Ernst Lindemann

Otto Ernst Lindemann (28 March 1894 – 27 May 1941) was a German Kapitän zur See (naval captain). He was the only commander of the battleship Bismarck during its eight months of service in World War II. Lindemann joined the German Imperial Navy (German: Kaiserliche Marine) in 1913, and after his basic military training, served on a number of warships during World War I as a wireless telegraphy officer. On board SMS Bayern, he participated in Operation Albion in 1917. After World War I, he served in various staff and naval gunnery training positions. One year after the outbreak of World War II, he was appointed commander of the battleship Bismarck, at the time the largest warship in commission anywhere in the world and the pride of the Kriegsmarine (Nazi Germany's navy). In May 1941, Lindemann commanded Bismarck during Operation Rheinübung. Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen formed a task force under the command of Admiral Günther Lütjens on board Bismarck. Orders were to break out of their base in German-occupied Poland and attack British merchant shipping lanes in the Atlantic Ocean. The task force's first major engagement was the Battle of the Denmark Strait, which resulted in the sinking of HMS Hood. Less than a week later, on 27 May, Lindemann and most of his crew died in Bismarck's last battle. He was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes), at the time the second highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany, the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross having been instituted on 3 June 1940. The medal was presented to his widow, Hildegard, on 6 January 1942.