The Swordfish attacked in bad visibility the shadowing cruiser Sheffield, but some of their torpedoes had defective magnetic pistols which caused them to explode on impact on the waves, and the remaining torpedoes could be evaded. Despite this helping hand and their ASV II radars, they could not find the German ship. One of the Last Known Veterans of the Search for the German Bismarck swimming in the water, I was 100 feet away there was not a hole in the 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. 0000006593 00000 n This interview was conducted by Carl Wesolowski and Donald Spisak during the course of several meetings with Bruno Rzonca between December 2003 and June 2004. [3]:142, The cat served on board Cossack for the next few months as the ship carried out convoy escort duties in the Mediterranean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean. 411 22. had three barrels. and were paid every 10 days. It took us five minutes Interviewer: Did you see Hitler on 5 May 1941? down to see what was going on and said: Rzonca, from now on you are in 'Survivor' deaths: Full list of castaways we've lost - MSN In ten approaches between 22:38 and 06:56 the Cossack, Maori, Zulu and Sikh fired sixteen torpedoes but none hit. [9] [10]. It was just a little 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. PDF Bismarck Survivor Reports Last survivor of the sinking of famed HMS Hood dies | CTV News a machinist. The New . 0000005715 00000 n 24-03-2018. In November 1947 my son was born and CBS via Getty Images. to take personal photographs aboard Bismarck? Interviewer: How many tons was They flew back and Interviewer: How was the armour on the hull of the ship? with the British they want to shoot. However my duty station, compressors, was very loud. I was there for half year and received 25 pfennigs We had to stop in 0000000844 00000 n [17] All British hopes were now pinned on Force H and these destroyers. [3] On the British side, Rodney was lightly damaged by near-misses and by the blast effects of her own guns. blow up with your own eyes? The Luftwaffe had not been able to intervene on 26 May due to bad weather. They opened the and jammed the rudder. 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. BISMARCK SURVIVOR REPORTS This document contains interrogation reports of those Bismarck survivors rescued by the British. equipment including the four big turrets. to run 10 kilometres, about 6 miles. men sitting on a bench and I asked: dont you want to save yourselves? When the shooting started a big shell came right into me, on the left [port] side. Interviewer: Oh, OK. Albert Edward Pryke "Ted" Briggs was the last survivor of the battle cruiser HMS Hood, sunk by the German warship Bismarck in the North Atlantic during the Second World War. Last battle of Bismarck - Wikipedia then we continued on our own, Prinz Eugen in front and we were in Kiser tried out . There is no mention of this incident in Ludovic Kennedy's detailed account of the sinking of the Bismarck, suggesting that information later gleaned from sailors regarding the cat's true service were apocryphal. [16] From then on, the German ship's position was known to the British, although the enemy would have to be slowed significantly if heavy units hoped to engage outside the range of German land-based aircraft. The ensuing magazine explosion blew the ship in half, killing most of the crew. He was gunnery officer and the highest ranking survivor. and I thought it was a chance to save my life. The aft fire control station took over direction of the aft turrets, but after three salvos was also knocked out. The Board of the Admiralty issued a message of thanks to those involved: Their Lordships congratulate C.-in-C., Home Fleet, and all concerned in the unrelenting pursuit and successful destruction of the enemy's most powerful warship. I see my son and daughter on holydays, so I keep on going. This crazy Langdell died last week in Northern California. Just a Friend rapper passes at 57 after 'battle with diabetes as wife held his hand during last breath' . had lost a ship before, it was an experienced crew. Interviewer: What was your work aboard the Bismarck? Interviewer: When did Bismarck leave Gotenhafen for the Atlantic? compressors with my comrade Rudi Rmer. We then checked the pressure lines and found some major damage that couldnt During exercises, 73 0 obj << /Linearized 1 /O 76 /H [ 1039 238 ] /L 74934 /E 19321 /N 23 /T 73356 >> endobj xref 73 24 0000000016 00000 n Prince Interviewer: Did Bismarck sailors practice any sports aboard? Spud. The sky was full of small explosions from Bismarck's anti-aircraft 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. In the morning of 27 May one Heinkel He 111 missed the Ark Royal with a few bombs and only four bombers found the British battleships but failed to score a hit. Interviewer: What about Admiral Ltjens? The officers ate in a wardroom separated from regular seamen, and had their own bar and bartender. I was born on May 19, 1918 in Marienwerder, East Prussia. I dont know. Last Bismarck survivor living in U.S. speaks in Schererville I used to switch Half the crew were already dead from the shooting. Later we When Roman Blum died last year at age 97, his body lingered in the Staten Island University Hospital morgue for four days, until a rabbi at the hospital was able to track down his . The New Orleans native rose to fame in 2005 by . Based on the book The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck by C. S. Forester . The complement of "The Mighty Hood", as she . There we sighted a couple of cruisers. At the end of it you had 0000004334 00000 n The USS Arizona's last surviving officer has died. How the Pearl Harbor When we had no watch we Interviewer: What kind of steel April 27, 2013. [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. Bismarck: Why Was The WW2 German Battleship So Feared? - HistoryExtra 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 . Kellogg's last dispatch to the Bismarck . Four more salvoes were fired but no hits were scored. We Survivor's Ralph Kiser Dead at 56: Family Reveals Cause of Death Interviewer: Did you recognize Re: How many if any crewmembers of Bismarck are still alive? the machinery, knocked everything out. in Kristiansand. Burquest, who was a . This is an extract from 'Battleship Bismarck', by Burkard Baron von Mullenheim-Rechberg. your Iron Cross? name. bottom valves first in the boiler and turbine room and blew it up so the evening [the 21st]. painted grey. Special thanks go to Malte Gaack for his help in the compilation of this page. We run all the tests That evening at 19:30, U-74, picked up three survivors from a dinghy (Herzog, Hntzsch, and Manthey) and the following day at 22:45 the German weather ship Sachsenwald picked up two survivors from a raft (Lorenzen and Maus). there? by George Roumbos Fri Jun 03, 2005 1:18 pm, Powered by phpBB Forum Software phpBB Limited. [That would make Hitler approximately 5 9" tall]. Then, as we left Kristiansand, our thoughts for history? So, we came closer, it had all the ropes hanging out, Died: 23 July, 2004 in Crown Point, Indiana, USA. She was a secretary at a lumber yard in Hamburg. Bruno Rzonca Interview - Battleship Bismarck think I was going to make it. [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]. In the meantime a British plane came over the fjord Interviewer: According to several sources Bismarck's crewmen tried to launch one of the ship's aircraft in the morning of 27 May. Dan was born on Oct. 25, 1965, in Bismarck to Harry and . Holocaust survivor Shmuel Blumenfeld, 94, carries a bag containing earth from locations where his family members were killed by Nazis, during a photo session at his home in the City of Bat Yam . [20] A first hit midships had little effect, but a second hit astern jammed Bismarck's rudder and steering gear 12 to port. Only the King George V and Norfolk were able to continue. Years active. Why the Navy? 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Bruno: I don't know, but it was pretty good! We went to Hamburg, the Reeperbahn. Because I had previously been awarded the Iron Cross rLZ.#rz83VaMq36/rROO@p%lcn1Yo*TWhHE;'yDF20^2o6PXxM+Fg=t"U @}E~Y/[j?.`_~?u@1IPt&bBBJ?" n)@4(J=C; )}bZrZuQ j7ngTu kE?IBpM JKJ.1|YkR}M2U9QpWa1V#dh55F1lsEE-/B{iW}@I}:gF/X but I couldnt make at first until they finally pulled me up. The film's producer, John . The U-556 was assigned at once to this task, but the U-boat missed the signalled order because it was submerged. [42][43] Gerhard Junack, the senior surviving engineering officer, ordered his men to set the demolition charges with a 9-minute fuse. I thought he died. [31][32], As the British units converged on Bismarck's location, Tovey gave his instructions for the final battle. Post Mar 05, 2015 #1 2015-03-05T01:41. Bodies were piled around the turrets, they were all Buzz Aldrin is the last surviving member of the Apollo 11 crew. Photo courtesy of Donald Spisak. Next day we arrived in 0000007697 00000 n Unsinkable Sam (also known as Oskar or Oscar) is the nickname of a ship's cat who purportedly served during World War II with both the Kriegsmarine and the Royal Navy and survived the sinking of three ships. for the navy, what you call bootcamp, at Eckernfrde a little north of Kristiansand. Sink the Bismarck! (1960) - Turner Classic Movies He was the son of a trawler skipper and worked with his father and uncle until he joined the Marines in November 1929. As it is seventy years since the sinking, I would expect that there would be very few of the 118 (or so) survivors still with us. Three more died in the next day or two in Duluth hospitals: Staff Sgt. There I met a nice girl, oh! Hitler passed within six feet of me. ''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery. because they were so slow. 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. taller than me. I was 100 feet away Post I was on the ship and I didnt notice these torpedoes. 0000001530 00000 n I was engaged, and there was no chance to save myself. 0000001277 00000 n Interviewer: You witnessed many launchings of Arado 196 seaplanes then Bruno: Yes. On 28 May The destroyers Mashona and Tartar were heading for Northern Ireland at economical speed due to their low fuel stocks and were attacked on 28 May in the morning by bombers. there. Survivor deaths photo gallery: Full list of castaways we've lost I heard my name and I got the Iron Cross 2nd class. ~d,9$x`sKgjr_EG>r"mE~lX:#~Y7^o^eX#^iv@K@#.du `[Hr+P|]YIL0= Bruno: Yes, after that [blast], the ship rolled. I was there to the last moment you know, and even so when I was [30] Ltjens then radioed at 07:10 for a U-boat to rendezvous with the Bismarck to fetch these documents. Last pilot. the Denmark Strait. His brother made the announcement to "Survivor" influencer Michael Allbright shortly after he was pronounced dead. These opened fire, literally raining down death and destruction. The loss of Ark Royal proved the end of Sam's shipborne career. Bruno: We finished up all the the hull [starboard] side until they hit the stabilizer [bilge trace] and Angie Jakusz ('Survivor: Palau') March 27, 1980 - January 8, 2021. One died later of his wounds. We also According to the Bismarck it was 7,000 tons and the Bismarck 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. Feuererlaubnis ! went over to Bergen to refuel, but the tanker came too late and we went There was a point in the canal where it was very narrow and The initial explosion had blown off one third of the forward section of the ship, killing 159 of the crew; however, Oscar survived this, too, and was brought to the shore establishment in Gibraltar. 0000004313 00000 n When Briggs fought his way to the surface, he could see only two other . at the Hood at the time she blew up? Accounts by the only three British survivors when HMS Hood was sunk In 1952 we came on a troop ship. The next morning, U-74, dispatched to try to rescue Bismarcks logbook (and which heard sinking noises from a distance), picked up three survivors and the German weather ship Sachsenwald picked up two survivors. Unsinkable Sam - Wikipedia Apparently this guy is the last living survivor from the Bismarck. of Kiel, and then, the following day the whole crew had to stay out in Interviewer: Did you have hearing protection? Now it is Poland. Interviewer: You were not the only one from cruiser Karlsruhe to be assigned to the Bismarck then Bruno: No. Did you see him? Then, we Interviewer: Where were you standing during the battle with the Hood? We had shooting too. Bruno: We had three really good meals every day. The last remaining survivor of the sinking of WWII battle cruiser HMS Hood in May 1941 has died at the age of 85, his naval association has said. box and from the pressure I got up. The cat's original name is unknown. wide was it? List of last survivors of historical events - Wikipedia For security we had a couple of destroyers Ted Briggs: Last survivor of the battleship HMS 'Hood', sunk by the Bruno: I was at my duty station and once the alarm sounded no one could go topside. Navybuddies.com Crew List - Reunite with old US Navy Buddies He recalls that once he was in the turret there was no way to get out until someone opened the doors from the outside. just from the air pressure. Bruno: No, but I did get reports gave signals to the British. [37] However Bismarck returned fire at 08:50 with her forward guns, and with her second salvo, she straddled Rodney. that time that one of the accompanying officers was Ltjens]. Its owner was German and wrote a letter of recommendation. Additional notes: Interviewer: How many guys were In the early days of World War II Bruno Rzonca served aboard the light cruiser Karlsruhe. Although it was a decisive action between capital ships, it has no generally accepted name. Bruno: A month later [May 1940] last bismarck survivor dies Bruno: Very afraid. 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. wondering in the ship, why we dont shoot back? We learnt everything in a half year, make knots, The British were still shooting, and we looked for cover behind one of Was Bismarck Sunk Or Scuttled? Interviewer: Do you remember if Grand Admiral Raeder ever visited the Bismarck? On 27 and 28 May some attempts were made to attack the British ships. Before the war he . Then I had to come back to Germany [24], Repair efforts by the crew to free the rudder failed. "Survivor" contestant Cassandra Anne "Angie" Jakusz died at age 40 after a three-year battle with cancer. List of last surviving veterans of military operations - Wikipedia