My previous forum name was a nickname I used while hanging out with some Icelanders. Then my account died and this I selected this handle from among my historical/engineering interests.
Y'know, since it's Memorial Day weekend, I'll give you a more complete story.
(In honor of the men that were
there.)
While in highschool I happened to study German, and our teacher handed out pen-pal addresses at the end of our last year, and I ended up writing and receiving letters and a Christmas card or two from Baron von Mullenheim-Rechberg, who was the senior surviving officer of DKM battlecruiser
Bismarck. We exchanged correspondence till about 1992. I saved many of these letters for history. During that time when his memoirs were translated and published in English ('Battleship Bismarck, a Survivor's Story,' US Naval Institute Press) I sent him a copy which he signed to me. It is in my library. Anyways, from that I had cultivated an interest in some of the other German navy ships of WW2 and WWI. He was chief gunnery officer.
For her size and class, DKM
Prinz Eugen was an extremely tough-built heavy cruiser. She operated alongside DKM
Bismarck when they first contacted RN ships
Norfolk, Suffolk, Prince of Wales, and flagship
Hood.* In a maneuvering engagement lasting only a half-hour
Bismarck fired two salvos, the second of which, only six minutes into the battle, caused the RN
Hood to explode completely. 2000 men lost, and 3 survivors.
Bismarck took some damage from the other English vessels, but caused great damage to RN
Prince of Wales. About 10 years ago I met a man who served aboard
Prince of Wales during this action, and I'll tell about what he saw from her decks, some other time and place.
*There is a slight chance that the shell which blew up the
Hood was actually fired from the
Prinz Eugen, as both vessels were exchanging ranging data and triangulation by means of their auxiliary fire directors. (This isn't SF anime space-war terminology, this is real, no-computers, precision optical work, with slide rules and stuff...)
DKM
Prinz Eugen was detached from DKM
Bismark after this engagement, survived the war, and was taken by the USN. They landed (as in, took off and plopped ashore) one of her main turrets to study its design, then towed her to the Bikini Atoll, where in the company of other German ships and also some surviving Japanese vessels, the US dropped several atomic bombs on the ships just to see what would happen (what a WASTE!) The tough old
Eugen withstood TWO atomic bombs and ended up leaking but still afloat. With her metal now too radioactive to repair the leaks, she was towed to Kwajalein Atoll and capsized on 22 December 1946 over Enubuj reef, where she remains to this day (8°45'9.49"N 167°40'59.60"E).
More historical info here:
http://www.kbismarck.com/peugen.html The painting I use as the avatar is one I found on the Internet, and it nicely shows the false bow and bow wave created in paint, The fo'ard part of the bow was painted a darker grey. This image creates an optical illusion intended to throw off speed and lead calculations for enemies trying to sight her with binoculars or optical range finders (How far ahead do you have to lead the vessel to hit it with a shell?) The larger DKM
Bismarck had false bows, wakes and false turrets, all done in paint.
- G
