{"id":71619,"date":"2023-12-12T09:00:53","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T15:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/?p=71619"},"modified":"2023-12-12T06:37:32","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T12:37:32","slug":"know-your-ww2-history-the-failed-pledge-that-sunk-the-bismarck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/12\/know-your-ww2-history-the-failed-pledge-that-sunk-the-bismarck\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Your WW2 History: The Failed Pledge that Sunk the Bismarck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

The Failed Pledge that Sunk the Bismarck<\/a><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

The U-boat\u2019s captain was mischievous as he put his recently launched U-556 through its trials in the Baltic.<\/h2>\n

It was the winter of 1941 and from his point of view,, it had been a good war. Britain\u2019s 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.<\/h2>\n

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.<\/h2>\n

The warship was also carrying out exercises when it received a signal from the minuscule 500-ton U-556: \u2018personal from captain to captain. A fine ship you have there.\u2019<\/h2>\n

Wohlfarth\u2019s impertinence did not go down too well with the commander of the Bismarck.\u00a0 He signaled back, \u2018From commander to captain; report the name of the commanding officer.\u2019<\/h2>\n

\u2018Oh, Lord!\u2019 exclaimed Captain Wohlfarth. \u2018Now I\u2019ve done it.\u2019 He promptly signaled back. \u2018From captain to captain \u2013 you try to do this!\u2019\u00a0 Within moments the skipper submerged his U-boat below the waves.<\/h2>\n

Lt. Commander Wohlfarth, wishing to make amends for his insolence, had meanwhile drawn up a \u2018Certificate of God Fatherhood\u2019 diploma. The U-556 pledged itself to act as a \u2018godfather\u2019 to the battleship Bismarck.<\/h2>\n

He then personally called on the battleship\u2019s commander where, amidst laughter, the document was received with good grace.<\/h2>\n

The special relationship between the world\u2019s 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: \u2018Personal from captain to captain.\u00a0 When you follow me, don\u2019t worry.\u00a0 I will see that you come to no harm.\u2019<\/h2>\n

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.<\/h2>\n

RTWT.<\/a><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Failed Pledge that Sunk the Bismarck   The U-boat\u2019s 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\u2019s merchant shipping convoys ensured the survival of Bolshevik Russia. These…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[475,476,478,479,6096,1898,1899],"tags":[7666,16904,16903,3584,1902],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71619"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71621,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71619\/revisions\/71621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}