The Kriegsmarine #2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartenstein

On September 12 1942, U-156, under the command of Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartenstein, torpedoed and sank the 19,695-ton British liner Laconia in the South Atlantic. The liner was carrying over 2,700 people, including 1,800 Italian prisoners of war. Amazed to hear the Italian voices among the survivors in the water, Hartenstein immediately began rescue operations, turning his boat into a floating hospital and exposing her to great danger. He radioed for assistance, both from other U-boats and from any nearby vessels, promising to cease hostilities if not attacked himself. Admiral Dönitz sent two U-Boats, U-506 (Kptlt. Erich Würdemann) and U-507 (Krvkpt. Harro Schacht), the Italians sent the submarine Cappellini, and the French sent three warships. Heading for a rendezvous with the French ships, the U-Boats had hundreds of survivors both on board and on their upper decks, and were towing chains of overcrowded lifeboats and rafts behind them.

On September 16, an American B-24 bomber, operating from Ascension Island, flew over the scene, and although its pilot could see the rafts and lifeboats, as well as the large Red Cross flags draped over the U-Boats guns, he inexplicably omitted to report that fact and was instructed to attack! This inexperienced pilot, one Lieutenant James Harden - was so keen to bag his first 'kill' and make a name for himself, that he disregarded what he could clearly see was a rescue in progress, and pressed ahead with his bombing runs, later claiming to have sunk both U-156 and U-506 - a 'feat' for which he was subsequently decorated. He made several runs, killing and maiming dozens of people and forcing the Germans to cut the lines to the lifeboats and submerge immediately, drowning many and leaving hundreds once again struggling in the shark-infested waters.
Nearly 2,000 people lost their lives in 'The Laconia Incident', victims of torpedoes, drowning, sharks, thirst and 'hero' Harden's bombs.
The bombing of U-Boats so obviously engaged in a humanitarian rescue, prompted Dönitz to issue the controversial 'Laconia Order', which made it clear that they were no longer to take part in any rescue operations, but were to leave survivors in the water, an order for which he was found guilty at the War Crimes tribunals after the war, and spent nearly twelve years of his life in prison.

Answer: Lützow

Bombed and sunk in shallow water in Schwinemünde in April 1945, the heavy cruiser Lützow, the former 'pocket battleship' Deutschland, remained on even keel with most of her guns still above the water, and was used to bombard the Soviet formations attempting to capture the port until her ammunition ran out.

A serious fire on board finally put her out of action and she was blown up. Raised after the war and towed out to sea to be scuttled, it took the Russians over eight hours to sink her!

Answer: The location of the mainmast

Originally virtually identical, 'Salmon and Gluckstein', as the British called them, had several distinguishing features, but by far the most visibly prominent, was the location of the mainmast. On the Gneisenau it remained stepped to the rear of the funnel, while on the Scharnhorst it was moved further aft of the aircraft hangar to just forward of turret Caesar.

In February 1942 at Brest, prior to 'the Channel Dash', a new mainmast was delivered to the Gneisenau which was intended to be located aft of her new enlarged hangar as part of her re-development.

The RAF bombs that put her out of action at Kiel later that month, and effectively sealed her fate, put paid to all that.

Answer: 2230

Bismarck's original complement is said to have been 103 officers and 1,962 non-commissioned officers and men - a total of 2,065 men.
On Operation Rheinübung, it was higher - 106 officers and 2,123 non-commissioned officers and men for a total of 2,229 - and was due to the presence on board of 75 members of the admiral's fleet staff, a prize crew of one officer and 80 men, and a group from the Ministry of Propaganda - journalists, war correspondents, cameramen and wireless commentators with their technical crews - all charged with recording Bismarck's epic maiden cruise.

Answer: Prinz Eugen

The heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, in Brest since the Bismarck sortie, survived the 'Channel Dash' unscathed, but was torpedoed six months later off Trondheim, by the British submarine HMS Trident, losing her rudders and 40 feet off her stern. Emergency repairs kept her afloat, and with temporary rudders fitted, she limped back to Kiel, surviving a concentrated air attack on the way.

Answer: At sea, searching for the Gneisenau, Köln and destroyer escorts in the North Sea.

The battleship Gneisenau supported by the light cruiser Köln and the destroyers Wilhelm Heidkamp, Friedrich Ihn, Diether von Roeder, Karl Galster, Max Schulz, Paul Jakobi, Bernd von Arnim, Erich Steinbrinck and Friedrich Eckoldt had sortied into the shipping lanes between Britain and Scandinavia.

Answer: Admiral Graf Spee

During her south Atlantic and Indian Ocean raiding cruise the 'pocket battleship' Admiral Graf Spee disguised herself with a dummy turret and second funnel in order to appear like a British cruiser. A dummy funnel was also constructed on the Bismarck during Operation Rheinübung which, had it been used, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the cruiser HMS Sheffield being mis-identified as Bismarck and attacked by Swordfish torpedo bombers, could well have caused the British to delay any further torpedo attacks until her identity had been ascertained, and hence the fatal hit on the rudder that sealed her fate might never have happened.

Answer: HMS Salmon

In December 1939, the light cruisers Leipzig, Nürnberg and Köln, under Konteradmiral Lütjens, while escorting five destroyers returning from laying mines off the north-east coast of England, both the Leipzig and the Nürnberg were hit by two of a fan of three torpedoes fired by HMS Salmon, an attack from which the Leipzig never really recovered, being relegated to training duties for the rest of the war.

Heavy cruiser Lützow was hit by a torpedo from HMS Spearfish in April 1940 which almost severed her stern, but despite being partially abandoned, remained afloat and was towed to safety. Light cruiser Karlsruhe was so badly damaged by HMS Truant in April 1940 that she was deemed by her commander to be beyond saving, and despite the fact that she was still afloat two hours after the attack, she was abandoned and sunk by the Greif, one of her three escorting torpedo boats.

The battleship Gneisenau was torpedoed by HMS Clyde in June 1940 sustaining heavy damage to her bow, and in February 1942, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen had her rudder and part of her stern blown off near Trodheim by HMS Trident, but after emergency repairs made it back to Kiel.

Answer: Operation Berlin

Having failed to break out into the Atlantic in December 1940, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, under the command of Admiral Günther Lütjens, made it into the convoy shipping lanes in January 1941, in an Operation code-named Berlin, where together they sank 22 ships, totalling almost 114,000 tons, in a 60-day voyage of 17,800 miles.

Answer: Doggerbank

The blockade-runner Doggerbank, formerly the British freighter Speybank, captured by HK Atlantis in January 1941, returning to Germany from Japan with important war material on board was torpedoed and sunk off the Azores by the U-43 (ObLt. Hans-Joachim Schwantke) on March 3 1943. With 365 men, captured crew from ships sunk by the Auxiliary Cruisers Michel and Stier, survivors of the tanker Uckermark and auxiliary cruiser Thor, both accidentally destroyed in Yokohama, as well her own crew, on board, she was hit by three torpedoes, which caused her to sink within minutes, leaving her crew no time at all to launch lifeboats, so that only 15 men managed to get off in a tiny dinghy.

By the time this dinghy was found, 26 days and 1,600 miles later, only one man, Fritz Kuert, remained alive. His controversial story of the sinking of the Doggerbank, is told in 'The Survivor' by Hans Herlin.

Answer: Sunk in dock at Wilhelmshaven

Although bombed and sunk in shallow water in dock at Wilhelmshaven in March 1945, Köln remained on even keel, and as some of her guns were above the water, they were used to bombard advancing enemy tank formations. After the war she was broken up and finally scrapped in 1956.

Answer: Thor and Michel

HK Thor, under the command of Kapitän zur See Günther Gumprich, completed a successful second cruise between November 30 1941 to October 9 1942, when she docked at Yokohama for a refit. There, on October 30, a series of explosions in the tanker Uckermark, the former Altmark, moored alongside her, sent large sections of her superstructure crashing onto Thor, setting her on fire. Both ships were quickly engulfed in flames which spread rapidly across the oil-covered surface of the basin in which they were moored, consuming Thor's prize, the 7,130-ton supply ship Leuthen, formerly the British liner Nankin, and the Japanese freighter Unkai. 53 members of Uckermark's crew, 13 of Thor's, and an unknown number of shipyard workers lost their lives.

Günther Gumprich was thereby ideally placed to take over when Hellmuth von Ruckteschell was forced to relinquish command of HK Michel in Yokohama due to deteriorating health. She embarked, under Gumprich's command, on her second war cruise from May to October 1943, during which she was not only the last of the disguised raiders, but also Germany's only active warship anywhere on the high seas. On October 17, she was sunk off the coast of Japan by the American submarine USS Tarpon, taking 263 of the 373 officers and men on board, including her commander, down with her.

Answer: Rear Admiral Karl Jesco von Puttkammer

Thirty-nine years old when he moved from the destroyer Z.10 Hans Lody to Berlin just before the war to become a liason officer at Führer HQ - Karl Jesco von Puttkammer was Hitler's Naval Adjutant from October 1939 until the end, in Berlin in April 1945.

Answer: HMS Acasta

Even as HMS Acasta was sinking, her captain manoevered her for a last desperate long-range torpedo shot. The Scharnhorst had changed course to turn bows-on to a possible torpedo attack, but then resumed her original course a little too soon, and was hit in the starboard quarter. So badly damaged was she that she immediately retired at a greatly reduced speed and made for the safety of Trondheim.
Acasta's sole survivor, Leading Seaman Carter, wrote a book called 'The Man Who Hit the Scharnhorst'.

Answer: Leipzig

In October 1944, shortly after leaving Gotenhafen in poor visibility, the ill-fated light cruiser Leipzig, drifting, while her engineers were engaged in a complex engine-room procedure, strayed into the wrong shipping lane, straight into the path of the 14,000-ton heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, travelling at a speed of 20 knots.

The resulting collision almost cut the Leipzig in two, effectively putting her out of action for the rest of the war.