Adalbert Schneider

Adalbert Schneider (10 March 1904 – 27 May 1941) was the First Gunnery Officer on board the battleship ''Bismarck'', and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for the sinking of on 24 May 1941 in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Less than a week later, on 27 May 1941, Schneider and the majority of ''Bismarck''s crew were killed in action during ''Bismarck''s last battle.

Naval career

Adalbert Schneider was born on 10 March 1904 in Halle (Saale) in the Province of Saxony, at the time a province of the Kingdom of Prussia. He joined the German navy on 30 March 1922. He received his first infantry training in the 3rd Company of Coastal Defence Department 3 (). On 4 October 1922 Schneider went on board , the first of his ship based trainings. Following ''Hannover'', he went on board SKS ''Niobe'' on 4 April 1923 and on 2 July 1923. He was promoted to Leading Seaman () on 1 April 1923. Schneider then attended an officer candidate () course at the Naval Academy Mürwik in Flensburg-Mürwik on 30 March 1924, and was shortly after promoted to midshipman () on 1 April 1924.

After the officers candidate training, Schneider attended a torpedo course for midshipmen at the Torpedo and Communication School () at Flensburg-Mürwik on 1 April 1925, followed by a pathfinder course for midshipmen () at the experimental pathfinder and demonstration command () at Kiel-Wik on 3 June 1925.

Operation ''Rheinübung''

The goal of the Operation ''Rheinübung'' (Rhine Exercise) was for ''Bismarck'', under the command of ''Kapitän zur See'' Ernst Lindemann, and the heavy cruiser ''Prinz Eugen'', under the command of ''Kapitän zur See'' Helmuth Brinkmann, to break into the Atlantic and attack Allied shipping. ''Großadmiral'' Erich Raeder's orders to the Chief-of-Fleet ''Admiral'' Günther Lütjens were that "the objective of the ''Bismarck'' is not to defeat enemies of equal strength, but to tie them down in a delaying action, while preserving the 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 (now Gdynia) and proceeded through the Baltic Sea and out towards the Atlantic. Unbeknownst to Lütjens, the British had intercepted enough communications to infer that a German naval operation might be about to occur in the area. ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'' passed the Great Belt on 20 May, and around noon the next day the task force dropped anchor in the Grimstad fjord () at Bergen, Norway. There ''Prinz Eugen'' took on fuel from the tanker ''Wollin''. Schneider's brother, ''Oberfeldarzt'' (Field Doctor) Dr. Otto Schneider, who was stationed in Norway, briefly visited his brother on board ''Bismarck''. Dr. Schneider was one of the last men to leave Bismarck on the evening of 21 May at around 22:00. Dr. Schneider later claimed that his brother was convinced that ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'' were being sent on a suicide mission.

On the evening of 23 May at 19:22, the German force was detected by the heavy cruisers and ''Norfolk'' that had been patrolling the Denmark Strait in the expectation of a German breakout. The alarm was sounded and ''Bismarck'' fired five salvos without scoring a direct hit. The heavily outgunned British cruisers withdrew to a safe distance and shadowed the enemy until their own heavy units could draw closer. However, ''Bismarck''s forward radar had malfunctioned as a result of the vibration from the heavy guns firing during this skirmish, and Lütjens was obliged to order ''Prinz Eugen'' to move ahead of ''Bismarck'' in order to provide the squadron with forward radar coverage.

Battle of the Denmark Strait

At the Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24 May 1941, was sunk, probably by ''Bismarck''. The hydrophones on ''Prinz Eugen'' detected the sounds of an unknown ship to port at 05:00. The Germans sighted the smoke stacks of two ships at 05:45, which triggered the alarm on ''Bismarck''. Schneider initially reported them as two heavy cruisers. The first British salvo revealed them as battleships, but not until the British task force turned to port were their precise identities revealed. The British ships started firing at the German force at 05:53. Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland planned on targeting ''Bismarck'' first, but due to the reversed battle order, ''Prince of Wales'' and ''Hood'' opened fire on the ''Prinz Eugen'' instead. The commander of the ''Prince of Wales'', Captain John Leach, detected this error and directed his guns to fire on ''Bismarck''. The German task force was still waiting for the order to commence firing. The commander of the German task force, Admiral Lütjens, did not give this order immediately. Two minutes into the battle and after multiple inquiries by Schneider, ""? (Requesting permission to open fire?) an impatient Lindemann responded: ""!. (I'm not letting my ship get shot out from under my arse. Open fire!). This Lindemann quotation is cited by Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg who at the time was in the after gun director keeping a watch out for ''Suffolk'' and ''Norfolk'' and listening to Schneider's commands over the gunnery intercom. This conversation most likely was passed down by a surviving crew member who overheard the conversation between Schneider and Lindemann. Von Müllenheim-Rechberg, Lindemann's personnel adjutant, would become the highest-ranking officer to survive the ''Bismarck''s last battle on 27 May 1941. A lot of what we know today about the final days of ''Bismarck'' is attributed to his account as a witness.

''Bismarck'' fired its first salvo at 05:55, first firing ''Anton'' and ''Bruno'' turrets and after a while ''Cesar'' and ''Dora'' turrets, referred to as a "demi salvo".''Bismarck'' had four dual SK C/34 gun turrets. Its two forward turrets were ''Anton'' and ''Bruno''. The aft turrets were ''Caesar'' and ''Dora''. These shells were reported to have fallen short of the target, so Schneider corrected the range and lateral displacement and ordered a bracket,Bracketing is a method for determining range by firing shells both beyond and short of a target. observing the long salvo to be "over" and judging the short salvo to be on target. Schneider then ordered a full salvo (broadside), followed by two more broadsides in rapid fire. This fifth salvo of shells fired at 06:01 at a range of about , was seen to hit ''Hood'' near her mainmast, and one shell probably struck somewhere between Hood's mainmast and "X" turret, aft of the mast.''Hood'' carried eight 42 calibre BL 15-inch Mark I guns. These guns were mounted in the hydraulically powered Mark II twin turrets which were designated 'A', 'B', 'X' and 'Y' from forward to aft. There was no immediately visible explosion, and Schneider was heard to remark: "" (Was that a dud? It definitely chewed its way in.) Then a huge jet of flame burst out of ''Hood'' from near the mainmast, followed by a devastating magazine explosion that destroyed the after part of the ship. This explosion broke the back of ''Hood'', and the last sight of the ship, which sank in only three minutes, was her bow, nearly vertical in the water.

Following the explosion HMS ''Prince of Wales'' was targeted by both German ships. She disengaged from combat at about 06:09, after seven direct hits; four by ''Bismarck'' and three by ''Prinz Eugen''. However, during this brief engagement ''Prince of Wales'' had also hit ''Bismarck'' three times. One shot struck the commander's boat and put 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 plates underwater and burst inside the ship, flooding a generator room and damaging the bulkhead to an adjoining boiler room, partially flooding it also. These last two hits allowed of water into the ship.

The pursuit

The ''Bismarck'' was sunk less than a week 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 group of nine Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers of 825 Naval Air Squadron led by Lieutenant Commander Eugene Esmonde from the aircraft carrier . One hit was scored, causing only superficial damage to the ''Bismarck''s armoured belt, but killing ''Oberbootsmann'' Kurt Kirchberg. In mid-morning at 10:30 on 26 May a Coastal Command Catalina reconnaissance aircraft from 209 Squadron RAF spotted ''Bismarck'' roughly west of St. Nazaire. The British battle group Force H, under the command of Admiral James Somerville, whose main units were the aircraft carrier HMS ''Ark Royal'', the First World War era battlecruiser and the cruiser was ordered to stop ''Bismarck''. At 19:15 that evening, 15 Swordfish from ''Ark Royal'' took off to launch an attack. The air raid alarm was sounded on ''Bismarck'' at 20:30. Roughly 15 minutes into the attack ''Bismarck'' was potentially hit by a torpedo, and at around 21:00 a single torpedo jammed ''Bismarck''s rudder.

At 02:17 on the morning of 27 May 1941, ''Group West'' received a transmission from ''Bismarck'' recommending Schneider for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. At 03:51 a reply confirmed that the medal had been awarded by Hitler.Jackson 2002, p. 91. ''Matrosengefreiter'' Adolf Eich later witnessed ''Admiral'' Günther Lütjens and ''Kapitän zur See'' Ernst Lindemann shaking his hand after the award was made. The news that Adalbert Schneider had received the award was announced in the German press on 5 June 1941.

''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 British battleship opened fire on ''Bismarck'' at 08:47. ''Bismarck'' returned fire at 08:49. Further involved in the final battle were the battleship and the cruisers ''Norfolk'' and . Torpedo bombers did not participate in 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. 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. Turret ''Caesar'' was put out of action at 09:50. All weapons went silent at 10:00. ''Rodney'' and ''King George V'' had to disengage prior to ''Bismarck''s sinking due to lack of fuel. The Germans started preparing for the self destruction of ''Bismarck'' when three torpedoes fired by ''Dorsetshire'' hit ''Bismarck''s side armour. ''Bismarck'' sank at 10:36 at position , roughly west of Ouessant (Ushant). The cruiser ''Dorsetshire'' saved 85 men, the British destroyer 25 German sailors. A further five sailors were saved by the under the command of ''Kapitänleutnant'' Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat and the weather observation ship ''Sachsenwald''.

Death

Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg was monitoring the gunnery intercom, and reports on the last minutes of Schneider's life. Schneider reported the heavy and middle guns ready for combat, and gave the order to open fire. The first salvo was fired by ''Rodney'' at 08:47 followed by ''King George V'' at 08:48. Schneider fired a partial salvo at ''Rodney'' since the ''Bismarck'' rear turrets could not fire at the appropriate angle. Schneider's aim was good, and he reported the first three salvos as short, on target and over. Schneider continued firing at ''Rodney''. ''King George V'' and a little later ''Rodney'' turned to pass ''Bismarck''s port side, a maneuver which ''Bismarck'' couldn't counter due to the damaged rudders. ''Bismarck'' started oscillating around her center axis which threw Schneider's aim off and necessitated continuous lateral displacement corrections of the guns. ''Bismarck'' started receiving heavy hits. The main gun director was destroyed, then turrets ''Anton'' and ''Bruno'' malfunctioned. Schneider was killed at 09:02 when an 8-inch shell from hit his combat position in the main gun director. Schneider was posthumously promoted to Senior Commander () with an effective date of 1 May 1941. However this promotion is not on his personnel file.Dörr 1966, p. 214.

Awards

* '' Dienstauszeichnung'' 4th Class (2 October 1936)Dörr 1996, p. 213.
* ''Dienstauszeichnung'' 3rd Class (2 October 1936)
* Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (20 August 1938)
* Iron Cross (1939)
** 2nd Class (30 July 1940)
** 1st Class
* High Seas Fleet Badge (1941)
* Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 27 May 1941 as ''Korvettenkapitän'' and 1st Gunnery Officer on the battleship "Bismarck"Scherzer 2007, p. 675.

Promotions

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

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* Grützner, Jens (2010) (in German). ''Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann: Der Bismarck-Kommandant – Eine Biographie''. Zweibrücken, Germany: VDM Heinz Nickel. .
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* Jackson, Robert (2002). ''The Bismarck: Weapons of War''. London: Spellmount. .
* Müllenheim-Rechberg Freiherr von, Burkard (1980) (in German). ''Schlachtschiff Bismarck 1940/41—Der Bericht eines Überlebenden''. Berlin, Frankfurt/M, Wien: Ullstein. .
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schneider, Adalbert
1904 births
1941 deaths
Reichsmarine personnel
Kriegsmarine personnel
German military personnel killed in World War II
Military personnel from Halle (Saale)
People from the Province of Saxony
Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
People lost at sea