Tirpitz - The First Voyage (Images of War)

First published in Great Britain in 2011 by PEN & SWORD MARITIME an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd 47 Church Street Barnsley South Yorkshire S70 2AS Copyright © Jon Sutherland and Diane Canwell 2011 ISBN 978 1 84884 668 5 eISBN 978 1 84468 898 2 PRC ISBN 978 1 84468 899 9 The right of Jon Sutherland and Diane Canwell to be identified as Authors of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing. Typeset in Gill Sans by Phoenix Typesetting, Auldgirth, Dumfriesshire Printed and bound in England by MPG Books Group Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Family History, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Pen & Sword Discovery, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe True Crime, Wharncliffe Transport, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics, Leo Cooper, The Praetorian Press, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

Contents Introduction Chapter One The RAD Service Chapter Two Horst Wessel Chapter Three Aboard the Schleswig Holstein Chapter Four Tirpitz Chapter Five Prisoner of War

Introduction The photographs in this book are from a single album that is believed to have been owned by Wilhelm Rosenbaum. Perhaps the pinnacle of his career service was a period that he spent onboard the Tirpitz, probably between April 1942 and March 1944. Rosenbaum was one of a few members of the Luftwaffe who served alongside the Kriegsmarine as crew for seaplanes on larger surface vessels. The collection of photographs chronicles a period in the late 1930s when Rosenbaum completed his six-month Reichsarbeitdiensd (RAD or German national work service). He is thought to have undertaken this compulsory labour service between April and September 1937. Rosenbaum would then be required to serve for a period of at least two years in one of the armed services. It is clear that he chose the Kriegsmarine as the next section of his album focuses on his cadet training aboard the masted sailing vessel, Horst Wessel. At this stage we assume that this was the first part of his training as an officer in the Kriegsmarine. We also know that Rosenbaum then went on to serve briefly on the German armoured cruiser Schleswig Holstein between 1938 and 1939. At this point the vessel was commanded by Kapitan zur See Gustav Kieseritzky. A number of the photographs suggest that Rosenbaum was onboard for the vessel's trip to the Caribbean via Spain and Venezuela. This vessel had been part of the German High Seas Fleet in the First World War, but by the 1930s had been downgraded to a training vessel. It was imperative that all officer cadets had experience of serving on large surface vessels. By the spring of 1942 Rosenbaum had become an observer and part of a two man crew of an Arado 196 seaplane, aboard the Tirpitz. He was part of the bordfliegergruppe (shipboard reconnaissance squadron). It was fortunate for Rosenbaum that he was probably not aboard and had been transferred; possibly to northern Italy by the time the Tirpitz finally succumbed to repeated attempts by the RAF to sink her off Norway. The collection contains a set of photographs that seem to suggest that Rosenbaum served for a period in the Mediterranean. It is not entirely clear exactly what became of Rosenbaum directly after his service on the Tirpitz. Certain parts of the unit to which he was attached did serve in the Mediterranean, whilst others found themselves on the French Atlantic coast. The final batch of photographs shows him as a prisoner of war in the former Stalagluft 203 in Mulsanne, just offthe national road from Paris to Tour. The camp, close to Le Mans, had been taken over by the allies and was guarded by Moroccans under American command and later by the French. It was to become the largest camp for German officers in France. We do know that this prisoner of war camp served as a collection point, initially for German servicemen that had been cut off from the German retreat east after the breakout from Normandy. It is quite probable that Rosenbaum was in fact attached to a land-based reconnaissance and observation flight, possibly at Brest. This would tie in with his presence at this prisoner of war camp in France. Unfortunately it is unclear what became of Rosenbaum. We do know that he celebrated his birthday in August 1947 as a prisoner of war. By that time many of the German officers had been sent on to labour camps and the Mulsanne camp was being broken down and dismantled. Of particular interest amongst the fascinating photographs in this collection are those of the U-23, which saw extensive service throughout the war. Rare photographs of the crew and Arado aircraft based on the Tirpitz are also included, as well as photographs of a number of highly decorated German U-boat commanders that were also in the same prisoner of war camp as Rosenbaum. We are indebted to the owner of this album, James Payne, for his permission to use them in this photographic record of one of the few Luftwaffe aviators to serve onboard the iconic Tirpitz. The Tirpitz never quite lived up to the reputation of its sister ship, the Bismarck. Tirpitz was actually

the largest battleship ever built in Europe, as she was bigger than the Bismarck. Tirpitz spent most of the war in German occupied Norway. The Norwegians called her The Lonely Queen of the North. Winston Churchill was less flattering and dubbed her The Beast. By the time Tirpitz finally succumbed to another determined Lancaster bomber attack on November 12 1944 Rosenbaum had left the vessel and was fortunate not to be one of the 971 crewmen to lose their lives when she capsized to the west of Tromso.

CHAPTER ONE

THE RAD SERVICE (Reichsarbeitdienst) In the aftermath of the First World War and into the 1920s and early 1930s Germany suffered from severe economic problems and high unemployment. As early as the 1920s there was a great problem with what to do with the hundreds of thousands of ex-servicemen who found it impossible to find work. Political groups, civic authorities and even the church set up a range of independent work camps all across Germany to provide employment. Many of the men were employed to carry out agricultural work or to supply essential labour for civic projects. On June 5 1931 the then German chancellor, Brüning, called for the creation of a national work service, or voluntary labour service (Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst)(FAD). Even at this early stage the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), or later to become the Nazi Party, had set up their own camps. The national work service project was headed up by Konstantin Hierl. He would later become a major figure in Nazi Germany. He was not only the head of the FAD but was also a member of the NSDAP. When the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 Hierl became State Secretary for Labour Service, a part of the Reich Labour Ministry. The FAD was then renamed Nationalsozialist Arbeitdienst or NSAD. It was then renamed in July 1934 as the Reichsarbeitsdienst, or RAD; effectively the state labour service. Under the terms of the Labour Service Law of June 1935 service in RAD became both nationwide and compulsory. Males between the ages of eighteen to twenty five were required to serve for six months and then, after completion of their RAD service, enter one of the branches of the German armed forces. RAD was seen as a very separate part from both the Nazi Party and the armed forces. However once war had broken out they were seen as an auxiliary organisation. Officially they were never a part of the armed forces, but they were allowed to carry weapons. Hierl became the Reich labour leader in 1935. He was appointed to the paramilitary rank of Reichsleiter, reporting directly to Adolf Hitler in 1936, and then became a Reich minister in 1943. Hierl was captured and tried, spending five years in a labour camp after the war. Rosenbaum would have fallen into the age category, making him compulsorily eligible for RAD service prior to joining the Kriegsmarine. The RAD service also had a section for women. Officially, the RAD/M was set up for men and the Reichsarbeitdienst der webliche Jugend (RAD/wJ) for women. Each of the RAD/M was organised into divisional areas (Arbeitsgau). Each of these divisions or areas was given a Roman numeral between I and XXXX. Each of the Arbeitsgau was commanded by a German officer, along with a staff, headquarters unit and a guard company (Wachabteilung). Altogether there would be eight or so Abeitsgruppen, each of between 1,200 and 1,800 men in an Arbeitsgau. The Arbeitsgruppen were also organised into regimental sized units called Bereich. Within each Arbeitsgruppen there were six company units, or Abteilungen. RAD uniforms were essentially paramilitary. They were an earth brown in colour and the upper sleeve of the uniform had a spade-shaped insignia and below that a swastika. For males the lowest rank was labourer, followed by foreman then observer, troop leader and two grades of squad leader. There were then a series of field champions and field masters. The spade insignia would give the number of the RAD department. This appears to be 4 in this photograph, which is Pomerania East.

Here we see physical training; note that even the swimming shorts have the RAD insignia on them. A RAD company, or abteilung, would be made up of a six-man staff and four sixty nine man platoons. Each platoon, or züge, was further split into three seventeen man units, known as trupps. Each of the RAD units was based at a particular camp, where all the drilling, training and practice would take place. Close by would be their major labour project. Each of the RAD units would have both the district number and their abteilung number.

RAD members are shown here with their weapon of choice; the spade or shovel. They would normally be transported to their major work places on bicycles. Some of the RAD units were involved in huge projects, including drainage, tree felling, land reclamation, road construction and the draining of marshland. Later drafts from 1938 followed the German army into Austria and then into the Sudetenland and also Czechoslovakia in 1939. Large numbers of RAD units were also used in East Prussia, primarily to assist in harvesting crops.

A RAD is seen here in marching formation. Some 300 RAD units were used from the summer of 1938 until September 1939 working on the construction of Germany's defensive positions facing the western enemies to construct the West Wall. Around a hundred units were used for similar purposes on the eastern German border. Men serving in RAD units in the run up to the outbreak of the Second World War would find themselves transferred en bloc into the German army. In fact when German mobilisation took place in August 1939 over a thousand RAD units formed the basis of the troops that would be used for military construction, including road building, the digging of trenches and other field work. These units became known as Bautruppen. Interestingly, the RAD units that were transferred into the German army in this way were added to, to build up each unit from just over 200 to 401 men. The new recruits were untrained army reservists. Some fifty five regimental sized units were created as a result and these were known as Abschnittsbaustäbe. Each of these units consisted of four 2,000 man battalions.

Trench or drainage ditch work is being carried out in this photograph. The RAD service was distinct from the organisation TODT. This organisation had been created primarily to improve the road network in Germany. During 1938 they could draw upon RAD units, however shortly after the outbreak of the war Organisation TODT almost entirely relied on foreign workers, military internees and forced labour from the east. TODT was named after Fritz Todt, who was by profession an engineer. He had joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and by 1933 had become the Inspector General for German roadways. He had founded Organisation TODT in 1938 but he died under seemingly mysterious circumstances in February 1942 when his aircraft exploded after a meeting with Hitler.

RAD members are marching with their shovels in this shot. In 1936 around 45,000 RAD men and women attended the Nuremburg Rally. Each of them made their appearance complete with their shovel. There is a part of the propaganda film Triumph of the Will showing Hitler reviewing the Reich labour service against a fanfare of trumpets and fluttering flags. The official RAD flag was a large, red square, with a centred white bordered swastika. At the centre was a white wreath with a vertical spade with two stylised ears of wheat.

This photograph shows the RAD unit's boots being inspected outside their barracks. In 1939 the RAD lost over half of its number to the German army and there were suggestions that it should be disbanded until the war was over. What is particularly significant is that ultimately four whole infantry divisions were created out of RAD service members. Reicharbeitdienst Division 1 (Schlageter) was created in April 1945 and a large number of RAD members were added to the survivors of the 299th Infantry Division. The division was captured by the Americans in early May 1945. The second division, named Friedrich Ludwig Jhan, was created in March 1945, out of what remained of the 251st Infantry Division and RAD servicemen. It too had a short life as the Americans captured the division, but the survivors were handed over to the Russians. Elements of the 215th Infantry Division were put together with RAD servicemen to create the third division, Theodor Körner, but it too lasted barely two months, being created on April 6 and surrendering to the Americans on May 8 1945. The final division, Güstrow, was created on April 28 1945 and was captured on May 8 by British troops in Mecklenburg.

RAD men are taking a break after digging dykes. This is probably a truppen, with a vormann in charge. Arguably, Heinz Korn was one of only two men to receive the German Knight's Cross, or Ritter Kreuz whilst serving in the RAD. He is listed as a Feldmeister when he was awarded it in January 1945. There were several others that were former members of RAD that were subsequently awarded the Knight's Cross.

Members of the RAD service are in their sports kit in this shot. Note the RAD service insignia on their vests. Although in theory the whole purpose of the RAD service was to provide work of a practical nature to the German infrastructure, certain aspects of the service clearly prepared the men for future military service. Some of the officials were extremely brutal and authoritarian, dumping the contents of lockers on the floor or making men charge around muddy fields, only to then expect them to put in a full day's work and turn out in clean and pristine uniforms. Night marches with heavy back packs were also commonplace for the men and this was in addition to the digging of trenches, notably cable trenches, where each man was responsible for digging a length of at least 10m each day. Punishments would be metered out if these targets were not met.

The RAD service unit is in full uniform in this photograph. Even the use of the shovel had very clear military parallels. The men would carry the shovels exactly like a rifle. They would present it like a rifle and line up for inspection in precisely the same way as would be expected of them in the armed forces. Men were still being brought into the RAD service in the latter stages of the Second World War. By then any pretence that the RAD service was simply for manual labour had been swept away and they were trained in the use of weapons. Much of their work by this stage was preparing field defences or trying to clear airfields after bombing attacks by the allies. In fact the RAD service by this stage was a much shorter affair and many of the units were transferred en bloc directly into the German army.

Rosenbaum can be seen here, with some of his fellow officer cadets in the Kriegsmarine. This would have been at an early stage in Rosenbaum's naval career. The cadets are wearing a mix of the blue and the white working rig. All that is visible is the single star on their sleeves, which merely denotes the rank of line officer. These cadets would be Fähnrich zur See, or senior cadets.

Machinegun practice is taking place in this photograph. It is unclear whether this is placed out of order in Rosenbaum's album, but it does infer that the men under took basic infantry training. In the 1930s there was not necessarily the perception that personnel in the Kriegsmarine would have to be used as ground troops. But as the war itself progressed an increasing number of Kriegsmarine servicemen effectively became infantry. Each member went through basic infantry training and had field grey uniforms. They were identifiable from infantrymen, as they had crossed anchors embroidered onto their uniforms. The crossed anchors were actually used by all coastal artillery battalions. Ultimately the navy would provide a number of infantry divisions; the 1st and 2nd Naval Infantry Divisions were created at the beginning of 1945 and fought in northwest Europe until the surrender in May 1945.

Here we can see an officer cadet studying. Of particular interest is the cap tag, which is placed on the lampshade. It reads ‘I Marine Unteroffizier Lehr Abteilung’, or officer training department, which was a replacement unit based in Kiel. This unit was created in April 1935 and was a key part of the German Naval Academy, for non-commissioned officer training. Young Kriegsmarine cadets at their naval school can be seen here. It appears that the majority of the cadets are wearing their field grey uniforms. On these uniforms there were shoulder straps and their rank would normally be shown on the left upper arm. It is interesting to note that these uniforms appear to lack much in the way of insignia and some are not actually wearing the field grey, but a white tunic and matching trousers. This may just be as a result of the classes that they have just attended at the naval school.

The cadets in this photograph are in more formal uniforms, marching through what may well be the streets of Kiel. The German Imperial Naval Academy was set up in Kiel in 1872. After the First World War the academy was closed and it moved to Flensburg, where the naval academy still operates to this day. Interestingly, the replacement Gorch Fock, which was built in 1958, still operates as part of the academy as a training vessel. To date nearly 1,500 cadets have been trained on this vessel alone.

This photograph shows the cadets' quarters being inspected by a senior officer. Although it is indistinct,

the officer to the left appears to have the rank of captain. The naval academy celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010; the foundation stone having been laid in 1907. The academy is northern Europe's largest brick-built building. Studying; the cadet courses were extremely demanding and highly competitive. Achievement at this point in the cadet's academic career could mean the difference between a prestige posting and indifferent opportunities on land. Many of the cadets would go on to serve on the major Kriegsmarine surface vessels and equally many of them would become submarine officers. This photograph was taken in one of the billets at the academy. The cadets' lockers can be seen to the rear of the accordion player.

CHAPTER TWO

HORST WESSEL In a speech on June 13 1936 Rudolph Hess, Adolf Hitler's deputy, gave a speech at the launch of the training ship Horst Wessel. Horst Ludwig Wessel was a Nazi activist who died a violent death on February 23 1930. He had become involved with the National Socialist German Workers Party and had joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) in December 1926. He also went on to write the lyrics for the song that would become known as Horst Wessel. The precise details surrounding Wessel's death are still disputed. He may well have been shot by an associate of his girlfriend's late husband. Other explanations suggest that he was murdered by a member of the local Communist party, possibly as an act of revenge for Wessel's involvement in the murder of a young Communist on January 14 1930. Wessel was living near Alexanderplatz in Berlin and opened the door of his apartment that evening to be shot in the face. He died in hospital on February 23. Whatever the circumstances, Wessel became a Nazi martyr and a memorial was erected over his grave shortly after 1933. During the Nazi period the district in which he had died was named after him, as was a square and an underground station. The Horst Wessel was a segelschulschiff, or training ship. She still survives to this day, as in 1946 a US coastguard crew sailed her out of Bremerhaven to Orangeburg, New York. From there she headed for her new home port in Connecticut. She is still sailed regularly as the USCGC Eagle. She made a return trip to Bremerhaven for the first time in sixty years when she visited the port in the summer of 2005.

Kriegsmarine cadets are parading in snowy conditions in this shot. An integral part of the training of naval officer cadets in seamanship was the use of segelschulschiffe, or sail training ships. Back in 1932 the sailing ship Niobe capsized in a storm and many of the cadets were lost. In the late 1930s it was decided to build three new three-mast barques. Horst Wessel, Gorch Fock and Albert Leo Schlageter were

constructed for the new generation of officer cadets. All of them would be sailed on a number of cruises to overseas ports in the run up to the outbreak of the Second World War. The Gorch Fock was the first of the new series and in fact she is still used as a German navy training vessel to this day. She was named after the German writer, Johann Kinau, who died aboard the SMS Wiesbaden in the battle of Jutland in 1916. Kinau wrote under the pseudonym of Gorch Fock. The Albert Leo Schlageter was named after a member of the German Freikorps, but she is now known as the Sagres III and is still a school ship in the Portuguese navy. Albert Schlageter was captured by French occupation forces in the Ruhr in 1923. He was tried at court martial and executed. It is believed that a man called Rudolph Höss, who was later to become the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, executed the man that had betrayed Schlageter. In the execution Höss was assisted by Martin Bormann, who was later to become a prominent Nazi official and private secretary to Adolf Hitler.

Flags used by the International Code of Signals are shown in this photograph. It is possible to make out several of the flags. The single, diamond-shape flag on the centre left is an F; the flag opposite that resembles the English flag is AM. It is likely that this is at Wilhelmshaven as this was one of the major training bases dating back to the Prussians. Many shipbuilders were also based at Wilhelmshaven. The

coastal town suffered enormous damage by the end of the Second World War. It was captured by Polish troops on May 5 1945 and the entire garrison surrendered, including 200 Kriegsmarine vessels. In many respects the initial training of Kriegsmarine cadets was not dissimilar to that of the infantry. There was a realisation that naval cadets might be needed for land operations, as well as for sea service. It is probable that the basic training lasted for just three months and that the cadets were organised into naval replacement battalions that would then be assigned, after more training, to specific or commands.

Cadets are seen here, being fed from a portable kitchen. Cadets and other servicemen in the Kriegsmarine would have three basic uniforms; one in dark blue, one in field grey and one in white. The white one would be worn in peace time, particularly during the summer months. The grey would tend to be used by coastal artillery and those employed on shore duty. The dark blue uniform would be worn in many respects in the same way as the Royal Navy servicemen. Ratings below rank of petty officer would not have a uniform great coat, instead as can be seen by the serviceman in the centre of the photograph, an outer, blue jacket that reached down to the hips would be worn. The man in the centre is an obergefreiter. There were three ratings below that of petty officer rank; broadly the equivalent ofable-seaman. Hauptgefreiter was attained by men that were not able or willing to pass to leading rate.

A Kriegsmarine in his white service uniform is shown in this shot. This consisted of a white cap, a white single-breasted sack coat with a standing collar, matching white trousers and black shoes. Normally this would be reserved to tropical climates or duties at their home station in the summer. Rank would be shown on the shoulder straps only. The buttons and the national emblem on the breast of the jacket were detachable. Ratings below the rank of petty officer wore seaman's caps that were made in two parts; the upper part was soft and the lower part was harder. The two parts could be separated, with the upper part having an elastic edge that fitted round a projecting rim of the lower part. Around the lower part there was a black cap band, which had in gold gothic lettering the name of the ship or unit to which the rating belonged. In war time this would be simply replaced with the word Kriegsmarine. The ends of the cap bands were not cut off and they hung down at the back of the head and over the collar. This was a throwback to navy pigtails.

The uniformed officer on the right in this photograph is Vizeadmiral August Thiele (1894-1967). He was awarded the Iron Cross in 1914, the Iron Cross Second Class in 1916 and the Iron Cross First Class in 1919. He also held the Hanseatic Cross, which was Bremen, Hamburg and Lubeck's equivalent of the Prussian Iron Cross. Thiele commanded the Gorch Fock and the Horst Wessel before moving on to become captain of the German heavy cruiser Lutzow. During the Second World War Thiele would win two more clasps to his Iron Cross, the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with oak leaves on two occasions, first as a captain in January 1941 with the Lutzow and later, in 1945, as commander of Kampfgruppe Thiele. He also won the German Cross in March 1945, which in terms of rank is between the Iron Cross First Class and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Thiele joined the German navy in April 1912 and by the end of the Second World War had become the commanding admiral of the Eastern Baltic fleet. He was taken prisoner on May 12 1945 but was released on December 2 1946. He commanded the Horst Wessel between September 17 1936 and January 27 1939. He took command of the Lutzow at the end of November 1939 and remained in command until the middle of April 1940.

This photograph shows one of the Segelschulschiffs; the Horst Wessel, Gorch Foch or the Albert Leo Schlageter. Their home port was Kiel. During the last few years before the outbreak of the Second World War they undertook a number of training exercises. The Germans also used other types of training vessel, including the Deutschland, which was built in Bremerhaven in 1927. Between 1927 and 1939 she undertook twenty nine training cruises, twelve of which took her across the Atlantic. Vessels such as this could train upwards of 2,000 sailors a year. At the end of the training period the cadets would take their examinations as naval officers. The Deutschland, for example, had her last winter trip in March 1939, sailing to the south Atlantic. During the war around 800 cadets were trained onboard the Deutschland. She was restricted to training cruises in the Baltic but by April 1945 she was listed as a hospital ship in Lubeck, with some 250 wounded personnel onboard.

One of the training vessels alongside a dock, possibly on the Spanish or Portuguese coast, can be seen in this shot. Tall ships had been used by the German navy for many years for their cadets and aspiring officers. Another four-masted vessel was actually built in Denmark and originally named Morten Jensen in 1913. She was later sold to Norway and renamed Tyholm in 1916. Later in the year she was captured by a German submarine and after being renamed several times the German navy bought her in 1922. She was converted to a three-masted barque and renamed Niobe. She had fifteen sails and her crew comprised of a permanent thirty five men plus between sixty five and eighty cadets. She was caught in a sudden squall off the German island of Fehmarn, in the Baltic, on July 26 1932 and she sank in a matter of minutes, with sixty nine of those onboard being killed. In August she was towed into Kiel and then on September 18 1933 she was ceremonially sunk by a torpedo boat. A monument can still be seen on Fehmarn Island, to mark the site of the tragedy.

This is a British navy boat as it approaches one of the German sailing ships. The photograph appears to have been taken somewhere in the Caribbean. Until war broke out in 1939 the Horst Wessel made several training cruises, including those to Las Palmas, Edinburgh and the West Indies. She was originally built in Hamburg by Blohm and Voss, had an overall length of 89.3m, a width of 12m, a draft of 5.2m and the height of her main mast was 45.3m. When all twenty three sails were up she had a sail area of 1974m2. It is believed at this time that the commandant of the Horst Wessel was then captain but later vice admiral August Thiele. The Horst Wessel was considerably larger than the Deutschland and had a permanent crew of seventy eight and could cope with up to 220 sea cadets. The Horst Wessel was a vital training ship for sea cadets and non-commissioned officers. She was actually larger than her sister ship Gorch Foch. At the outbreak of the Second World War Horst Wessel was assigned to Marineunteroffizierlehrabteilung (naval officer training) and in May 1940 she moved to Stralsunt to train Marine Hitlerjugend with 7 Schiffsstammabteilung.

This is another shot of one of the German training vessels in a tropical port. On March 19 1938 the Albert Leo Schlageter, which had been launched in October 1937 and was virtually identical to the Horst Wessel, set off on its first training voyage. She had been out for just four days when she collided with a Blue Star Lines Troy Star in the English Channel, forcing her to return to Hamburg for repairs. She then went on to Kiel at the end of June. She went to Copenhagen in the November and December and on April 5 1939 she made for Tenerife, but by June 1939 she was back in Kiel. She was used for training purposes throughout the war years and on one training cruise in the Baltic in November I944 she struck a mine. There were eleven killed. Like the Horst Wessel, she was seized by the US Navy in 1945. She had moved by this time to Wilhelmshaven and then to Bremerhaven. With the acquisition of the Horst Wessel the Albert Leo Schlageter was sold to the Brazilians in 1947 and was renamed Rio. They then sold her to the Portuguese in 1961 when she was given the name Sagres.

This shot shows a group of naval cadets, predominantly in white uniform. It is possible to see on the left sleeve of most of the cadets a star, which identifies them as naval cadets. The cap band appears to read ‘segelschulschiff Horst Wessel’. Future officers, whilst still ratings, would normally wear the badge of their future branch when an officer. There were eighteen different lower deck branch badges ranging from seaman, engine room, navigation and signals to aircraft spotter, torpedo man, gunner and wireless operator. This is a naval cadet, with the Horst Wessel clearly visible on his cap badge. German naval cadets would wear seaman's uniforms onboard and officer's service uniform jackets ashore. They would not have any rank insignia except the star, which was worn on the left sleeve. The trousers were tailored and were not as baggy as the British or as bellbottomed as the Americans. The rank or rating and the branch speciality would be indicated with a distinctive mark on the left sleeve, between the elbow and the shoulder.

This is a view of the deck from the sails. Preparing these vessels for their training cruises was an integral part of the overall course for the cadets. They would be expected to keep a log, which chronicled each day of their training cruise. First and foremost they would be expected to keep a detailed description of any manoeuvres or work that they carried out onboard. They would also be expected to make comments

and observations about any port that was visited. It was a much regimented existence and tightly organised by the commanding officer, Thiele, and his executive officer, Lieutenant-commander Gerstung (who was certainly onboard the Horst Wessel in 1937). The cruise that was undertaken in 1937 was exclusively for non-commissioned officer training. The cadets may have already been in the German navy for as long as two years, having already attended naval training school and served on a vessel and attended other courses. The Horst Wessel operated out of Blucher Pier in Kiel for many of its training cruises. The first job before setting sail was to scrub the ship from top to bottom.

A naval cadet is onboard the Horst Wessel here, in his blue uniform. On his left elbow is a branch badge, which appears to be navigation. He also has a single V, marking him as a Gefreiter.The blue service uniform incorporated an outer blue jacket that reached to the hips. This cadet appears to be wearing in effect what was a blue cloth jumper and trousers with a flap opening. The collar of the jacket has three white tapes. A white version of the jumper would have detachable cuffs to match the collar. This uniform appears to be standard working rig and it would be used for most field training and landing party exercises. It was relatively loose fitting and the upper portion is designed to hang outside the trousers and not to betucked inside them.

This lifebelt shows Horst Wessel painted onto it. The captain and the executive officer of the vessel would ensure that the vessel was kept pristine and it would be expected that all cadets would be involved in cleaning it before any real training began. They would also be required to learn about their own work stations and part of that would involve them becoming aware of any lifebelts nearby. The cadets would usually have regular exercising involving launching and retrieving lifeboats, or setting a warp anchor. They would also receive compass instruction. Providing the vessel was clean enough they would then be given time to clean their own personal effects and clothing.

This shot gives us a view of the deck of the Horst Wessel under full sail. On training cruises providing the weather was relatively calm the vessels would set sail and then undergo a series of tacking and gybing manoeuvres. The cadets would also be expected to carry out rigging exercises for night sailing. All practical exercises would be backed up by theoretical classroom instructions and they would also be told how to handle the speed log and the depth sounder. After instruction the men would have to clean their own bunk areas and utility boxes and also ensure that their logbook entries were up to date.

One of the training ships at anchor. Cleaning the ship was a daily chore that could last as long as two and a half hours from 0730 each morning. A typical day could start at around 0700 with the cleaning and stowing of hammocks, bunks and quarters. The ritual of ship cleaning might then last until noon. After lunch the cadets would update their logbooks, clean and mend their personal gear and attend to personal hygiene. They might then pull a duty until 0800 the following day, perhaps working as a signal operator. In order to prepare to go out to sea all portholes would be shut, the anchor raised and the sails set. Once out to sea they would carry out a series of tacking and turning manoeuvres and there were often sports competitions onboard, including climbing the rigging, tug of war, wrestling and boxing.

One of the sailing ships is visible here in a far more exotic location than the Baltic. Trips to the Azores, Madeira Islands and the Caribbean were not uncommon, although not all of the sailing ships were fortunate enough for such long voyages. Regardless of the location the routines were still the same. Even in calm weather watches were rigorously followed and sail exercises were undertaken. In order to keep the men active tug of war bouts were organised and the launch was rowed around the vessel. Trial runs for sail exercise competitions were held, with each watch competing against one another. There were also competitions to heave 25m long anchor chains. The sail competitions between the crews in the four top sails and the main top sails were also popular events.

Some of the ship's dinghies are involved in a sailing competition in this photograph. The competition was held around the bay. Winners of competitions, including boxing, wresting and sailing, would be given books, pictures and cigars as prizes. Exceptional athletes would be given food delicacies. The cadets would develop huge appetites on account of the strenuous work that they were expected to complete each day and sometimes as an extra reward they would be given a bottle of beer. The cadets would be allowed a little shore leave and an opportunity for sightseeing but usually this was limited. They were expected to be back onboard by late afternoon and then to swap with one of the other watches so that they too could go ashore. Periodically hammocks and dirty laundry were brought on deck to be exchanged for clean ones. When the captains entertained one another all of the crew would be expected to switch from their working uniforms to all white. The cadets would also have to man the boat shuttles between the vessels.

One of the Horst Wessel's dinghies under full sail, with a complement of cadets aboard. The Kriegsmarine ensign can be clearly seen on the dinghy. This type of flag was adopted in October 1935 and modified in 1938. The 1935 to 1938 version had bars in the centre that did not cross with the rings of the disc. From 1938 to 1945 the white disc shifted slightly and the sections of the outer black border connected to the black borders of the cross.

Three of the ship's launches racing one another. Twelve men were aboard each boat. On other occasions the launches were sent out to retrieve warp anchors. The sailing launches were seen as being very valuable in encouraging teamwork between the cadets. Some of these boats did survive the war; a number of them were built at the Abeking and Rasmussen yard in Lengwerden, Bremen.

The three sailing launches are arrayed in number order here; HR1, HR2 and HR3. Sailing lessons were an obligatory part of the training for any German Kriegsmarine cadet. The sailing boats were also important for those that intended to specialise in navigation and helmsmanship.

These cadets are enjoying a relaxing time on the beach, using an impromptu shelter made from the sails of their launch for sun screen. This photograph may well have been taken in Trinidad. We know that the Albert Leo Schlageter visited Trinidad, or alternatively this may either be the Canary Islands or the Azores. Visits to other ports and islands were not only important in terms of the education and training of the cadets, but they were also used as opportunities to replenish fresh supplies.

The captain of the Horst Wessel, Thiele, is seen here. Over the period 1936 to 1945 the Horst Wessel had five commanding officers. Thiele remained with the vessel until early 1938, Korvettenkapitan Weyher was in command between January 1939 and September that year, Kapitanleutnant Kretschmar between March 1940 and May 1940, Fregattenkapitan Eiffe between March 1941 and November 1942 and Kapitanleutnant Schnibbe between November 1942 and May 1945. Thiele can be seen in this photograph with the four stripes on the sleeves of his uniform, marking him as a captain. There were various different types of cap peaks; captains had a single row of oak leaves on the outer edge of the peak. The officer cap was made in one piece, had a detachable white cover for summer wear and the badge was in gold thread. The blue service uniform also included a double-breasted, square-cut sack coat with five pairs of buttons, plain dark blue trousers and black shoes. The spread eagle holding a swastika was gold for blue uniforms and blue for white uniforms.

This is one of the junior officers onboard the Horst Wessel. Chief petty officers, petty officers and midshipmen wore an officer-type one-piece cap. The badge was in gold thread, but they had no gold edging to their peak. The peak itself was patent leather. We know that the Horst Wessel had a lieutenant commander in charge of each of the two divisions and there was also an adjutant, purser, physician, three chief boatswains and three boatswains.

This is a leutnant. We know that in 1937 there was a Leutnant Kuehn, a Leutnant Pinkepank and a Leutnant Mutius onboard the Horst Wessel. All German officers' uniforms had the hoheitsabzeichen, or national emblem, sewed on the right-hand side, between the lapel or collar and shoulder. It was gold on the blue uniforms and blue on the white uniforms. This leutnant is wearing a visor cap, which has a black, white and red cockade surrounded by a gold leaf wreath and surmounted by the national emblem. The rank of the officer is indicated by the stripes on the uniform's sleeves. This officer appears to have a pair of Leitz binoculars around his neck.

Two junior officers onboard the Horst Wessel are seen here enjoying cocktails. Both of the men appear to have the branch star on their lower sleeves, marking them as executive officers. One may well be a visitor from one of the other sailing ships. Both men are leutnants, effectively between a midshipman and a sublieutenant as a Royal Navy equivalent. Executive officers would wear no badge on the shoulder straps to denote their branch. Officers that belonged to other than the executive branch would wear a small branch badge similar to that above the stripes on their sleeve.

Several of the crew of the Horst Wessel are posing in this photograph around one of the lifebelts and the ship's mascot. According to his badge the Kriegsmarine closest to the camera on the right is a gefreiter. They are all wearing working rig, with a blue cloth top and white trousers with a flap opening. They also have a white bow over the silk around the collar. This would normally be worn only on important occasions. The bow was formed by bringing up into the aperture the ribbon tails of a freshly ironed collar.

Personal hygiene duties onboard the Horst Wessel are depicted in this photograph. In the foreground we can see the bowls that were used for washing and shaving and the cadets are bringing up their hammocks. Hanging from underneath the ship's sailing launches are items of clothing that are drying. The cadets would be allocated specific times for personal hygiene. Periodically they would also receive fresh hammocks and bedding.

The men are hard at work on the sails, onboard the Horst Wessel. Not only were the sailing duties and work on the sails extremely valuable for team building, but they also taught the cadets valuable lessons in terms of navigation and manoeuvre. The Horst Wessel had an engine so that it could still make way even if the weather conditions proved to be unsuitable for sailing.

One of the many physical and medical lectures that were held onboard ship as part of the overall training programme can be seen here. The ship's physician would lead many of the lectures and demonstrations. The men are wearing Kriegsmarine M35 sports shirts. Physical fitness was considered to be extremely important and each serviceman was given a shirt, navy blue or white shorts, athletics shoes and a twopiece sweat suit. In 1935 the sports shirt with the eagle was introduced to replace all existing shirts. It had an insignia featuring the national eagle across the chest.

One of the sailing ships is under full sail. The Horst Wessel was decommissioned by 1939 and was recommissioned towards the end of 1942. She had six anti-aircraft guns fitted, near the bridge, the foredeck and waist. It is believed that the anti-aircraft crews actually shot down three Russian aircraft and they also shot down a German aircraft in a friendly fire incident. The German aircraft crashed into the sea and the Horst Wessel went to pick up the pilot. It was discovered that the pilot had been using the wrong codes, which gave the anti-aircraft crews an excuse for having mistakenly shot him down.

Cadets and crewmembers are arrayed in this shot. They are on the masts and on the deck as the vessel proceeds into what is believed to be a German port, possibly Kiel. Even after the outbreak of the war the Germans were still keen to use sailing ships to train their sailors. After the occupation of Norway the Christian Radich, which had been built in 1937 and had been used by the Norwegian Merchant Marine and latterly by the Royal Norwegian Navy, was seized by the Germans. They moved her to Flensburg and here she was used as a submarine depot. She was badly hit by allied bombing and remained largely under water until salvaged after the fall of Flensburg. She was towed back to Norway and the Norwegian Merchant Marine began training cadets on her again in 1947. Ten years later she too would make a transatlantic cruise.

This photograph shows the Horst Wessel crew running the rigging. Setting and furling sails required the seamen to climb the masts and move out along the yardarms. Once they were in position they would hold onto the yardarm with one hand and haul the sail with the other. The idea was that the men would spread out along the yard using the foot ropes for support. The sails would be released from their furled positions whilst others would haul on the running rigging to swing the yards around to catch the wind. In this particular case the crew may be carrying out an exercise or are taking up position for ceremonial purposes as the ship comes into dock.

This is the original eagle on the prow of the Horst Wessel. This carved eagle still remains on the ship today. The Horst Wessel, now as one of America's tall ships, USCG Eagle, continues to tour the world, visiting several ports each summer. It is normal for the vessel to visit both England and Germany each year and then return to America for the winter months.

The Horst Wessel is seen here with twenty three of her sails unfurled. Officially she was a wooden threemasted barque. This was an extremely common type of vessel in the middle of the 19th century. Steel barques with four masts were developed in the early 20th century. Aside from her surviving sister ships there is also the Grossherzog Friedrich August, which was built in 1914, originally as a school ship for the German Merchant Marine. She is now known as the Statsraad Lehmkuhl and is run by a Norwegian foundation, still for training cruises.

The bow section of the Horst Wessel.. The eagle is just out of sight, under the bowsprit. Access to the bowsprit and the sails was by the netting and guide ropes.

The Horst Wessel in heavy seas. Working in these conditions would normally mean that the cadets would be issued with German naval lifejackets. These were yellow covered rubber, divided into separate vertical panels. There were five panels at the front and three at the back. Each of the panels had an inflating hole and stopper. Later versions also had a semicircular panel behind the neck. Although these were the official types, a wide variety of different lifejackets were in use. It is difficult to see whether this man has a lifejacket on, as he is wearing a sou-wester and a long, waterproof raincoat.

The helm station onboard the Horst Wessel is featured here. The design of the vessel was a logical development. Her hull was made of riveted Krupp steel and she had a raised forecastle and quarterdeck of steel overlaid with teak. The decks were also made of teak. The helm station was unsheltered and is known as a triple helm. Three turns is equal to one degree of rudder turn. Six servicemen were needed to steer her in heavy weather. There was also an emergency single wheel that turned at a rate of one revolution to one degree of rudder turn. The manufacturer, Blohm and Voss, can be clearly seen on a sign in this shot. They are major German shipbuilding and engineering works and the company was originally founded in 1877 in Hamburg. The company was very important during the 1933 to 1945 period, where it also was involved in building aircraft particularly large flying boats. The Horst Wessel was one of a series of five vessels that were built by the company; the Herbert Norkus was unfinished, but she had to be launched in November 1939 to clear the area for the building of submarines. The fifth vessel was the Mircea, which was actually built for the Romanians. She was launched in 1938 and was identical to the Gorch Fock.

The sails of the Horst Wessel her sail area was considerably larger than that of the Gorch Fock, Albert Leo Schlageter and the Mircea. She also had the highest main mast. They were all designed for long sea trips and had considerable fuel and water reserves onboard. They were designed for safety and security, learning many lessons from the loss of the Niobe, the former Danish schooner that had been built in 1913.

Cadets are at work on the deck of the Horst Wessel. Visits by former seamen and cadets who had spent time on the vessel before the Second World War attest to the fact that very little above deck has physically changed despite the passing of some fifty years. Below deck the vessel had changed considerably, however, with one former cadet commenting that the position where his hammock used to be now houses a drinks dispenser. Below deck watertight compartments had been added and changes have been made so that male and female cadets could be accommodated. Technically the vessel had also the latest in electronic equipment, including state of the art navigation and radar. A German submarine can be seen beside the Horst Wessel. Many of the cadets went on to serve as U-boat crewmembers. As the production rate for U-boats increased so did the demand for trained crew.

CHAPTER THREE

ABOARD THE SCHLESWIG HOLSTEIN It appears that Wilhelm Rosenbaum was assigned to the SMS Schleswig Holstein early in his Kriegsmarine career. By the 1930s the vessel had been converted into a training ship. The vessel had already had an illustrious career; she was one of five Deutschland class battleships and one of the last pre-dreadnought battleships. She was laid down at Kiel in August 1905 and joined the fleet in July 1908. By the time she entered service she was already virtually obsolete but nonetheless she took part in the battle of Jutland that was fought between May 31 and June 1 1916. At that stage she was part of the second battle squadron of the German High Seas Fleet. After the battle she took up duties as a guard ship on the mouth of the River Elbe and was decommissioned towards the end of 1917. Schleswig Holstein served in the reduced German fleet of the 1920s but at the beginning of the 1930s she became a training ship for naval cadets. It therefore makes perfect sense that Rosenbaum would have found himself onboard. This collection of photographs focuses on the Schleswig Holstein's Atlantic Ocean tour of 1938 to 1939. The vessel left Kiel in October 1938, sailing through the English Channel to Madeira and then to Sao Vicente. She then crossed the Atlantic to the Caribbean, sailing as far as Cuba before sailing to Venezuela and then returning to Germany via Dominica and the Azores, arriving back in Kiel in March 1939. The Schleswig Holstein was indeed a historic vessel. She reputedly fired the very first shots of the Second World War when, in the early hours of September 1 1939, she opened fire on the Polish base of Westerplatte. The Schleswig Holstein was also involved in the invasion of Denmark, but then she returned to training duties until the middle of 1944. She was then moved to Gotenhafen (Pomerania) where she operated as an anti-aircraft ship. She was hit three times by RAF bombs on December 18 1944 and sank, but only in shallow waters and still continued operation until a fire broke out, which effectively disabled her. She was scuttled as Russian forces closed in, but was salvaged by the Russians and towed to Kronstadt on Kotlin Island, to the west of St Petersburg, near the Gulf of Finland. She was renamed Borodino and again used as a training vessel. It was short-lived, however, and she was towed to Tallin, Estonia, where she was once more used as a training ship and then as a target ship. She was finally sunk in 1956.

This is an original map of the Schleswig Holstein's trip to the West Indies at the end of 1938 to the spring of 1939. This was a much used training cruise that was frequently carried out by the Kriegsmarine. In fact it has remarkable similarities to a similar cruise that was carried out by SMS Hertha, which took place between August 1913 and March 12 1914. The Hertha was under the command of Otto Ernst Lindemann and his connection to the Tirpitz was that he would ultimately become the only commander of her sister ship the Bismarck. He took over command of the ill-fated vessel in 1940. The Hertha took in Dartmouth in England, Vilagarcia de Arousa in Spain, Faial Island in the Azores and then on to Halifax in Nova Scotia. On her return trip she visited Vera Cruz in Mexico, Havana in Cuba, Port au Prince in Haiti, Kingston Jamaica, Trinidad's Port of Spain and then on to the Canary Islands and the Spanish mainland before returning to Kiel. We can see from the map that the Schleswig Holstein focused primarily on the West Indies, visiting both Spanish and British possessions.

The officers of the Schleswig Holstein can be seen here. They are wearing their mess jackets. The white mess jacket had no sleeve rings and shoulder straps were worn to denote rank. The buttons and the national crest emblem were detachable. Normally a blue mess jacket would be worn, with a blue waistcoat, but on more important occasions the white one would be worn. On the blue mess jacket the rank would be shown on the sleeves and there would be no shoulder straps and no epaulette holders. The blue trousers would have gold braid covering the seams. We can also see the wearing of aiguillettes. These would be in gold and are attached to the right shoulder and the second button from the top on the right. The officers are also wearing their dirk. This would be worn with every uniform. Swords would be worn during field training and parades ashore. The epaulettes are worn in exactly the same way as the shoulder straps.

Loading coal onto the Schleswig Holstein from a barge, using baskets. When first built the vessel would carry l,720tons of coal. From 1925 she would carry 1,380 tons of coal for her boilers. She had a major refit at Wilhelmshaven in 1926, which saw two of the smoke stacks being combined into one, leaving her with two. Her maximum endurance before refuelling was around 4,800 miles at an average speed of 12 knots.

This photograph is another shot of coal refuelling. There were a number of coaling stations dotted around the West Indies and also one in the Azores. The Canary Islands also had coaling stations and this was particularly important, as the Canary Islands were a vital point for transatlantic traffic. Routinely, vessels would refuel on Tenerife, Madeira and at Las Palmas. The islands themselves were an important part of a trading triangle between Marseilles and Morocco and Gibraltar.

The crew is still working hard to remove the last of the coal from the barge, alongside the Schleswig Holstein. Deutschland class vessels had coal fired Schultz- Thorneycroft boilers. Most of the vessels that remained from this class into the late 1930s were converted to use oil, however some of the refits did not take place until shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. The Schleswig Holstein was still a large and impressive vessel, even though she was somewhat obsolete. Nonetheless valuable lessons were learned by the cadets on training vessels such as these.

This photograph shows a torpedo being fired from the Schleswig Holstein. Deutschland class battleships were the first German ships to be equipped with a submerged torpedo tube. These were 45cm torpedo tubes and there were six of them in total; one to the bow, four in the beam and one on the stern. This was in addition to her four paired 11inch guns, fourteen 6.7inch guns and twenty 3.4inch guns.

This is a shot of the U-23. This was a Type IIB U-boat, which was first launched in August 1936. It is unclear precisely when this photograph was taken, but assuming it was during the Schleswig Holstein's voyage across the Atlantic, the officer in command would have been Otto Kretschmer. He was considered to be a top U-boat ace who would rise to the rank of Fregattenkapitan by September 1944. The U-23 was his second command, having briefly commanded the U-35 in July and August 1937. He remained in command of the U-23 from October 1937 until April 1940, carrying out eight patrols. He was later to go on to command the U-99 between April 1940 and March 1941, again undertaking eight patrols. He was a highly decorated U-boat captain, winning the Iron Class First and Second Class, the Knight's Cross, Oak Leaves for the Knight's Cross and Oak Leaves with Crossed Swords for the Knight's Cross. He had begun his naval career in 1929 and went through officer training from April l930, spending some three months onboard the training school ship Niobe.

This is a German coastal patrol launch in heavy weather. The Germans developed the Schnellboot (fast craft) from 1932 and it was well suited to operations in the open seas. It was primarily designed for operation in the North Sea, the English Channel and the Baltic. These vessels were used during the war to try to intercept allied shipping and to launch hit and run raids and mine-laying missions.

The Schleswig Holstein is in heavy weather conditions. She underwent a major conversion in the early 1930s to make her suitable for use as a cadet training ship. However in August 1939 she was sent on what was announced as a ceremonial visit to the Baltic, in order to take part in a remembrance of the sinking of the German light cruiser, Magdeburg, in 1914. This would have been the twenty fifth anniversary. After the ceremony the Schleswig Holstein entered the port of Danzig, which sat opposite Westerplatte, the Polish fortress. She opened fire on the base shortly before 0500 on September 1 and marines from her complement then stormed the fortress. The fighting went on for seven days.

This is an authorisation or programme, signed by Adolf Hitler and dated October 22 1938. It authorises and outlines the Schleswig Holstein's tour to get underway a week later. It details the fact that it will visit Spain, Madeira, the Cape Verde Islands, the West Indies, Venezuela, the Azores and England. The document is also signed by Erich Raeder, who was commander in chief of the Kriegsmarine between 1935 and January 1943.

This is an incredible Lufthansa seaplane. It is actually a Dornier DOX twelve engine aircraft. This was the largest and the heaviest, and certainly the most powerful flying boat when it was conceived in the early 1920s. It was produced in 1929 and was originally powered by twelve radial engines, mounted in six nacelles on the wings. It was known as a ‘flying ship’. On a test flight in October 1929 it achieved the record for the highest number of persons on a single flight, with 169 people onboard. It was hoped that the aircraft would break into the transatlantic market. Technical difficulties, however, dogged the aircraft and it actually took nine months for it to reach the United States. The economic downturn in the 1930s crippled Dornier and Lufthansa planned to use the original aircraft, but again technical problems meant that she simply became a museum exhibit in Berlin.

This is the Kommandant of the Schleswig Holstein, Kapitan zur See Gustav Kieseritzky. Kieseritzky joined the Imperial German Navy in April 1912 and attended the naval academy at Murwik in Flensburg. By the outbreak of the First World War he had joined the SMS Friedrich the Great, reaching the rank of Ensign in March 1915. By the end of the First World War he had graduated from submarine school and by 1919 he was a flag lieutenant onboard the light cruiser, SMS Strasbourg. He is pictured here in his formal mess uniform.

This second photograph of Gustav Kieseritzky shows him in his formal frock coat. He was a highly decorated officer, winning the Iron Cross First and Second Class, the Friedrich August Kreuz First and Second Class, the Hanseatic Cross, clasps to both of his Iron Crosses, the German Cross in Gold and was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in November 1943. By 1943 he had become a vice admiral. He was involved in operations in the Crimea and was killed on November 19 1943.

Kieseritzky poses with another senior German naval officer in this shot. The other officer also appears to be highly decorated. It is possible that this officer is Gustav Kleikamp, who took over command of the Schleswig Holstein in April 1939 and remained in command until the end of August 1940. Kleikamp joined the Kriegsmarine a year later than Kieseritzky and also attended submarine school. He not only commanded the Schleswig Holstein during the bombardment of Westerplatte, but he was also involved in the planning of Operation Sealion, the aborted invasion of England. Kleikamp would also rise to the rank of vice admiral and by the end of the war he was based in the Netherlands then responsible for protecting the German Bight. He fell into British hands at the end of the war and was held prisoner of war until 1947.

This is an unusual view of the Schleswig Holstein. This photograph shows the forward mast. In the late 1920s she had been fitted with a new mast. She had been hit during the battle of Jutland, which had torn apart some of the superstructure deck and disabled one of the guns on her port side. After the battle she was attacked again by destroyers chasing the German High Seas Fleet. She was put into docks for repairs and was one of the vessels that the Germans chose to retain after their defeat in 1918. Germany was allowed to retain eight pre-dreadnought battleships.

Lowering the ship's boat from the Schleswig Holstein. The changes to the vessel to convert her into a training ship had meant a change in the ship's complement. As a fighting vessel she had thirty five officers and 708 enlisted men but after conversion, which necessitated the creation of new crew compartments for cadets and a classroom, the complement was brought down to thirty one officers and 565 enlisted men, plus 175 cadets. Other modifications included additional antiaircraft guns and new boilers.

The Schleswig Holstein is visiting a German port, probably Kiel, either in 1938 or 1939. The servicemen are predominantly wearing their blue uniforms and will undoubtedly be a mix of enlisted Kriegsmarine servicemen and cadets. The Kiel navy base was incredibly important to the Germans in both world wars. It had been the home station of the German High Seas Fleet in the First World War and a major naval base and shipbuilding centre in the Second World War. The Treaty of Versailles, limiting the size of the German navy, meant that Kiel suffered a severe economic downturn after the First World War. With the expansion of the navy in the 1930s Kiel enjoyed great prosperity. However it was a magnet for allied bombing and the city was subjected to at least thirty six major air raids, plus innumerable smaller attacks. The shipyards were severely damaged in 1945 and many vessels in the shipyards and around the base were either destroyed or badly damaged, including the Admiral Scheer. Kiel suffered around 80 per cent damage by May 1945.

Sailors and cadets are in a mixture of white and blue rigs and are waving to civilians, probably on the Kiel Canal. The Kiel Canal was known as the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal until the late 1940s. It was designed to link the North Sea with the Baltic Sea and construction had begun in 1887. It was officially opened in 1895 and was of considerable importance to the German navy, as it allowed major surface vessels to travel from the Baltic to the North Sea without the need to circumnavigate Denmark.

The Schleswig Holstein is seen here rolling and pitching at dusk. The vessel was the last pre-dreadnought battleship that was built by Kaiserliche Marine. She was laid down in August 1905 and commissioned into the fleet in July 1908. By the time she came into service she was already outdated; she was too small, had inadequate fire power, was too slow and her armour was not strong enough. Nonetheless she would see front line service with the German High Seas Fleet. The dreadnought design, named after HMS Dreadnought, had been commissioned in December 1906. The new design effectively rendered the entire existing German navy obsolete.

Heavy spray is seen here, soaking the decks of the Schleswig Holstein. The term pre-dreadnought relates to battleships that were created from around the middle of the 1890s through to 1905. By 1906, with the creation of HMS Dreadnought, the emerging naval powers of Germany, Japan and the United States, found their efforts to be severely undermined and inadequate. The new dreadnoughts had bigger, longer range guns, steam turbine engines and were altogether more heavy and reliable. Germany had desperately tried to keep up in the naval arms race against Britain and France. The Deutschland class was the culmination of their predreadnoughts. This class consisted of a group of five, including the Deutschland, Hannover, Pomern, Schlesien and the Schleswig Holstein.

This photograph is of the Azores and the cadets appear to be in São Brás fort. Construction on the fort had begun in 1552 and it is made in the Vauban style. It was used to defend the coast against pirate raids. Even today it serves as a base for the Portuguese navy. The fort overlooks Ponta Delgarda, on the island of São Miguel.

From the salute being given here by the dignitary, it appears that he must be a German rather than a foreign official. The possession of the Azores became a major worry after the outbreak of the Second World War. The British, Americans and the Portuguese all recognised the fact that the islands should not fall into German hands. There would be grave consequences, particularly if the Germans could set up a U-boat base around the islands. Certainly Adolf Hitler had given serious consideration to seizing the Azores, but he had been dissuaded; simply the German fleet lacked the ability to resupply the island and hold it. As the war progressed the Portuguese found themselves under increasing pressure from the allies and in 1943, based on a treaty that had been signed in the 14th century, an agreement was made between the British and the Portuguese to enable the allies to use it as a major base against the German U-boat threat.

The lower deck of the Schleswig Holstein is shown here awash. Part of the modernisation of the vessel saw the masts being refitted, along with a range-finder and fire control station placed on the foremast. The bridge works were expanded, but otherwise aside from the changes to the funnels it had changed very little since it was constructed.

This is another view of the Schleswig Holstein underway. It is possible to see some of the armament in this photograph, notably the secondary turrets. The primary armament was four 11inch quick firing guns in two twin turrets at front and rear. The secondary battery consisted of fourteen 6.6inch guns mounted in casemates. There were also twenty two quick firing 3.5inch guns in single mounts. The deck was armoured and around 1.6inches thick.

One of the Schleswig Holstein's launches is heading for port here. She was a very well travelled vessel from September 1936. In the October she visited the Canaries, the Cape Verde Islands and then sailed onto Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Cuba and other locations in the West Indies. She accompanied the Emden and the Silesia on a short trip to Norway in 1937 and then around Africa to Cape Town. The photographs in this collection are believed to have been taken by the third training crews, who left Kiel and took in the West Indies and the Azores. It is clear that by the time it came back from this trip that war was becoming imminent and it was not risked from that point onwards.

This vessel appears to be the Julius Schindler. She was a tanker built in 1921 in Hamburg and was sold in 1939 being renamed Thalatta. The Kriegsmarine requisitioned her in 1940 and she was captured in Kiel in May 1945 and became the Empire Tegaya. She was then sold on in 1947 and was renamed Artist before being sold again two years later to become Astro. In 1953 she changed hands once again to become Franco and was finally scrapped in Italy in 1960.

Crew and cadets are hard at work on the deck of the Schleswig Holstein, as the ship's band tunes up. The serviceman on the right hand side of the photograph has a number of interesting service badges down his sleeve. Firstly he is a leading seaman as denoted by the top badge. The second badge shows he is a gun layer, the third shows he is an underwater anti-asdic listener, but unfortunately the fourth badge is indistinct, although it could show that he is a mine and depth- charge qualified rating.

It is believed that this photograph shows SS Columbus. Several pieces of circumstantial evidence point to this being the case, as she was indeed a German ocean liner and she did operate by crossing the Atlantic and made frequent trips to North America and Cuba. The story of the Columbus is a complicated one. She was originally ordered in 1914, but not completed until 1924. Originally she was supposed to have been called the Hindenburg and her sister ship was called the Columbus, but the sister ship had been surrendered as part of reparation payment in 1920 and was renamed Homeric. Consequently, in 1920, the Hindenburg became Columbus. Her construction had been put on hold during the First World War but by April 1924 she was ready for her maiden voyage. She was Germany's largest and fastest ocean liner and she could carry 1,650 passengers, had a swimming pool and a dance floor on a raised platform. Columbus underwent a major refit in 1929 so that she would be as fast and would also resemble the other two major Norddeutscher Lloyd vessels, Bremen and Europa. For the next ten years Columbus would cruise the Caribbean over the winter months. It is therefore perfectly feasible that the Schleswig Holstein encountered her either in December 1938 or January 1939.

This is a second shot of the SS Columbus making way in the Caribbean. She was in the Caribbean in September 1939 when the Second World War broke out. She was ordered to return to Germany but it was not a simple task to do this, as there were Royal Navy vessels in the vicinity looking to impound German vessels. The captain took the precaution of offloading his passengers at Havana in Cuba and the vessel then spent the next two months dodging Royal Navy patrols by hiding in a succession of ports along the South American coast. HMS Hyperion spotted her about 400 miles off the coast of Virginia on December 19 1939. Clearly she was trying to slip along the American coastline then up along the Canadian coast to cross to the north and approach home via the Atlantic and the North Sea. Also in the vicinity at the time was the USS Tuscaloosa. The United States was still neutral so the heavy cruiser kept a discrete distance. The captain of SS Columbus, realising that the Royal Navy destroyer had spotted her, gave the order to scuttle the vessel. She was set on fire and sank. The USS Tuscaloosa picked up 567 men and nine women. It was an important distinction being picked up by the Americans and not the British. They would be classed as rescued seamen and would not become prisoners of war as would be the case had the Royal Navy picked them up. The crew were taken to New York, where they remained until the end of the war.

CHAPTER FOUR

TIRPITZ The Tirpitz was a Bismarck class battleship. It was laid down on November 2 1936 and built by Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven. She had a displacement of 42,900tons, which rose to 53,500 when fully armed, supplied and crewed. She was 830ft long with a beam of 118ft and a draft of 32ft and powered by twelve high-pressure boilers, three geared turbines and had three propeller shafts. Her maximum speed was estimated to be around 30knots. At I9knots she had a range of 8,870 nautical miles. Onboard her crewmembers amounted to 2,608. Her armament was impressive, with four sets of twin 380mm guns, twelve 150mm guns, sixteen 105mm guns, sixteen 37mm guns, thirty 20mm machineguns and two sets of four torpedo tubes. She was also well armoured with her belt ranging from 145 to 320mm. The turrets ranged from 130 to 360mm, the bulkheads 220mm and the conning tower 360mm. Of particular significance to Rosenbaum, she carried four Arado 196A-3 float planes, which were launched from a double-ended catapult. The original building contract had been placed on June 14 1936. Building work probably began on October 24 that year, with the keel being laid at the beginning of the November. It took some twenty nine months to complete her construction and she was launched on April 1 1939. The official ceremony was conducted by the daughter of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, who is credited as being the architect of the original Imperial German Fleet. The event drew Adolf Hitler and many of the high ranking members of the Nazi Party. It also saw Erich Raeder, who was commander in chief of the Kriegsmarine, promoted to Grossadmiral. The Tirpitz was finally commissioned on February 25 1941. Command of the vessel was given to Kapitan zur See Friedrich Karl Topp. Tirpitz left Wilhelmshaven and proceeded along the Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal to Kiel at the beginning of March. From there she headed into the Baltic for gunnery trials. More work was carried out in the July and August and once new gunnery trials had taken place she was ready for operations towards the end of September 1941. Her first operation was to join what the Germans referred to as their Baltic Fleet. Tirpitz sailed toward the Aaland Islands to attempt to prevent the Russian fleet from leaving Kronstadt. She was accompanied by the Admiral Scheer, Emden, Leipzig, Koln, Nurnberg, as well as destroyers, minesweepers and torpedo boats.

Kapitan zur See Friedrich Karl Topp is featured in this photograph. The son of a priest and born in 1895 in Westphalia he joined the German Imperial Navy in 1914. During the First World War he was a submariner and interestingly Topp, by the end of the First World War, was first officer under Martin Niemöller, who would later become a prominent anti-Nazi. Niemöller, during the First World War, served aboard a number of U-boats, including U-3, U-73, U-39, U-151 and UC-67. He was awarded the Iron Cross First Class. Topp served in the short-lived Weimar Republic Navy and, after Hitler came to power, he became involved in planning shipbuilding and became a member of the Marineamt, the administrative wing of the German Navy. He would serve as captain of the Tirpitz from January 15 1941 to February 24 1943. After this time he would return to organising shipbuilding, reporting to Albert Speer. By this stage Topp had become a vice admiral. After 1945 he cooperated with the British to close down many of the German shipyards. He was released as a prisoner of war in 1946 and died on April 24 1981.

This photograph shows Tirpitz. Her sister ship, Bismarck had been lost on May 27 1941 after a chase precipitated by her attempt to break out into the Atlantic and establish herself at Brest. As a result of this loss the Germans decided not to risk the loss of the Tirpitz in the same way. It was therefore decided that she would operate off Norway. In mid-January 1942, escorted by destroyers, Tirpitz made for Trondheim in Norway and anchored in the Faettenfjord on January 16. A fortnight later the British launched their first air attack on her, but they were unable to press it home because of bad weather. Tirpitz had her first taste of action at the beginning of March 1942 when two allied convoys were in the vicinity. PQ12 was heading back to Britain from Iceland and QP8 had left Murmansk. On March 5 German reconnaissance aircraft spotted PQ12 near Jan Mayen Island. Tirpitz set out to intercept that evening and she was joined by three destroyers. By midday on March 7 the Tirpitz was 160km to the south of the two allied convoys. Elements of the British Home Fleet, including HMS Victorious, were hunting for her. Poor weather conspired to separate the Tirpitz from the destroyers and at dawn on March 8 she was alone and bearing down on PQ12. Somehow the elements of the British Home Fleet and Tirpitz, along with the convoy, all managed to miss one another. However just after 0800 on March 9 a British reconnaissance aircraft from HMS Victorious spotted Tirpitz along with a German destroyer. The crew of the Tirpitz saw the Albacore and a pair of their Arado planes were launched at 0830 to keep an eye out for possible air or submarine attacks. Tirpitz changed course and there was a brief air battle between Albacores and Arados overhead. Half an hour later the Tirpitz came under attack from twelve Albacores. The attack failed, however, and Tirpitz headed for Bogen, assisted by extremely poor weather. The British knew that although the Tirpitz had not engaged she was going to be a continuing threat to convoys. By now she had slipped into Trondheim and on March 31 Halifax bombers were launched against her; no damage was inflicted for the cost of five aircraft. A month later two more attacks were made by a combination of Halifax and Lancaster. Once again a number of bombs and mines were dropped but to no effect.

The Tirpitz is on the move here, firing her main armament. She was still under orders to try to intercept allied convoys to and from Russia. The Germans had assembled two battle groups by mid-June 1942. The Fleet Commander Admiral Schnierwind was aboard the Tirpitz. They were aiming to intercept convoy PQ17. This sailed from Reykjavik on June 27 and the Germans spotted it on July 1. On the following day the battle group led by Tirpitz set sail and was joined by the second battle group in Ofotfjord on July 3. Tirpitz, along with the Admiral Scheer and Admiral Hipper made for Altenfjord on July 5, hunting for the convoy. That very same day the Russians claimed that one of their submarines hit the Tirpitz with a pair of torpedoes. There is nothing in the Tirpitz war diary to substantiate this claim. Nonetheless, the Germans, concerned about the possibility of an air attack launched from HMS Victorious, called off the operation and the Tirpitz returned to Bogen. PQ17 was not that fortunate; the German threat had caused the convoy to scatter and over the course of three days twenty three of the thirty six merchant vessels were sunk. So far the British had been unable to bring the Tirpitz to battle in the open sea and they had also failed, on a number of occasions, to hit her during air attacks. The next plan was to use human torpedoes. Under the codename Operation Title, Leif Larsen, a Norwegian, commanded the operation. They set out from the Shetlands onboard a fishing boat called Arthur. After some technical problems they managed to make it to Trondheimsfjord on the afternoon of October 30 1942. Slowly they made their way to a position where they could launch the human torpedoes. They were towing these and one of them broke free and was adrift. Then they lost the other one. The operation was finally scratched and they scuttled Arthur, the crew making their way to neutral Sweden. Meanwhile the Tirpitz was undergoing maintenance but was fully operational by the end of January 1943. For the next few months she carried out some sea trials. The Tirpitz, accompanied by the Scharnhorst and a number of destroyers, launched an operation against Spitzbergen, opening fire on the allied base at dawn on September 8 1943. The operation was successful and the allied supply dump and radio station were destroyed with prisoners taken. Unbeknown to the Tirpitz crew this would be her last operation. From now on she would be only a target for the allies.

This is another shot of the Tirpitz firing its main armament. The British were still determined to deal with the Tirpitz and the next attack would use X craft, or midget submarines. The 12th Submarine Flotilla had been training for such an operation. It needed ideal conditions, with sufficient moonlight and the next available period was between September 20 to 25 1943. The plan was that they would approach the Tirpitz on September 22. Each of the X craft was to be towed by a conventional British submarine. The final approach would have to be made under their own power, however. At this point the Tirpitz was in Kafjord, hidden behind anti-torpedo nets. There were other German vessels present, including a repair ship, a tanker and three destroyers. The Tirpitz was first spotted by X6, commanded by Lieutenant Cameron. As the X6 surfaced it came under small arms and hand grenade fire. Meanwhile X7, commanded by Lieutenant Place, had also broken clear of the antitorpedo nets and had released its explosive charges. X7 also came under fire but X6 was sunk. Shortly after 0800 there were two huge explosions close to the Tirpitz and considerable damage was done to her. German destroyers were dropping depth charges and X5 was now spotted, commanded by Lieutenant Henty-Creer. As she came under fire the X5 dived. The damage to Tirpitz included hull splits and buckling, one of the generator rooms had been flooded, propeller shafts could not be turned, there had been damage to some of the turrets and two of the aircraft had been badly damaged. The operation had cost the British nine killed and six captured. All the Germans could do was to make basic repairs; the Tirpitz needed to get into a dry dock. It would effectively put her out of action until mid-March 1944, by which time she was ready for sea trials once more.

This is an impressive shot of the Tirpitz at anchor. The trials and tribulations for the Tirpitz were not yet over and it was decided by the British to launch another determined attack in April 1944. This time air attacks would be launched from the aircraft carriers HMS Furious and HMS Victorious. The aircraft took off shortly after 0400 on April 3 1944 and they arrived over their target at around 0530. The Tirpitz had already weighed anchor, intent on more sea trials. Smoke had just been released to cover her. The first strike succeeded in six direct hits and three probable hits. But the attack was not over and a second strike was on its way. By shortly after 0630 another eight definite and five probable hits had been scored. Considerable damage had been done to the Tirpitz and in fact 122 of the crew had been killed, with 316 being wounded. This would effectively put her out of action again until late June 1944.

The Tirpitz is undergoing gunnery trials in this photograph. A major attack was launched against her on July 17 1944 and this time she was ready and waiting. A smoke screen had been put up and she could barely be seen. Undeterred, however, more attacks were launched in August 1944. A series of strikes over the course of several days claimed several more hits on the Tirpitz. But she was still afloat and a solution to the problem to finish her forever still evaded the allies. It was decided to try the tall boy bomb. This had been invented by Barnes Wallis. The 5,433kg bomb carried 2,358kg of high explosive. It could only be carried by a Lancaster, but the Tirpitz position even put this out of reach. The solution was to land and refuel in Russia. The operation got underway on September 15 1944. As the incoming aircraft were spotted they came under heavy fire and the Tirpitz was already obscured by smoke. Nonetheless sixteen of the twenty one bombs were dropped. A nervous wait for a report from Norwegian resistance finally came and one of the bombs had hit the Tirpitz near the stern and had gone through her upper deck before exploding on her starboard side. Although the allies would not know it at the time, the Germans admitted in their own documentation that repairs would take a minimum of nine months. Incredibly they had also taken the decision to scuttle her.

This photograph shows an Arado 196 flying close to the Tirpitz in far happier and promising times. The end of the Tirpitz was approaching and the final raid against her took place on November 12 1944. Lancasters were again used and they met heavy anti-aircraft fire but despite this some twenty nine bombs were dropped. There were at least two direct hits. There is some dispute as to what precisely finished off the Tirpitz but there was certainly a violent internal explosion. She rolled over to port and capsized and at this point there were 1,700 crew- members onboard. Around 1,000 were drowned but incredibly eighty seven men were rescued by cutting holes in the bottom of the ship. The bulk of the Tirpitz remained in position until 1949 when for the next eight years a Norwegian scrap company broke her up.

This shot of the Tirpitz is showing one of her cranes in operation. She had two large and two small cranes and these were used for a variety of different tasks, including loading stores and bringing on ammunition, as well as retrieving the float planes. The Tirpitz also had three barges, four picket boats, two dinghies, two yawls, two cutters and a launch.

This is a deck shot of the Tirpitz, showing the impressive array of defensive armament. The turret visible housed a 150mm gun and also visible are a wide variety of 20mm and 37mm guns. Technically the 150mm guns were secondary armaments. They were in double turrets and the turrets were capable of firing six to eight rounds per minute. They could fire high explosive shells some 22000m and the smaller 37mm guns were also double mounted on the upper deck, bridge structure and the crow's nest of the foremast. Although they had a theoretical rate of fire of eighty rounds per gun per minute, operationally they could manage between thirty and forty. These had a range of 8500m. The other, smaller 20mm guns, of which the Tirpitz originally had twelve but was later reduced to ten, were single mounted. Operationally they could fire around 120 rounds a minute, they had a range of up to 4900m and the barrel would last for up to 22,000 shots. These were manually operated.

An Arado 196 is being lifted by one of the cranes of the Tirpitz. All German airborne maritime units were Luftwaffe. Rosenbaum, as a Kriegsmarine and an observer on an Arado 196, would have been seconded to the Luftwaffe for a period of four years. Rosenbaum was part of Bordfliegergruppe 196 (BFGr196). This was created in 1937 and it consisted of six Staffeln; effectively the equivalent of a squadron. In this formation's case this would have been around six aircraft. The group provided the aircraft for some of the major German surface vessels. Their role was to carry out reconnaissance, patrols, air support and act as couriers between surface vessels. They would also become involved in air to air combat and air sweeps. The Arado 196 was a float plane and they were stored above deck, at the centre of the ship, and launched by catapult. In this photograph it can be clearly see how the aircraft was retrieved after a mission. Simply, the aircraft would land beside the vessel and the crane would lift it out of the water and place it back on the catapult ready for its next launch.

Rosenbaum is seen in this shot sitting behind the pilot of an Arado 196. It is not clear whether the pilot is Meissner, or Scharmacher but what we do know is that Rosenbaum's Arado 196 was code number T3+FH. He flew with Meissner as the pilot on the 100th catapult launch from the Tirpitz in the summer of 1943. In fact returns dated September 9 1943 suggest that there were three Arado 196s onboard Tirpitz at that time. The Arado 196A-3 was powered by a nine cylinder radial air-cooled engine. It was rated at 960hp at takeoff and in flight at around 820hp. It was armed with a pair of 20mm machineguns, a single forward firing 7.9mm machine- gun and a second one on a flexible mounting. It would also carry a pair of bombs on the wing racks. The aircraft had a maximum speed of some 194mph, with a cruising speed of 166mph. Its service ceiling was just less than 23,000ft and it had a range of 497 miles. The aircraft's prototypes were tested in the summer of 1937 and the aircraft used by Rosenbaum was being delivered from March 1941. This was the third version of the production model and improvements were later made to give the rear cockpit a better machine gun and there were also improvements to the radio equipment. Only a limited number of these aircraft were ever built; ten were made in 1938, forty in 1939, ninety eight in 1940, ninety seven in 1941, 107 in 1942, 104 in 1943 and eighty in 1944. It is believed that are three survivors; two are in the United States and a third in Bulgaria in a maritime museum at Varna.

Here we can see the Arado being crane lifted and clearly visible is the group's emblem, a seahorse on a blue field. BFGr196 was amongst the first to use the Arado 196. The unit was also amongst the first to have lost aircraft in the war. Interestingly, the aircraft that Rosenbaum flew in, T3+FH carried the same code as one that had been lost on April 9 1940 when the British submarine HMS Truant had sunk the Karlsberg. In fact a further Arado 196 was lost the following day when the Konigsberg was sunk in Bergen harbour, but it is believed that this aircraft was later salvaged. There had been other losses during 1941; four had been lost when the Bismarck had gone down on May 27. Before that another had been lost around Dunkirk on March 28 and a second near Ostend on the same day. The other two aircraft onboard Tirpitz, according to records dating to September 1943, were the T3+EH and the T3+GH. The Kriegsmarine had been looking for a suitable reconnaissance aircraft since 1933. The first had been the Heinkel He60 but its performance was not ideal and the prototype of the He114 also proved to be below expectations. A number of designs were submitted by various manufacturers, including Arado, Gotha, Dornier and Focke-Wulf. Heinkel was sure that the He114 was actually ideal. Arado delivered prototypes in the summer of 1937, both single and twin float. Both of them worked well but it was decided to go with the twin float model. The pilots and observers liked the Arado 196 because it handled extremely well. It was also taken on by coastal squadrons and was involved in operations well into 1944.

It was also extensively used by the Finns to carry Special Forces patrols behind enemy lines, carrying the men in the fuselage.

The Arado's wings have been retracted and it is being slid back under cover onto the deck of the Tirpitz. The Arado would be pushed into and hauled out of the hangar manually and then rotated to line up with the catapult. Its wings would then be extended into position. The trolley would assist in allowing the aircraft to accelerate on takeoff. The sled would have extending arms to take the weight of the aircraft.

The pilot and observer are seen here, posing in their Arado 196. The Arado was primarily metal and was of a modern design, with an enclosed cockpit. The floats served as extended fuel tanks and storage space and were also fitted with rudders. The initial designs, with a single float, proved that the aircraft was somewhat unstable in the water, hence the move towards two floats. Incredibly, one Arado 196 was credited with the capture of HMS Seal, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Rupert P Lonsdale, who was an experienced submariner. HMS Seal set off for a mine laying operation on April 29 1940. The submarine entered Kattegat at 0130 on May 4. Lonsdale had to be careful because the sun rose early and any sign of the submarine was likely to be spotted by German reconnaissance aircraft. It was a wise decision, as shortly before dawn, at 0230, a German reconnaissance aircraft spotted him and dropped a bomb nearby. Lonsdale, knowing he had been detected still laid his mines and with German trawlers in the vicinity he headed for home. The German trawlers and torpedo boats were hard on his heels, however, and a depth charge nearly crippled the submarine and it dropped down into the depths. This left Lonsdale with just one option and in the early hours of May 5 he used his remaining battery power and blew the ballast tanks to force the submarine to surface. The crewmen were in a dreadful state and at around 0230 an Arado 196 spotted him and came in to attack. Then a second arrived; both launched attacks and they were joined by an He115. Lonsdale had few options now and he used his ward room tablecloth to run up an impromptu surrender flag. The two Arado 196s landed nearby and ordered Lonsdale to swim to the aircraft as a hostage. HMS Seal's crew was transferred to a converted trawler, the UJ128. By this stage the submarine was listing and no one believed that she would remain afloat. HMS Seal was towed towards Frederikshaven, where a German salvage tug was secured to her to prevent her from sinking. Lonsdale faced a court martial in April 1946 and he was honourably acquitted of all charges. This photograph shows two engineers at work on the floats as the Arado 196 sits in its hangar on the deck of the Tirpitz. It appears that they are refuelling the aircraft. Following the First World War the Arado Flugzeugwerke, based at Warnemunde, recommenced aircraft production for export in 1924. It was originally known as Arado Handelsgesellschaft but changed its name to Arado Flugzeugwerke in I933. Originally the company provided Arado AR66s as Luftwaffe training aircraft. They were to produce a number of other trainers, including the AR96. The company had notable success with the Arado 196 but

many of its other designs failed to impress. One of its other notable successes was the Arado 234, a jet powered bomber, but it was produced far too late to have any impact on the war in Europe. Arguably one of these aircraft was supposed to have been the last Luftwaffe to fly over England in April 1945. The company was broken up after the war ended. When the factory was captured by the Russians it was discovered that a large number of the workforce had in fact been made up of slave labourers.

Wilhelm Rosenbaum in his Luftwaffe service dress uniform. It would appear that he has the rank of leutnant at this time. Day to day he would have worn a fliegerbluse (blouse), which was similar to the field blouses worn by the German army. The insignia included collar tabs and shoulder straps. It was a grey-blue colour, but in actual fact the colour range was extremely broad, from a bluish grey to grey, depending upon the amount of manmade fibre contained in the uniform. The most prominent feature on the blouse was the German Luftwaffe eagle. There were various versions of this eagle, carrying a swastika. The slightly different designs depended on the tunic for which they were designed and the grade of the officer concerned. These breast eagles were in fact an old symbol in Germany. The National Socialists adopted it and Goering was keen to show an eagle with wings spread as if in flight. Notably, there is no sign of the pilot observer badge in this photograph, which would have indicated that Rosenbaum was both a qualified pilot and an observer. Neither is there any sign of the observer badge itself, which was brought in during March 1936. This was an oval, slightly convex wreath of oak and laurel leaves. Both metal and cloth versions were worn and as a badge it was worn on the upper left breast pocket. Normally the badge was awarded after the completion of the two month qualifying service and five operational flights as an observer. Its absence may simply indicate that Rosenbaum had not yet flown that number of sorties when the photograph was taken. Rosenbaum and the pilot are standing on the Arado 196 as it is hoisted out of the water and back onto the deck of the Tirpitz. The Bordfliegergruppe 196 was nominally based at Wilhelmshaven from October 1937 to January 1942. There were detachments in a number of different locations; the base was shifted to Brest temporarily for the first four months of 1942. It then returned to Wilhelmshaven at the end of April 1942 through to April 1943. What is interesting is that it is believed that Rosenbaum left the Tirpitz in March 1944. By this time the group's base was at Stavanger, where it remained until June 1944. It was then moved to Pillua (Baltiysk), which was a major u-boat training facility in East Prussia. The unit moved to Rugen in October 1944 and remained there until March 1945. Rugen is Germany's largest

island, located in the Baltic. If Rosenbaum was indeed at this base then it begs the question as to how he escaped capture by the Russians. The main air base on the island was at Bug on the most western part of the island. Although it is pure conjecture on the part of the authors, it is possible that Rosenbaum may have been transferred to another part of BFGrl96 and may have found himself perhaps in Venice or, more likely, in Brest.

An Arado 196 is being hoisted out of the sea in this shot. Although the photograph is unclear, the aircraft does not appear to belong to the Tirpitz. In fact this aircraft belongs to 2/196 and is probably coded T3+JK. If this is the case then this aircraft comes from the Scharnhorst and the crewmen were either Fiedler, Zadowski or Zeissler, according to records dated September 1943. What also may be the case is that aircraft were exchanged between vessels and periodically aircraft would be sent back to Germany. Since we do not know the precise date of this photograph it is difficult to provide more detail. We know that the Scharnhorst was involved in operations with the Tirpitz in early 1943, which fits in with the timing of Rosenbaum's service onboard the Tirpitz. The Scharnhorst was far less fortunate than Tirpitz when she was destroyed by HMS Duke of York in December 1943; only thirty six of her crew of 1,968 survived.

This is an Arado 196 being plucked out of the water by a crane in choppy sea conditions. The Arado 196 was designed by the former First World War fighter ace, Walter Blume. This highly decorated pilot had scored twenty eight aerial victories during the First World War. He joined the Arado Flugzeugwerke in the mid-l920s, having trained as an aeronautical engineer. He became the chief design engineer in 1933. Blume was involved in the development of a number of aircraft, including the Arado 234 Blitz which was a twin engine jet bomber. Towards the end of the Second World War Blume was captured by the Russians and went on to assist them in developing their jet aircraft programme. The Arado 196 became the replacement for the He60 biplane and it was to see service in the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. German allies also used it in the Adriatic and in the Black Sea. There are also indications that it was used in the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific.

Another shot can be seen here of one of the Tirpitz Arado 196 being hoisted by the ship's crane. The Arado 196 was not the only float plane that was developed by the company for the Second World War. Another less successful project was the Arado 231 which was a lightweight float plane that was designed to be fitted into a 2m diameter storage cylinder and used by Type XIB U-boats. The idea was that the wings should be detachable and that they could be removed in less than six minutes. As it transpired the aircraft was extremely underpowered and fragile. It had difficulty flying even in the calmest of conditions. Nonetheless two prototypes were tested but the development of this aircraft was shelved and it was the Focke-Achgelis FA 330 that was preferred. This was a gyro glider stored in a pair of watertight compartments on the conning tower of the u-boat. It was supposed to take twenty minutes to recover, dismantle and stow the FA330. It was only used on a limited number of submarines.

An Arado 196 in flight is seen here, beside the Tirpitz. The Tirpitz carried the BB+YF, T3+BL, T3+DL, T3+GK, T3+HK, T3+LH and T3+LK. The Bismarck carried five Arado 196s. Three more were assigned to the Scharnhorst, two to the Admiral Scheer and four to the Prinz Eugen. At a depth of some 90m a largely intact Arado 196 still rests off the island of Herakleia in the Mediterranean. It was discovered in 1982 and apparently the aircraft, Dl+EH, was on a mission to protect three German vessels on their way from Piraeus to Rhodes on September 17 1943. The Arado was attacked by British Beaufighters and had to make a forced landing on the sea. The crew were picked up by UJ-2104. British destroyers then intercepted them, sinking the two German cargo ships and damaging UJ-2104. The survivors managed to scramble ashore onto the island of Stampalia, which was occupied by Italian troops who had recently switched their support to the allies. Consequently the survivors were handed over to the British and remained as prisoners of war until 1948.

One of the Tirpitz Arado 196s is being prepared for launch on the catapult in this shot. Although the aircraft was not easily manoeuvrable in flight its relatively heavy armament gave it the ability to fight many allied fighter aircraft. The Arado 196 was a versatile aircraft; however one of the biggest losses of these to the Germans was during the allied operations in the Dodecanese between September and November 1943. Ten Arado 196s were lost in air combat against Beaufighters of RAF Squadrons 47, 227, 252 and 603. Arado 196s had arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean as early as May 1941. There was a base at Souda Bay on Crete between July 1943 and September 1944, others operated out of Scaramanga, Volos, Kavala, Leros and Milos and there were also temporary bases at Thessaloniki and Porto Koufo. It is thought that the last Arado 196s left the Eastern Mediterranean towards the end of October 1944.

Another shot of the Tirpitz's crane in action whilst winching an Arado 196 onto the deck. The 1/BFGr 196 unit was under the command of Gerrit Wiegmink between September 1943 and April 1944. However, the remains of a Gruppenkommandeur Obertsleutnant Gerrit Wiegmink's were laid to rest in Frederikshaven cemetery on March 29 1944. This may well be the same man. His JuW34 of BFGr 196 was shot down near Sdr Tranders in Denmark on March 24 The kill was claimed by a Mosquito belonging to RAF 613 Squadron and piloted by Wing Commander Braham. Apparently the Mosquito struck the enemy aircraft's starboard wing and it caught fire and crash landed to the north of a dyke surrounding a church. The wreckage then exploded when the petrol caught fire. Onboard was not only Wiegmink, but also three other German servicemen. The JuW34 was a two-seat transport aircraft that could carry up to six passengers.

Crewmen from the Tirpitz manoeuvring an Arado 196 into position. BFGr 1/196 was formally disbanded in March 1945. It was just short of being nine years old, as it had been created in April 1936. 2/196 had an even shorter existence having been created in August 1943 and being disbanded in June 1944. 3/196 was formed in October 1943 and disbanded in March 1945. 5/196 was formed in July 1937 and was redesignated as 1/SAGr 128 in June 1943. This unit was based at Brest and at the beginning of 1944 it was re-designated once more as 8/ZGl. The second squadron belonging to this group, 2/l28, was also formed in June 1943 and operated out of Berre until August 1944 and was then transferred to Frederikshaven where it was disbanded. All of these units used the Arado 196.

The final picture in this section shows the men pushing the Arado 196 on its trolley. The crewman to the right appears to be wearing a Luftwaffe uniform. Due to the angle of this photograph it is not possible to clearly identify the aircraft itself. BFGr 196 nominally came under the command of Fliegerfuhrer Atlantik (Luftflotte 3). At the time when Rosenbaum was on the Tirpitz his ultimate commander was General Ulrich Kessler who had taken over command at the beginning of 1942 and remained in post until April 1944. Incredibly, Kessler is linked to one of the most bizarre incidents of the Second World War. Supposedly he was aboard U-234 en route to Japan with a cargo of radioactive material. U-234 had left Kiel heading for Norway on March 25 1 945 and it left Norway on April 15. On May 4 it picked up fragments of a broadcast that had announced the death of Adolf Hitler. The submarine surfaced on May 10 and received instructions to surrender. The U-boat captain, Fehler, was unconvinced but two days later he contacted the allies, aiming to surrender to the Americans by setting a course for Virginia. Two Japanese aboard reportedly committed suicide and were buried at sea. A pair of US destroyers intercepted U-234 and brought her into Portsmouth naval shipyard, on the southern boundary of Maine, where she joined three other German U-boats that had already surrendered. Although still disputed to this day, it is believed that there was half a ton of uranium oxide onboard.

CHAPTER FIVE

PRISONER OF WAR Quite how Rosenbaum ended up in a prisoner of war camp near Le Mans is unclear. What is equally perplexing is the fact that a signed card, dated 18 August 1947, has a line drawing of a German officers' prisoner of war camp at Larzac. This may infer that Rosenbaum was transferred here at some point after the war and before his release. What we do know about the prisoner of war system as far as the western allies were concerned was that they fared significantly better than those that fell into Russian hands. Before the liberation of France, Germans that had been captured post-l94l (German victories before this time had meant that the majority of Germans captured had been freed) were primarily sent to prison camps in Britain and North America. Here they received medical care, shelter and many of them worked on farms or in work gangs, for which they received pay. By late 1944 and into 1945 the western allies prisoner of war system was at breaking point. Thousands of Germans were surrendering on a daily basis, there were too few camps and the supply system was inadequate. Although the vast majority of German prisoners of war were only held for a short period after the unconditional surrender in May 1945, considerable numbers of them were still being held, notably officers and unrepentant Nazis. The two camps in question both have rather dark histories. Kriegs-gefangenenlager 203, near Le Mans in the Sarthe area, had a circumference of nearly 6km. Back in 1939 it had been a base used by Indian troops in the British army. The British built roads and barracks in a semi-circle and a water tower facing the road to Arnage (which is all that is left of the camp today). What is clear is that in June 1940 the British abandoned the camp, which then consisted of a series of corrugated iron shacks. The locals took the opportunity to loot the camp, finding food, cigarettes and clothing. The Germans took occupation of the camp on 20 June 1940 and named it initially Frontstalag Mulsanne 203. It would house 4,000 French, British and Polish soldiers. The Germans set up a barbed wire fence, extending to 4m with 5m towers located every 50m armed with a machine gun. This was a war-front prisoner of war camp and only designed to be a temporary one. After spending up to twelve months at the camp the allied prisoners of war were shipped to Germany. The prisoners of war were housed in groups of fifty in the corrugated iron shacks, straw bedding was only changed each month and food was scarce. Allied prisoners of war had vacated the camp by May 194l and it then became an internment camp for gypsies, along with some prisoners of war that had been scooped up in North Africa. The people were housed in thirty five of the 186 buildings, guarded by police and civilian guards. It was evacuated on August 3 1942 and in the October it became a transit camp for French Jews. They were kept at Mulsanne prior to being sent to Auschwitz. A large convoy left on November 6 1942 and the remaining prisoners were evacuated on May 23 1943. The camp was bombed by the allies just after the D-Day Landings in 1944 and the camp was occupied by the allies in January 1945, to become a prisoner of war camp for Germans. Soldiers from the SS, senior German officers and those that had been cut off in German pockets on the coast found themselves at the camp. Many of the prisoners were consigned to twenty-four man tents. Initially the camp was guarded by Moroccans, under nominal US command but subsequently the French took over administration. By July 1946 there were 8,555 Wehrmacht prisoners, 252 SS and forty six German generals and admirals. It had become the largest German officer prisoner of war camp in France. The winter of 1945 to 1946 was especially harsh and many of the Germans died from disease, notably dysentery.

This photograph was taken at Mulsanne. Nearby Le Mans had been liberated by the Americans in early August 1944. Mulsanne became a camp for German officers, under Lieutenant Colonel von Rawen. It boasted a large orchestra, the men played sports and there were generally good relations. On July 27 1945 the camp was passed over to the French by which stage there were 8,377 prisoners of war. The camp had its own railway station, warehouses and loading docks, as well as a church, hospital, showers, a canteen and a theatre. The camp was split into thirteen sections, or cages, each of five wooden huts and eight tents. Changes would later be made so that all of the SS officers were housed together. Due to the use of soya bean meal there were extensive cases of gastroenteritis and a number of the German prisoners were showing signs that they were severely undernourished. Discipline was poor and morale amongst the German prisoners was very low. Visits by the International Red Cross suggested that the camp was in a relatively poor state.

A handmade Christmas card, probably Christmas 1946, is seen in this photograph. The camp was significantly improved during 1946 but there were still over 8,500 German prisoners, the vast majority being officers. It was to be a botched escape attempt in mid-l947 that would see the beginning of the end of the camp. Three German officers tried to escape under the cover of darkness. Two of them were wounded and the third was killed. There was an enormous uproar and some of the German officers demonstrated carrying placards, claiming that the camp was worse than Dachau. The German senior commander was adamant that it was the duty of any officer prisoner to try to escape and it was the duty of the guards to prevent that from happening. Shortly afterwards the decision was made to break the camp down and to transfer the remaining prisoners of war to other camps, including Larzac. (Opposite, upper) This photograph is believed to have been taken at Mulsanne in November 1947, although it is likely that it was taken slightly before this date, as by mid-August 1947 Rosenbaum had been transferred to Larzac. The photograph, however, is fascinating in the sense that it features a number of key German U-boat commanders. From left to right Oberleutnant zur See Eissing, Kapitanleutnant Hansgeorg Gunter, Kapitanleutnant Horst von Schroeter, Kapitanleutnant Karl Heinz Marbach, Kapitanleutnant Alfred

Eick and Oberleutnant zur See Fritz-Heinrich Hinrichs. The three men; von Schroeter, Marbach and Eick all held the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Respectively, von Schroeter commanded U-l23 and then U-2506, Marbach U-l0l, U-29, U-28, U-953 and U-30l4, and Eick U-l76 and U-5l0. Von Schroeter had begun his naval career in October 1937 and joined the U- boats in May 1940. He managed to sink six merchant vessels and one warship. It is believed that he surrendered along with the crew of U-2506 at Bergen in Norway on May 9 1945. Marbach had begun his naval career in 1937 as well and was initially assigned to U-l0l. He was promoted to command the training school boats U-28 and U-29. In December 1942 he took command of U-953 and was awarded his cross after seven patrols. In December 1944 he took over command of U30l4 but did not see combat with this vessel. He scuttled the vessel on May 3 1945 near Neustadt, although the precise position is unknown. What we do know is that Marbach was not released as a prisoner of war until February 1948. Eick also began his naval career in 1937 and joined the U-boat service in November 1940, initially being with U-176. By May 1943 he had taken over command of U-510 and took it on patrol off Brazil. Eick then operated in the Indian Ocean and headed home in January 1945 after being supplied with oil off Madagascar by U-861. The fuel, however, was insufficient to get her back to Germany. U-510 managed to get into Saint Nazaire where she remained until the port was captured by the allies in May 1945. Eick was held as a prisoner of war until July 1947. During his U-boat career he had managed to sink eight merchant vessels and an auxiliary warship. (Opposite, lower) In 1947 many of the Germans were released or discharged and in August many officers were sent to Larzac. Larzac was considerably further south, close to Toulouse and it may be for this reason that Rosenbaum found himself even further from Germany. Larzac was actually two camps in one; Depot 161 and Depot 163. 161 held around 8,000 prisoners and 163 approximately 1,600. This is in fact a birthday card wishing Rosenbaum best wishes from his colleagues housed in Room 16. Larzac remains a French military base to this day.

Two French officers can be seen here, part of the garden and administration staff of the prison camp. By August 1946 some three-quarters of a million German servicemen were being held by the French. Some 475,000 had actually been captured by the Americans but had been transferred into French control to be used as forced labour. The French returned nearly 2,500 of them to the Americans as they were too weak to be used in the labour camps. In the Sarthe district there were some 20,000 prisoners subsisting on 900 calories a day. Over a dozen died each day and at least a quarter of them were so ill that they were unable to work. The French officer on the left is believed to be the camp commander, Rene Tabar. He was in his late thirties at the time and would go on to have an extensive military career, being involved in the conflicts in Indochina and in Algeria.

This photograph is believed to show Blocks P19 and P20 at the Larzac camp. The uniforms of the German prisoners of war had prominent PG lettering printed on them, marking them as prisonniers guerre. Many of the Germans were organised into commandos, some working in special mining camps. Civilian guards were authorised to carry weapons, but this was only practical for large businesses using the prisoners as forced labour. A large number of the Germans worked in fairly isolated rural communities. All that could be done to prevent escape was to lock the door of their room in the evenings. A premium of FF1500 was paid as a reward for the capture of any escaped German prisoners of war.

One of the blocks at the Larzac camp, which is marked, presumably showing the location of Room 16 where Rosenbaum was held as a prisoner of war. Although the camp was surrounded by barbed wire and relatively well guarded, prisoners took advantage of the poor supervision whilst out at work. There were enormous numbers of attempted escapes throughout 1946 to late 1948. The peak in the summer months of 1946 saw over 13,500 attempted escapes.