Adalbert Schneider
Encyclopedia
Adalbert Schneider 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 HMS Hood
on 24 May 1941 in the Battle of the Denmark Strait
. The Knight's Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or outstanding military leadership. Less than a week later, on 27 May 1941, Schneider and the majority of Bismarck's crew were killed in action
during Bismarcks last battle.
, the first of his ship based trainings. Following Hannover, he went on board SKS Niobe on 4 April 1923 and SMS Berlin 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
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.
(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 (60°19.49′N 5°14.48′E) 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 salvo
s 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, Bismarcks 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.
At the Battle of the Denmark Strait
on 24 May 1941, HMS Hood
was sunk, probably by Bismarck. The hydrophone
s 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, ""? (Question. 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 Bismarcks 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. These shells were reported to have fallen short of the target, so Schneider corrected the range and lateral displacement and ordered a 4 hm (400 m; 437.4 yd) 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 38 centimetres (15 in) shells fired at 06:01 at a range of about 180 hm (18,000 m; 19,685 yd), 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 2000 metric tons (1,968.4 LT) of water into the ship.
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 bomber
s 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 Bismarcks 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 700 nautical miles (1,296.4 km) 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 Bismarcks 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. 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.
Bismarcks alarm sounded the last time at 08:00 on the morning of 27 May 1941. Norfolk sighted the Bismarck at 08:15 and the British battleship HMS Rodney opened fire on Bismarck at 08:47. Bismarck returned fire at 08:49. Further involved in the final battle were the battleship HMS King George V
and the cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire
. Torpedo bombers did not participate in the final battle. Bismarcks 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 had four 38 centimetres (15 in) SK C/34 gun turrets. Its two forward turrets were Anton and Bruno. The aft turrets were Caesar and Dora. 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 Bismarcks sinking due to lack of fuel. The Germans started preparing for the self destruction
of Bismarck when three torpedoes fired by Dorsetshire hit Bismarcks side armour. Bismarck sank at 10:36 at position 48°10′N 16°12′W, roughly 300 nmi (555.6 km; 345.2 mi) west of Ouessant (Ushant). The cruiser Dorsetshire saved 85 men, the British destroyer Maori
25 German sailors. A further five sailors were saved by the German submarine U-74 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat
and the weather observation ship Sachsenwald.
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 personal file.
Naval artillery
Naval artillery, or naval riflery, is artillery mounted on a warship for use in naval warfare. Naval artillery has historically been used to engage either other ships, or targets on land; in the latter role it is currently termed naval gunfire fire support...
Officer
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
on board the battleship Bismarck
German battleship Bismarck
Bismarck was the first of two s built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the primary force behind the German unification in 1871, the ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936 and launched nearly three years later...
, and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was a grade of the 1939 version of the 1813 created Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was the highest award of Germany to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership during World War II...
for the sinking of HMS Hood
HMS Hood (51)
HMS Hood was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. One of four s ordered in mid-1916, her design—although drastically revised after the Battle of Jutland and improved while she was under construction—still had serious limitations. For this reason she was the only ship of her class to be...
on 24 May 1941 in the Battle of the Denmark Strait
Battle of the Denmark Strait
The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a Second World War naval battle between ships of the Royal Navy and the German Kriegsmarine, fought on 24 May 1941...
. The Knight's Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or outstanding military leadership. Less than a week later, on 27 May 1941, Schneider and the majority of Bismarck's crew were killed in action
Killed in action
Killed in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...
during Bismarcks last battle.
Naval career
Adalbert Schneider joined the German military 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 SMS HannoverSMS Hannover
SMS Hannover was the second of five Deutschland-class pre-dreadnoughts of the German Imperial Navy . Hannover and the three subsequently constructed ships differed slightly in both design and construction from the lead ship in their propulsion systems and slightly thicker armor...
, the first of his ship based trainings. Following Hannover, he went on board SKS Niobe on 4 April 1923 and SMS Berlin 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
Naval Academy Mürwik
The Naval Academy at Mürwik is the main training establishment for all German Navy officers.It is located at Mürwik which is a part of Germany's most northern city, Flensburg. Built on a small hill directly by the coast, it overlooks the Flensburg Fjord...
in Flensburg
Flensburg
Flensburg is an independent town in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the region of Southern Schleswig...
on 30 March 1924, and was shortly after promoted to midshipman on 1 April 1924.
After the officers candidate training, Schneider attended a torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
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 RheinübungOperation Rheinübung
Operation Rheinübung was the sortie into the Atlantic by the new German battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen on 18–27 May 1941, during World War II...
(Rhine Exercise) was for Bismarck, under the command of Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann
Ernst Lindemann
Otto Ernst Lindemann was a German naval captain. He was the only commander of the battleship during its eight months of service in World War II....
, and the heavy cruiser
Heavy cruiser
The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range, high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 203mm calibre . The heavy cruiser can be seen as a lineage of ship design from 1915 until 1945, although the term 'heavy cruiser' only came into formal use in 1930...
Prinz Eugen
German cruiser Prinz Eugen
Prinz Eugen was an Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser, the third member of the class of five vessels. She served with the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The ship was laid down in April 1936 and launched August 1938; Prinz Eugen entered service after the outbreak of war, in August 1940...
, under the command of Kapitän zur See Helmuth Brinkmann
Helmuth Brinkmann
Helmuth Brinkmann was a Vice Admiral in the Kriegsmarine during the World War II who captained the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Prior to World War II he commanded the Aviso Grille, Adolf Hitler's state yacht. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...
, to break into the Atlantic and attack Allied shipping. Großadmiral Erich Raeder
Erich Raeder
Erich Johann Albert Raeder was a naval leader in Germany before and during World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank—that of Großadmiral — in 1939, becoming the first person to hold that rank since Alfred von Tirpitz...
's orders to the Chief-of-Fleet Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
Günther Lütjens
Günther Lütjens
Günther Lütjens was a German Admiral whose military service spanned almost 30 years. Lütjens is best known for his actions during World War II, primarily his service as admiral of the squadron comprising and her consort, , during the Operation Rheinübung sortie.-Early career:Günther Lütjens was...
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
Gdynia
Gdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport of Gdańsk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea.Located in Kashubia in Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk and suburban communities, which together...
) and proceeded through the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
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
Great Belt
The Great Belt is a strait between the main Danish islands of Zealand and Funen . Effectively dividing Denmark in two, the Belt was served by the Great Belt ferries from the late 19th century until the islands were connected by the Great Belt Fixed Link in 1997–98.-Geography:The Great Belt is the...
on 20 May, and around noon the next day the task force dropped anchor in the Grimstad fjord (60°19.49′N 5°14.48′E) at Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
, 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
Suicide mission
The term suicide mission commonly refers to a task which is so dangerous for the people involved that they are not expected to survive. The term is sometimes extended to, but is not limited to, suicide attacks such as kamikaze and suicide bombings, where the people involved actively commit suicide...
.
On the evening of 23 May at 19:22, the German force was detected by the heavy cruisers and Norfolk
HMS Norfolk (78)
HMS Norfolk was a County-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy; along with her sister ship , she was part of a planned four-ship subclass.She served throughout the Second World War....
that had been patrolling the Denmark Strait in the expectation of a German breakout. The alarm was sounded and Bismarck fired five salvo
Salvo
A salvo is the simultaneous discharge of artillery or firearms including the firing of guns either to hit a target or to perform a salute.Troops armed with muzzleloaders required time in which to refill their arms with gun powder and shot...
s 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, Bismarcks 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
The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a Second World War naval battle between ships of the Royal Navy and the German Kriegsmarine, fought on 24 May 1941...
on 24 May 1941, HMS Hood
HMS Hood (51)
HMS Hood was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. One of four s ordered in mid-1916, her design—although drastically revised after the Battle of Jutland and improved while she was under construction—still had serious limitations. For this reason she was the only ship of her class to be...
was sunk, probably by Bismarck. The hydrophone
Hydrophone
A hydrophone is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates electricity when subjected to a pressure change...
s 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
Lancelot Holland
Vice Admiral Lancelot Ernest Holland, CB commanded the British force in the Battle of Denmark Strait in May, 1941 against the German battleship Bismarck. Holland was killed during the battle.-Early life:...
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, ""? (Question. 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
Director (military)
A director, also called an auxiliary predictor, is a mechanical or electronic computer that continuously calculates trigonometric firing solutions for use against a moving target, and transmits targeting data to direct the weapon firing crew....
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 Bismarcks 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. These shells were reported to have fallen short of the target, so Schneider corrected the range and lateral displacement and ordered a 4 hm (400 m; 437.4 yd) 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
Broadside
A broadside is the side of a ship; the battery of cannon on one side of a warship; or their simultaneous fire in naval warfare.-Age of Sail:...
), followed by two more broadsides in rapid fire. This fifth salvo of 38 centimetres (15 in) shells fired at 06:01 at a range of about 180 hm (18,000 m; 19,685 yd), 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
Dud
A dud is an ammunition round or explosive that fails to fire or detonate, respectively, on time or on command.Duds are still dangerous and have to be deactivated and disposed of carefully. Poorly designed devices A dud is an ammunition round or explosive that fails to fire or detonate,...
? 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 2000 metric tons (1,968.4 LT) of water into the ship.
The Bismarck was sunk less than a week later after a concentrated effort by Britain's Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. At 23:30 (local time 19:30) on 24 May an attack was made by a group of nine Swordfish
Fairey Swordfish
The Fairey Swordfish was a torpedo bomber built by the Fairey Aviation Company and used by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy during the Second World War...
biplane
Biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
torpedo bomber
Torpedo bomber
A torpedo bomber is a bomber aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes which could also carry out conventional bombings. Torpedo bombers existed almost exclusively prior to and during World War II when they were an important element in many famous battles, notably the...
s of 825 Naval Air Squadron
825 Naval Air Squadron
825 Naval Air Squadron was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm carrier-based squadron formed on 8 October 1934 from the aircraft and personnel of 824 Naval Air Squadron...
led by Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
Eugene Esmonde
Eugene Esmonde
Lieutenant Commander Eugene Esmonde VC DSO, F/Lt, RAF, Lt-Cdr RN was a distinguished pilot who was a posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy awarded to members of Commonwealth forces...
from the aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
. One hit was scored, causing only superficial damage to the Bismarcks armoured belt, but killing Oberbootsmann Kurt Kirchberg. In mid-morning at 10:30 on 26 May a Coastal Command Catalina reconnaissance aircraft
PBY Catalina
The Consolidated PBY Catalina was an American flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s produced by Consolidated Aircraft. It was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. PBYs served with every branch of the United States Armed Forces and in the air forces and navies of many other...
from 209 Squadron RAF
No. 209 Squadron RAF
No. 209 Squadron of the British Royal Air Force was originally formed from a nucleus of "Naval Eight" on 1 February 1917 at Saint-Pol-sur-Mer, France, as No. 9 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service and saw active service in both World Wars, the Korean War and in Malaya...
spotted Bismarck roughly 700 nautical miles (1,296.4 km) west of St. Nazaire. The British battle group Force H
Force H
Force H was a British naval formation during the Second World War. It was formed in 1940 to replace French naval power in the western Mediterranean that had been removed by the French armistice with Nazi Germany....
, under the command of Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
James Somerville, whose main units were the aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
HMS Ark Royal
HMS Ark Royal (91)
HMS Ark Royal was an aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy that served during the Second World War.Designed in 1934 to fit the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty, Ark Royal was built by Cammell Laird and Company, Ltd. at Birkenhead, England, and completed in November 1938. Her design...
, the First World War era battlecruiser
Battlecruiser
Battlecruisers were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship...
and the cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
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 Bismarcks 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. Matrosengefreiter Adolf Eich later witnessed Admiral Günther Lütjens and Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann
Ernst Lindemann
Otto Ernst Lindemann was a German naval captain. He was the only commander of the battleship during its eight months of service in World War II....
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.
Bismarcks alarm sounded the last time at 08:00 on the morning of 27 May 1941. Norfolk sighted the Bismarck at 08:15 and the British battleship HMS Rodney opened fire on Bismarck at 08:47. Bismarck returned fire at 08:49. Further involved in the final battle were the battleship HMS King George V
HMS King George V
Two ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS King George V, after George V, King of the United Kingdom, whilst another was planned:*HMS King George V was to have been an Orion class battleship. She was renamed HMS Monarch in 1910, prior to her launch in 1911...
and the cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire
HMS Dorsetshire (40)
HMS Dorsetshire was a heavy cruiser of the County class of the Royal Navy, named after the English county . She was launched on 29 January 1929 at Portsmouth Dockyard, UK. During the Second World War, she was last commanded by Captain Augustus Agar V.C....
. Torpedo bombers did not participate in the final battle. Bismarcks 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 had four 38 centimetres (15 in) SK C/34 gun turrets. Its two forward turrets were Anton and Bruno. The aft turrets were Caesar and Dora. 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 Bismarcks sinking due to lack of fuel. The Germans started preparing for the self destruction
Scuttling
Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull.This can be achieved in several ways—valves or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives...
of Bismarck when three torpedoes fired by Dorsetshire hit Bismarcks side armour. Bismarck sank at 10:36 at position 48°10′N 16°12′W, roughly 300 nmi (555.6 km; 345.2 mi) west of Ouessant (Ushant). The cruiser Dorsetshire saved 85 men, the British destroyer Maori
HMS Maori (F24)
HMS Maori was a Tribal-class destroyer laid down by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited, at Govan in Scotland on 6 June 1936, launched on 2 September 1937 by Mrs. W. J. Jordan and commissioned on 2 January 1939...
25 German sailors. A further five sailors were saved by the German submarine U-74 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat
Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat
Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat was a Korvettenkapitän with the Kriegsmarine during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...
and the weather observation ship Sachsenwald.
Death
Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg witnessed the last minutes of Schneider's life over the gunnery intercom. 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 Bismarcks 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 with the destruction of the main gun director, followed shortly by the malfunction of turrets Anton and Bruno. Schneider was killed at 09:02 when an 8-inch shell from NorfolkHMS Norfolk (78)
HMS Norfolk was a County-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy; along with her sister ship , she was part of a planned four-ship subclass.She served throughout the Second World War....
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 personal file.
Awards
- DienstauszeichnungWehrmacht Long Service AwardThe Wehrmacht Long Service Award was a military service decoration of Nazi Germany issued for satisfactory completion of a given years of military service...
4th Class (2 October 1936) - Dienstauszeichnung 3rd Class (2 October 1936)
- Iron CrossIron CrossThe Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
(1939)- 2nd Class (30 July 1940)
- 1st Class
- High Seas Fleet BadgeHigh Seas Fleet BadgeHigh Seas Fleet Badge is a German military decoration awarded for service to the crews of the High Seas Fleet, mainly of the battleships and cruisers, but also those ships that supported them operationally for which there was no other award...
(1941) - Knight's Cross of the Iron CrossKnight's Cross of the Iron CrossThe Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was a grade of the 1939 version of the 1813 created Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was the highest award of Germany to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership during World War II...
on 27 May 1941 as Korvettenkapitän and 1st Gunnery Officer on the battleship "Bismarck"
Radio communication regarding the Knight's Cross
| Time, date | Original German wording | Direct English translation |
|---|---|---|
| 02:17, 27 May 1941 | Chief of Fleet to the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy: Requesting bestowal of Knight's Cross to Korvettenkapitän Schneider for the sinking of Hood. | |
| 03:51, 27 May 1941 | Commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine to Korvettenkapitän Schneider, reporting chief of fleet: The Führer has awarded you the Knight's Cross for sinking battlecruiser Hood. Hearty Congratulations. |
Promotions
| 1 April 1923: | Matrosengefreiter (seaman 2nd class) |
| 1 April 1924: | Fähnrich zur See (Midshipman) |
| 1 October 1926: | Leutnant zur See (Second Lieutenant at sea) |
| 1 July 1928: | Oberleutnant zur See (First Lieutenant at sea) |
| 1 October 1934: | Kapitänleutnant (Captain Lieutenant) |
| 1 August 1938: | Korvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain) |
| 1 May 1941: | Fregattenkapitän (Frigate Captain), not in his personnel file |