Battleship Bismarck: A Survivor's Story

by Burkard von Müllenheim-Rechberg

Book Overview

The Bismarck is probably the most famous warship of WWII. The German battleship, 45,000 tons, was completed in early 1941 and went on to sink the 'Mighty Hood', pride of the Royal Navy, during one of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870210963
• ISBN13: 9780870210969
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The real mission of the battleship Bismarck

The author, and one time adjutant to Captain Lindermann, the commanding officer of the Bismarck, reveals the real mission of the battleship which is a new concept to most. It was very exciting to read the details from the beginning of the battleship including the sailors and officers, the training, and sailing to the Atlantic. Although it would have been nice if even more details could have been included, but perhaps space and memory prevented it. The author did mention that most of his experiences and service had to be written from memory since he was prevented from recording classified and secret information. Particularly interesting is his description and feelings of being a POW inside the POW camps; his repatriation, a person returning to his defeated homeland, once a proud nation, and how a former POW can fit into the new and recovering society. Lacking many technical details that we would liked to have read about, this is still an excellent book. To be able to read about the battleship from the German side of the ship and war, is invaluable. Excellent book and highly recommended.

Outstanding 1st hand account of the famous Battleship

Burkard Baron von Mullenheim-Rechberg has written a stirring account of his personal recollections of when he was assigned to the famous battleship Bismarck. From his first observations of when he first came abord the Bismarck and met her honorable Capitan, to when he was rescued after the Bismark was sunk, to life aftwerwards as a POW in Great Britain, his remarks, observations and analysis is "second to none".I am fortunate to have been a U.S. Navy veteran and can personally "visualise" what the interior of the Bismarck could have been like, von Mullenheim-Rechberg gives a fascinating view of the crew, from the ordinary seaman to the egotistical Fleet Admiral Raeder.The crew of the Bismarck is to be commended for their heroic actions underfire as well as their devotion to duty and each other. It is unfortunate that an outstanding Battleship such as the Bismarck was a tool in Adolf Hitler's warped and destructive vision. von Mullenheim-Rechberg makes his point very well that he was an anti-Nazi, but he was also a Sailor who had to defend the Fatherland (Germany)in an honorable way.The details of the Battleship are told in an easily understandable prose, as well as the famous Battle when the HMS Hood was sent to the bottom of the ocean due to the excellent marksmanship of the huge guns of the Bismarck. The frightening events of the sinking of the Bismarck are also told with chilling detail as well.This is a book that is to be recommended to all serious students of World War II as well as to those who enjoy a great lesson in history. After reading this, I have an admiration for both the British and German Navies of World War II, it is a tragedy that such admirable foes had to face one another at all.Highly recommended!

Powerful Battleship, Brave Crew

This is not "Sink the Bismarck", the fiction movie made in 1960's based on some truth but more of vivid imagintion and guess; This is real and true accounts describing from the other side, from a survivor who was among those brave crew battling valiantly against the far superiority odds, who surrounding them, after almost forty years silence when the world has been rained by the jammed fictions, novels all with imaginations and conjunctures on this subjects from the side of victors. If readers have a little knowledge of battleship, if they do not want to cheat themselves, they will not detach themselves from appreciating the Bismarck which was the pride of German Navy, the largest battleship ever built in the world during that stormy era, as Winston Churchill was obliged to recognize with an admiring eye : " She was a terrific ship, and the masterpiece of Naval construction"; and they will be immensely impressed and amazed by his exceptional striking power showing on May 24th 1941 at time that he was forced to send the once British largest warship Hood to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a range of 20,000 meters within only six minutes and with only ninety-three shells raining on her, and by his unblievable staying power displaying on May 27th 1941 on his final struggle against the far superiority enemy by refusing to sink after undergoing almost three thousand shells pouring form four British battleships within ninety minutes. And as this result, I believe readers will be in the state of both consternation and unsurprised when they eye the unique fact in navel history that wihin six hours after Hood sunk, the British deployed forty-two ships, four battleships, two battle cruisers, two aircraft carriers, three heavy cruisers, ten light cruisers and twenty-one destroyers to have a one thousand and three hundred nautical miles pursue to destroy him. If readers still possess temperament of chivalry, if they are not without impartial, they will not deny to respect the brave crew who was in the desperate situation, surrounded by heavy enemy units, but still stood up with great courage and fought a most courageous battle against the overwhelming superiority enemy for which even the British Fleet commander Tovey had scarecly not to write with evident admiration then: "She (the Bismarck ) put up a most gallant fight against impossible odds, worth of the old days of the Imperial German Navy, and she went down with her colors. "If readers have heart, if they could put all the political elements and prejudice aside, they will certainly not be indifferent but with high admiration when they read the touching dramatic scene of the saluting captain Lindemann went down with his ship. Besides those above the author renders to us, the author also fills some gapes in history by revealing some important facts which the history did not tell or ignored accidentally or incidentally : According to the author it is not those shells pounding from British battleships we

The Rhine Exercise from the German point of view

A fantastic book written from the other side's point of view. Great detail about life aboard the Bismarck, the thinking of those aboard the Bismarck, and what happened on the ship during the Rhine Exercise. The chapter dealing with the night before the final battle is both riveting and haunting.This book brings not just the Bismarck, but the men of the Bismarck back to life for a brief moment in time. You'll never look at this battle the same way again.

This book reveals in detail a legendary naval episode.

Battleship Bismarck: A Survivor's Story is a master piece of naval history. I have read this book several times and each time I have come away with more knowledge about Operation Rhine. The book is complete with details of the launch of the Bismarck at the Blohm & Voss Ship yards to its final destruction in the north Atlantic. The author has been very objective in his account of the Bismarck's maiden and final voyage. I also recommend the book "Pursuit" by Ludovick Kennedy which details the British side of this naval hunt.