The U-boat’s captain was mischievous as he put his recently launched U-556 through its trials in the Baltic.
It was the winter of 1941 and from his point of view,, it had been a good war. Britain’s merchant shipping convoys ensured the survival of Bolshevik Russia. These sitting duck fleets plunged through the Arctic waters towards Soviet Murmansk on the Barents Sea.
Across the darkening windswept waves of the Baltic Sea, the commander could clearly make out the superstructure of the German battleship Bismarck. At 40,000 tons it was the latest and largest battleship in the world.
The warship was also carrying out exercises when it received a signal from the minuscule 500-ton U-556: ‘personal from captain to captain. A fine ship you have there.’
Wohlfarth’s impertinence did not go down too well with the commander of the Bismarck. He signaled back, ‘From commander to captain; report the name of the commanding officer.’
‘Oh, Lord!’ exclaimed Captain Wohlfarth. ‘Now I’ve done it.’ He promptly signaled back. ‘From captain to captain – you try to do this!’ Within moments the skipper submerged his U-boat below the waves.
Lt. Commander Wohlfarth, wishing to make amends for his insolence, had meanwhile drawn up a ‘Certificate of God Fatherhood’ diploma. The U-556 pledged itself to act as a ‘godfather’ to the battleship Bismarck.
He then personally called on the battleship’s commander where, amidst laughter, the document was received with good grace.
The special relationship between the world’s most formidable battleship and the diminutive submarine was born. When the U-556 submarine slipped out of the harbor for its maiden voyage, Captain Wohlfarth signaled again to the Bismarck: ‘Personal from captain to captain. When you follow me, don’t worry. I will see that you come to no harm.’
It was a pledge that the U-556 captain would bitterly regret when, months later, fate caused him to fail as a godparent to the great German battleship.
