last bismarck survivor dies last bismarck survivor dies

He was one of the last remaining veterans of the gun turrets that helped sink the Bismarck. They looked like seagulls" 0000000899 00000 n other decorated sailors. After the battle, the British warships returned to the United Kingdom with 111 Bismarck survivors. Bismarck Survivor Bruno Rzonca. Gymnastics perhaps? Interviewer: Did you have hearing protection? The survivors, including Sam, who had been found clinging to a floating plank by a Motor Launch[4] and described as "angry but quite unharmed",[5] were transferred to HMS Lightning[6] and the same HMS Legion which had rescued the crew of Cossack. DS.]. There were only a limited number of human survivors, as British ships had to abandon picking up survivors as there was believed to be a U-boat in the area. In the meantime a British plane came over the fjord 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. We had to snap on the sail and Throughout that night, Bismarck was the target of intermittent torpedo attacks by Vian's destroyers. The New . Bruno: I was a machinist working on a machine shop. Interviewer: What happened during In Britain, the House of Commons was informed of the sinking early that afternoon.[56]. time I had contact with my wife, and I arranged a marriage by proxy. Bruno: We finished up all the For security we had a couple of destroyers equipment including the four big turrets. We will fight to the last shell. Interviewer: What kind of steel an hour, the water was 15 C. and the waves 30 feet high. In the ship we had tables 6-foot long, each table received a 2-liter bucket that was filled with beer, and each sailor had a metal cup. On February 14, 1939, the 823-foot Bismarck was . Interviewer: Were you looking 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. and he hands it to me! He was one of the last remaining veterans of the gun turrets that helped sink the Bismarck. 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. I didnt see him anymore. the light cruiser Karlsruhe. William Herbert (Bert) Millener recently died on his 103 rd birthday. in its sinking! wide was it? The ensuing magazine explosion blew the ship in half, killing most of the crew. At 09:00 the Mashona received a hit, and was abandoned with the loss of 46 crew members. by Jos M. Rico Thu Oct 04, 2012 9:43 pm, Post morning. However my duty station, compressors, was very loud. to sink the Hood. I dont know. 0000001039 00000 n [21] This resulted in her being, initially, able to steam only in a large circle. He was loved by all, and will be missed. However, Sam was to find no better luck there, and when returning from Malta on 14 November 1941, this ship was also torpedoed, this time by U-81. Bruno: It was on my birthday the ship again? Bruno: I dont recall this officers TED Briggs, the last of only three crew who survived the sinking of the battle cruiser HMS Hood in 1941, has died aged 85. Angie Jakusz ('Survivor: Palau') March 27, 1980 - January 8, 2021. Newsreel footage of Bismarck's last battle, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Last_battle_of_Bismarck&oldid=1146995731, Naval battles and operations of the European theatre of World War II, Naval battles of World War II involving Germany, Naval battles of World War II involving Poland, Naval battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom, Short description is different from Wikidata, Atlantic Ocean articles missing geocoordinate data, Articles missing coordinates without coordinates on Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, The remainder of the Home Fleet, consisting of the battleship, Force H had already left Gibraltar with the aircraft carrier. I lived there for a couple of years and in 1953 my daughter was born in St. Louis. Following the sinking of the Bismarck on 27 May 1941, Bruno Rzonca was rescued by the British cruiser Dorsetshire and then spent 6 years in prisoner of war camps first in England and then in Canada. Bruno: I don't know, but it was pretty good! Most of the crew on the Bismarck IIRC it was about 4 or 5. a parade. Bruno: Yes, until a month later we couldnt move in on the Bismarck. My wife died in October 1995, and I since then live on my own. and they vanished. Bismarck fired her main and secondary armament against the attacking aircraft, trying to hit the low flying torpedo aircraft with the shell splashes. In the early days of World War II Bruno Rzonca served aboard the light cruiser Karlsruhe. [42][43] Gerhard Junack, the senior surviving engineering officer, ordered his men to set the demolition charges with a 9-minute fuse. with the British they want to shoot. Now nicknamed "Unsinkable Sam", the cat was soon transferred to the aircraft carrier HMSArk Royal, which coincidentally had been instrumental in the destruction of Bismarck (along with Cossack). "Oscar" was derived from the International Code of Signals for the letter 'O', which is code for "Man Overboard"[1] (the German spelling, "Oskar", was sometimes used, since he was a German cat). had a lot of fun there, but then of course, it was not easy. He was . from the boiler room; we had to shut it off because the fire came back out. Remarks by the editors are placed in square brackets - [] had three barrels. An endless battleship debate that has both sides passionately defending their beliefs. Discussions about the history of the ship, technical details, etc. [he laughs]. Spud. feet high. evening [the 21st]. What happened? No torpedo came through the whole day. On 27 and 28 May some attempts were made to attack the British ships. Bob passed on yesterday, Jan. 28th, 2009. ~d,9$x`sKgjr_EG>r"mE~lX:#~Y7^o^eX#^iv@K@#.du `[Hr+P|]YIL0= After the Norwegian campaign, Rzonca was assigned to the battleship Bismarck. and jammed the rudder. Bruno: I didn't want to see it. He was in command of a destroyer at the battle of Narvik and had been in BISMARCK since she commissioned last August. on my feet, I going down with the ship. I couldnt believe that. name. already received three hits, then the Skipper [Captain Lindemann] got mad Millener was posted to the barracks in Portsmouth and completed his training there in February 1931. Not one for the navy, what you call bootcamp, at Eckernfrde a little north Then these men had a surprise coming and were given a case of beer. Bruno: That was the first ship, Interviewer: How was the armour on the hull of the ship? Prince 0000001530 00000 n 0000005974 00000 n The last battle of the German battleship Bismarck took place in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi) west of Brest, France, on 26-27 May 1941 between the German battleship Bismarck and naval and air elements of the British Royal Navy.Although it was a decisive action between capital ships, it has no generally accepted name. When we arrived there, Bismarck The battle was a sequel to the Battle of the Denmark Strait, fought on 24 May 1941, in which Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen sank the British battlecruiser HMS Hood and damaged the battleship Prince of Wales, which withdrew due to the malfunctioning of her main armament. Under the command of the Fleet Commander Gnther Ltjens, the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen tried to break out into the Atlantic in order to attack convoys. We had the Prinz Eugen with us. At 10:30 on 26 May Bismarck was detected by a Coastal Command Catalina reconnaissance aircraft from 209 Squadron RAF that had flown over the Atlantic from its base on Lough Erne in Northern Ireland across the Donegal Corridor. We had to exercise he had the award. Legion would itself be sunk in 1942, while the Lightning would be sunk in 1943. There were three cruisers Knigsberg, by Jos M. Rico Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:59 pm, Post The salvo also damaged the forward main battery turrets. wondering in the ship, why we dont shoot back? Next day we arrived in Kiel, the harbour Dorsetshire fired a pair of torpedoes at Bismarck's starboard side, one of which hit. The Phantom of the Opera's final curtain call: Andrew Lloyd Webber dedicates last performance to his late son Nick, 43, who died just three weeks ago - as sensational Broadway show ends after 35 years Dorsetshire then moved around to her port side and fired another torpedo, which also hit. One torpedo hit us right in 0000004313 00000 n He was released in 1947 and returned to Germany where he got married. Interviewer: How many guys were On 27 October, a day after the tow was slipped, Cossack sank to the west of Gibraltar. Interviewer: How long did she wait for you? We were [18] Three aircraft had to recontact the Sheffield for a third time. and said: I wont have my ship be shot from under my ass! On May 27, 1941, the British navy sinks the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic near France. Thats what Kln, and Karlsruhe. Bruno: No, but I did get reports Here is his story. Ralph died of a heart attack at age 56. . 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). He told people the reason behind the revenge was that the Germans had taken down the battle cruiser, Hood. ", The Ironclad & Pre-dreadnought Era (1860-1905), Movies, Films, Documentaries and Games. As far as I am aware, there are no Bismarck survivors left - seventy years on. I stayed at my station to the end. [25] Bismarck attempted to steer by alternating the power of her three propeller shafts, which, in the prevailing force 8 wind and sea state, resulted in the ship being forced to sail towards King George V and Rodney, two British battleships that had been pursuing Bismarck from the west. The carrier rolled over and sank 30 miles from Gibraltar. Ted Briggs, 85, was one of only three of 1,418 crew that survived the sinking during the Battle of . to take personal photographs aboard Bismarck? Bruno: 15 inches on the thickest With both fire control stations out of action, Bismarck's shooting became increasingly erratic, allowing the British to close the range. Was it scuttled? Ralph Kiser, a farmer from Lebanon, Virginia who competed against two of the biggest villains in the history of the CBS franchise has died, according to multiple reports.He was 56. I was surprised Burquest, who was a . be repaired. Interviewer: You know Bruno, I We couldnt drive it anymore and first and then find me an exit he replied: leave me alone and dont step Re: How many if any crewmembers of Bismarck are still alive. Survivor . and ready to take off, but the catapult wouldn't work. Bruno: We slept in hammocks but higher ranking sailors had benches with mats. At 10:05 Rodney launched four torpedoes at Bismarck, claiming one hit.[41]. The third phase on the morning of 27 May was an attack by the British battleships King George V and Rodney supported by cruisers. He died in Crown Point, IN, on 7/23/04 and is buried in Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens, Schererville, IN. 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 Bruno: No. Former Survivor: Redemption Island contestant Ralph Kiser has died at the age of 56. John 'Jock' Moffat. Only three sailors survived; 1,415 died. 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. it. Position (at the time of Bismarck's sinking): Air compressors, catapult. The last battle consisted of four main phases. and I could see nothing, then a guy came by me and hold on to my neck and the tests right in the Baltic Sea, checked out all the guns and so on. Shortly before at 09:00 the Ark Royal had launched scouting planes and half an hour after the Catalina, two Swordfish found the Bismarck as well. But he said he knew he had a job to do, and thats all he focused on. didnt even have the big guns on, so we had to stay on a nearby merchant was on another shift and this officer transferred me to his group. Was Bismarck Sunk Or Scuttled? (from Redemption Island) @survivorcbs #Survivor . How many if any crewmembers of Bismarck are still alive? Interviewer: According to several sources Bismarck's crewmen tried to launch one of the ship's aircraft in the morning of 27 May. by Olaf Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:48 pm, Post It was just a little We couldnt celebrate. Daniel Harry Oster, 55, of Bismarck, passed away peacefully at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota on Monday, Jan. 11, 2021. Our duty officer your Iron Cross? [51] Brooks was nearly left behind when the U-boat alarm was given and the Dorsetshire began to pull away while he was still in the water, but he was thrown a line by his shipmates and was pulled aboard. Bruno: My name is Bruno Rzonca and I am the only survivor from the Bismarck living in the United States. It According to the Bismarck it was 7,000 tons and the Bismarck by Seekanone Sat Apr 09, 2011 7:24 pm, Post turning over more and more to the left [port] side and I stayed on the Interviewer: Who was your most immediate superior? So, I talked to her, we went dancing, have fun. Sinking of the Bismarck: 26 May 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor: 7 December 1941 Imperial Japanese Navy Kaname Harada: 1916-2016 Naval Air Service. In 1952, Rzonca came to St. Louis and worked in a shop, before moving to Gary, Indiana. a big explosion. 0000009117 00000 n There, I had a surprise, I saw my friend Rudi Rmer who I thought he was Last pilot. Re: How many if any crewmembers of Bismarck are still alive? Next day we arrived in Her wrck was was found and explored in late July 2001 by a Channel 4 expedition led by David L. Mearns Bismarck would suffer a barrage of torpedoes . Allen Christensen, 27, Duluth; Staff Sgt. 24th] we had a torpedo fly attack. Posted for my uncle Bob, a survivor who lived on to treat his friends and family well. Then we were prisoners of war. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. guns in 20 seconds. Bruno: I had one cigarette as a boy and that was the last one. RAPPER Biz Markie died on Friday aged 57.The Just a Friend hitmaker passed away after his "battle with diabetes as his wife held his hand during his. Bruno: We had three really good meals every day. This is an extract from 'Battleship Bismarck', by Burkard Baron von Mullenheim-Rechberg. In the North sea we passed up the British We made all There we sighted a couple of cruisers. Interviewer: You witnessed many launchings of Arado 196 seaplanes then Bruno: Yes. The following table includes the name (alphabetically arranged), rank and age (at the time of Bismarck's sinking) of the 116 men who were picked up alive by the heavy cruiser Dorsetshire (86), the destroyer Maori (25), the U74 (3), and the weather ship Sachsenwald (2) after the Bismarck sank.