Helmuth Brinkmann
| Helmuth Brinkmann | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 12 March 1895 |
| Died | 26 September 1983 (aged 88) |
| Allegiance |
 German Empire Weimar Republic Nazi Germany
|
| Service/branch |
 Kaiserliche Marine Reichsmarine Kriegsmarine
|
| Years of service | 1913–45 |
| Rank | Vizeadmiral |
| Unit |
SMS Vineta SMS Kaiser Friedrich III SMS Kaiser Karl der Grosse SMS Regensburg Cruiser Königsberg |
| Commands held |
Aviso Grille Heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen |
| Battles/wars |
World War II |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross |
Helmuth Brinkmann (12 March 1895 – 26 September 1983) was a Vizeadmiral in the Kriegsmarine during World War II who captained the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Prior to World War II he commanded the aviso Grille, Adolf Hitler's state yacht. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Brinkmann surrendered to British troops in 1945 and was held until 1947.
The goal of Operation Rheinübung (Rhine Exercise) was for Prinz Eugen and the battleship Bismarck, under the command of Brinkmann's Crew 1913 classmate Captain Ernst Lindemann, to break into the Atlantic and attack Allied shipping. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder's orders to the task force commander, Admiral Günther Lütjens, the Chief of Fleet aboard the Bismarck, were that "the objective of the Bismarck is not to defeat enemies of equal strength, but to tie them down in a delaying action, while preserving combat capacity as much as possible, so as to allow Prinz Eugen to get at the merchant ships in the convoy" and "The primary target in this operation is the enemy's merchant shipping; enemy warships will be engaged only when that objective makes it necessary and it can be done without excessive risk."
At 02:00 on 19 May 1941, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen left Gotenhafen and proceeded through the Baltic Sea and out towards the Atlantic. Unknown to Lütjens, the British had intercepted enough signals to infer that a German naval operation might occur in the area. The German task force was first encountered by the Swedish seaplane-cruiser Gotland on 20 May heading north-west, past Göteborg. The British Admiralty was informed through a Norwegian officer in Stockholm who had learned of the sighting from a Swedish military intelligence source. Alerted by this report, British Admiralty requested air reconnaissance of the Norwegian coast. A Spitfire reconnaissance aircraft found and photographed the German task force in the Grimstad fjord (60°19.49′N 5°14.48′E / 60.32483°N 5.24133°E), near Bergen, at 13:15 on 21 May. On the evening of 23 May at 19:22, the German force was detected by the heavy cruisers HMS Suffolk and HMS Norfolk that had been patrolling the Denmark Strait in the expectation of a German breakout. Bismarck fired five salvos without scoring a direct hit. The heavily outgunned British cruisers retired to a safe distance and shadowed the enemy until their own heavy units could draw closer. However, Bismarck's forward radar had failed as a result of vibration from the heavy guns firing during this skirmish, and Lütjens was obliged to order Prinz Eugen to move ahead of Bismarck in order to provide the squadron with forward radar coverage.
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