Adalbert Schneider (naval officer)

Adalbert Schneider (born March 10, 1904 in Halle , Germany ; † May 27, 1941 in the North Atlantic , position 48 ° 10 ′  N , 16 ° 12 ′  W ) was a German naval officer , most recently corvette captain and 1st artillery officer of the battleship Bismarck . The sinking of the British battle cruiser Hood has been attributed to him. Schneider fell a few days later when the Bismarck was sunk by a direct artillery hit.

Life

Family and education

Adalbert Schneider was the son of the bank director Phillip Schneider and his wife Emilie, nee Schroeter. After successfully completing his Abitur, the young man decided to join the Reichsmarine at the age of 18 as a sea officer candidate. After passing the entrance examination, he came to the 3rd Company of the Coastal Defense Division III in Friedrichsort on March 30, 1922, in order to complete his basic infantry training there. Afterwards Schneider was on October 4th of the same year for six months on the liner Hannover for practical on-board training. From October 18-22, 1922, the ship paid a visit to the Swedish capital Stockholm. After that, Schneider was on the sailing training ship Niobe until June 30, 1923 . On July 1, 1923, he was transferred to the cruiser Berlin to sail with this ship in Spanish waters for two months in early 1924. At the end of March Schneider came to the Mürwik Naval School to take the ensign examination. After passing the exam, he went to school for a year. Afterwards, Ensign zur See Schneider went through various courses as part of his training. He was taught torpedo, intelligence and blocking at the relevant schools. An infantry and an artillery course followed. On January 1, 1926 Schneider was again on the liner Hanover. On board the ship, he took part in a trip to the Mediterranean and Spanish waters in the spring. In summer Helsingfors and Skagen were called.

Military career in the Reichsmarine

With his appointment as lieutenant at sea, Schneider was transferred to the ship of the line Schleswig-Holstein on October 1, 1926 as a watch and division lieutenant . From March 30 to June 14, 1927, the ship undertook a long training voyage in Spanish and Portuguese waters. As part of the autumn maneuvers, Reich President v. Hindenburg on Schleswig-Holstein, the fleet flagship. Schneider now specialized more and more in artillery within his career. From September 27, 1927 to September 25, 1929 he commuted back and forth between the IV Naval Artillery Department, the Coastal Artillery School and the Ship Artillery School. He took part in anti-aircraft courses as well as training in shooting up to medium caliber. In addition, Oberleutnant zur See (since July 1, 1928) Schneider was a platoon and company officer in the IV Marine Artillery Division and had to prove whether he was able to lead men. His assessments from this time show him as an officer with a special disposition for the artillery. Quick perception, healthy artillery instinct and lively interest set him apart. He was also considered a quiet but energetic officer who treated his subordinates correctly and enjoyed their full confidence. On September 26, 1929 Schneider was transferred to a light unit, the new torpedo boat Tiger , as a guard, division and artillery officer for a change. From April 2 to June 18, 1930, the boat took part in the international voyage of the fleet in Spanish and Portuguese waters. In early 1931 Schneider was injured in the eye and could not take part in the service. The injury was so severe that he went to the eye clinic in Halle for six months for treatment. From June he was in the station command in Wilhelmshaven for two months, then from September 1 to 22, 1931 as an officer on watch on the fishing protection boat Ziethen . To change positions in autumn he came again to the 2nd torpedo boat flotilla, this time for two years as 1st officer on watch on the torpedo boat Seeadler . In 1932 the boat called Stockholm, but Helsinki and Riga were also visited. No command is recorded in Schneider's personnel files for the period from September 28, 1933 to September 24, 1934.

Navy

Tower Anton (Tower A) the Bismarck

Bismarck firing at the battleship Prince of Wales on May 24, 1941

He was then transferred to the ironclad Germany as an artillery officer for two years . As early as October, the ship drove to Scotland for a few days to then go to the shipyard. In March of the following year, Germany left for endurance testing of its diesel engines in Brazil, Trinidad and Aruba. In August, as part of the naval artillery shooting , Hitler, von Blomberg , Göring and Admiral Raeder were on board. From October 19 to November 9, the ironclad cruised in the Atlantic. In 1936 Schneider took part in the inauguration of the naval memorial in Laboe on Germany and in the naval parade before Hitler. At the beginning of June there was a trip to the Biscay, the Irish Sea to Scotland. Copenhagen was visited from June 19-24. Kapitänleutnant (since October 1st, 1934) Schneider left the ship on July 5th to take part in a course (heavy caliber) for artillery officers at the ship artillery school in Kiel. He returned to his ship on September 20 as the best in his course. But after just a few days he was transferred to the ship artillery school as a teacher on October 1, and on October 1, 1937, he became first artillery officer on the light cruiser Nuremberg . In June 1938 the cruiser took part in a training trip to Norway in order to attend the launch of the Prinz Eugen in Kiel in August . Furthermore, Nuremberg was then at the naval parade in front of the Hungarian ruler v. Horthy and Hitler involved, also in the autumn exercises. Korvettenkapitän (since August 1, 1938) Schneider left the ship on November 2, 1938, to become a consultant in the naval and training department of the Navy High Command a day later. On June 7, 1940, he was sent to Hamburg for building instruction. The newest German battleship Bismarck has just been completed at the Blohm & Voss shipyard .

Battleship Bismarck

There he was appointed 1st artillery officer on August 24, 1940. In January 1941, Adalbert Schneider and his commander Lindemann took part in a simulation game on board the Tirpitz . Its commander Karl Topp demonstrated the impossibility of an Atlantic breakthrough for heavy German surface units. After installing the fire control systems in the spring of 1941, Schneider took part in the Rhine exercise company. In the course of this, the combat group Bismarck / Prinz Eugen under their fleet chief Günther Lütjens got into a sea battle in the Denmark Strait on May 24, 1941 . In the following artillery battle between Bismarck / Prinz Eugen and the British ships Hood / Prince of Wales, Schneider was responsible for fire control of the Bismarck . Following his fire control, the Bismarck's artillery succeeded in sinking the Hood within a few minutes when a shell hit the Hood's main ammunition chamber and tore the ship apart. 1,418 British seafarers died.

Knight's Cross and Death

While British destroyers circled Bismarck and attacked with torpedoes on the night of May 26-27, 1941, at 02:17 a.m., the fleet chief applied for the knight's cross to be awarded to Corvette Captain Schneider for sinking the Hood. The Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Grand Admiral Raeder, then contacted Hitler. He answered the request for the award of the high honor with only a nod of the head. At 3:51 am on May 27, 1941, Raeder radioed Schneider: “The Führer has awarded you the battle cruiser Hood Knight's Cross for sinking. Congratulations. "Schneider is likely during the final battle of the Bismarck on May 27, 1941, the British naval units at 09:02 like when a grenade of HMS Norfolk hit the main artillery control console. Schneider was also the holder of the Fleet War Badge , the Iron Cross II and I Class, both awarded on July 30, 1940, and the Hungarian Order of Merit, awarded on August 20, 1938 . The award of the order took place in connection with the celebrations for the launch of the Prinz Eugen , at which the Hungarian ruler Miklós Horthy and Hitler were present. Adalbert Schneider left a wife and three daughters. News of his death and the award of the Knight's Cross reached his family on the same day.

literature

• Jochen Brennecke "Battleship Bismarck", 3rd improved, expanded edition, Herford 1960
• Manfred Dörr: The knight's cross bearers of the surface forces of the navy . Volume 2: L-Z. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1996, ISBN 3-7648-2498-0 .
• Jens Grützner: Sea captain Ernst Lindemann, the Bismarck commander (1894–1941). VDM Heinz Nickel , Zweibrücken 2010, ISBN 978-3-86619-047-4 .
• Jens Grützner, good, fast! , in: SCHIFF Classic, magazine for shipping and marine history eV of the DGSM, issue 1/2019.
• Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz "The German Warships", Ratingen without year
• Burkard Freiherr von Müllenheim-Rechberg "Battleship Bismarck", 3rd edition, Frankfurt / M .; Berlin 1992
• Personal file Adalbert Schneider

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Personal file Adalbert Schneider
2. ↑ Personal file Adalbert Schneider
3. ^ Rolf Johannesson "Officer in Critical Times", Herford and Bonn 1989, page 50
4. ^ Paul Schmalenbach: Schwerer Kreuzer Prinz Eugen, Heyne Verlag, 1978, p. 148.
5. ↑ Jochen Brennecke "Battleship Bismarck", 3rd improved, expanded edition, Herford 1960, page 178 and page 229
6. ^ Robert Ballard: Bismarck: Germany's Greatest Battleship gives up its secrets. Madison Publishing, Toronto 1990, ISBN 0-7858-2205-4 , p. 126.
7. Jump up ↑ Robert Jackson: The Bismarck: Weapons of War. Spellmount, London 2002, ISBN 1-86227-173-9 , p. 91.
8. ↑ Manfred Dörr: The knight's cross bearers of the surface forces of the navy . Volume 2: L-Z. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1996, pp. 213-214.
9. ↑ Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present. Volume 5: Ship biographies from Kaiser to Lütjens. Mundus Verlag, Ratingen o. J. (Approved licensed edition Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg, approx. 1990), p. 240.