuilding works in Hamburg at the beginning of August 1940. Bismarck ' s keel had been laid on 1 July 1936 and she was launched on 14 February 1939. Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg joined Bismarck as fourth gunnery officer in June 1940, and he would become the highest-ranking officer to survive Bismarck ' s last battle on 27 May 1941. Much of what
14500-484: Was frustrated by the fact that—as commander of the Naval Gunnery School—he would never come into direct contact with the enemy. When he received the news that he had been selected to be the first commander of the battleship Bismarck , he was honoured by the trust that had been bestowed on him but doubted that he would be able to get Bismarck ready for action before the war was over. His doubts suggest that he
14625-442: Was ignored, and later wondered whether this was due to combat fatigue or whether the disagreements with Lütjens had worn him down. Lindemann's body was never recovered, and it is thought that he, Lütjens and other officers were probably killed in action when shellfire from the British warships landed on Bismarck ' s bridge at 09:02. When Robert Ballard , the oceanographer responsible for finding RMS Titanic discovered
14750-459: Was later accorded the title Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem . Niemöller was arrested on 1 July 1937. On 2 March 1938, he was tried by a "Special Court" for activities against the state. He was given Sonder- und Ehrenhaft status ('special or honourable detention'). He received a 2,000 Reichsmark fine and seven months' imprisonment. But as he had been detained pre-trial for longer than
14875-460: Was officially enlisted in the Imperial Navy as a Seekadett (sea cadet) on 1 April 1913. In early May 1913, the cadets of Crew 1913 were sent to the training ships SMS Hansa , SMS Hertha , SMS Victoria Louise and SMS Vineta . Lindemann was assigned to Hertha with 71 of his comrades. At that time, Hertha was under the command of Captain Heinrich Rohardt,
15000-594: Was ordered to the Wilhelmshaven Shipyard (9 April–11 November 1934) for training in ship construction and familiarisation with the heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer , under the command of Captain Wilhelm Marschall . On Admiral Scheer , he again served as first gunnery officer, and in this position he participated in the Spanish Civil War (24 July–30 August 1936). Admiral Scheer had to make ready for
15125-570: Was respected by his crew. Bismarck left the Kiel Fjord on the morning of 28 September 1940 heading east. After an uneventful voyage through rough seas, Bismarck reached Gotenhafen (now Gdynia ) the next day. Here Bismarck conducted a number of sea trials in the relative safety of the Bay of Danzig (now Gdańsk Bay ). By 30 November 1940, Lindemann had set a number of tests for the crew, which they passed easily. During high speed trials, Bismarck reached
15250-592: Was the signals officer Second Lieutenant Wolfgang Reiner. Bismarck ' s heavy guns were first test-fired in the second half of November, and Bismarck was shown to be a very stable gun platform. After the 1940 Christmas celebration on board, Lindemann and the majority of the officers, non-commissioned officers and sailors went on home leave. First gunnery officer Lieutenant Commander Adalbert Schneider relieved Lindemann as Bismarck ' s commander during his absence. Lindemann spent his leave with his wife and daughter and returned on 1 January 1941. On 28 April 1941,
15375-405: Was the 94th recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in the Kriegsmarine . Lindemann's first gunnery officer—Lieutenant Commander Adalbert Schneider —had been awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 27 May 1941. Traditionally, the commanding officer would have received this award before any other crew member was so honoured. This exception had been criticized by various circles in
15500-589: Was the most powerful ship of the fleet. Her crew had been largely assigned from Lothringen , which continued to serve as a training ship . Aboard Bayern , now under the command of Captain Rohardt, Lindemann participated in Operation Albion in September–October 1917. Operation Albion's objective was the invasion and occupation of the Estonian islands of Saaremaa (Ösel), Hiiumaa (Dagö) and Muhu (Moon), then part of
15625-547: Was transferred to the Elsass serving as the second gunnery officer and Fähnrichsoffizier (officer in charge of cadets), responsible for the on-board training of the officer cadets, from 7 September 1929 – 25 February 1930. Holding the same rank and position, Lindemann then transferred to the Schleswig-Holstein . On 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party , under the leadership of Adolf Hitler , came to power in Germany, ushering in
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