Günther Lütjens

Günther Lutjens (Wiesbaden, Germany, May 25, 1889 - Atlantic May 27, 1941) was a German sailor with an outstanding career in the Kriegsmarine. A man of distinguished bearing and a very reserved and intelligent character, he was highly appreciated by Grand Admiral Raeder for his professionalism. He led the Berlin and Rhine Exercises during 1941, the latter aboard the battleship Bismarck, where he perished in combat.

Biography and naval career

He was born in Wiesbaden, his father was a locomotive trader who traveled constantly between India and Holland. Since childhood, Lutjens proved to be diligent and reserved.

He joined the Imperial German Navy in April 1907 as a cadet, being assigned to the protected cruiser SMS Freya and in 1909 he was assigned to the cruiser SMS Elsaß. From 1910 to 1913 he served on the battleship SMS König Wilhelm, specializing in torpedoes. He later became commander of the torpedo boat flotilla.

First World War

During the First World War he had an outstanding performance by attacking the port of Flanders and Dunkirk, on March 23, 1917. On May 19 of that year he attacked four French destroyers in his own port with 5 torpedo boats, earning fame fearless and brave."

Interwars

After the Great War, the Imperial German Navy ceased to exist and Lutjens went on to work in the merchant navy until 1923, when Lütjens rejoined the Reichsmarine of the Weimar Republic as commander of the 3rd Torpedo Boat Flotilla in Swinemünde until 1931. He reached the rank of Captain in 1933, and was given command of the light cruiser Karlsruhe. From January to October 1933 he conducted naval and training exercises in that unit.

Between 1934 and June 1935, aboard the cruise ship Karlsruhe, he made a representative cruise through American countries, crossing the Strait of Magellan, and visited several Latin ports, one of them being Valparaíso, Chile, where in addition to public events, you can share with relatives living in the city of Viña del Mar in that country, finally the journey culminated in Vancouver, Canada.

In November 1938, Lütjens opposed the anti-Semitic persecution unleashed by Kristallnacht and made his protest formally in writing to the Kriegsmarine High Command.

He had a rapid rise, occupying the positions of Chief of the Naval Staff of the Northern Group in Wilhelmshaven in 1936, in 1940 he was promoted to Admiral and held the position of Chief of Fleet.

World War II

In early 1941, he achieved his greatest successes in Operation Berlin, during which he sank 22 Allied merchant ships (600,000 t) under the command of the heavy cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst His action was a severe blow to England's economy. He replaced Admiral Wilhelm Marschall as squadron admiral (Flottenchef) in 1941. On April 5, 1941, he assumed the position of Squadron Admiral for Operation Rheinübung aboard the battleship Bismarck. Upon taking office, he maintained a non-communicative policy with his commander Ernst Lindemann, which would bring serious operational misalignments between both officers.

During the Battle of the Denmark Strait, on May 24, 1941, Lütjens did not give the order to open fire while the enemy forces approached him with cannon fire and forked him with adjustment shots; Lindemann did it instead and finally in the sixth broadside the Bismarck sank the battlecruiser HMS Hood, pride of the British navy. Lütjens did not allow his commander, Ernst Lindemann, to finish off the ill-fated battleship Prince of Wales, relying on the damage received and Erich Raeder's rigid instruction to only accept battle only if it was strictly necessary, so he held a bitter discussion in the bridge that further distanced both sailors to the point of not speaking or looking at each other.

In view of the damage received by the more precise cannonade of HMS Prince of Wales, Lütjens decided to abort the exercise and take the battleship to the port of St. Nazaire. To do this he got rid of her pursuers in a skillful and remarkable maneuver, highlighting the cruiser Prinz Eugen to the west.

Believing that the Bismarck was still subject to radar pursuit (the Bismarck could pick up radar signals) and that it had not managed to escape from the enemy, Lütjens committed a very serious tactical error that would condemn the Bismarck by radiating a series of intermittent messages reporting on more than one occasion the sinking of the HMS Hood as a personal victory and requesting cover.

These messages were captured by British radio direction finders, who sent the Home Fleet to the area where the Bismarck was supposed to be (due to a coordinate calculation error, the location was initially reported of the German battleship far from the radio direction finding quadrant, but this was corrected in time).

It was discovered by a Catalina PBY, and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal launched its Fairey Swordfish torpedo boats where in a reckless attack it was damaged in the rudder mechanism, making the Bismarck an unmanageable ship. After unsuccessful attempts to repair the rudder and knowing that the end is yet to come, Lindemann withdrew from the bridge, Lütjens transmitted over the loudspeakers a posthumous message that only caused the dejection of the crew's combative morale and in turn decided to broadcast his posthumous message: We will fight until the last grenade. During the final battle of Bismarck, on May 27, 1941, Lütjens died instantly on the armored combat bridge, as a result of a 16-inch direct hit from HMS Rodney, which was less than 2,700 m away., which completely penetrated the thick steel in the front and middle of the armored battle tower, exploding inside, killing everyone inside, before the battleship sank. The heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen would manage to reach Brest unscathed.

Semblances

Lütjens had a reputation for being very hard-working, immutable, efficient and inflexible with Navy doctrine. Furthermore, his character was extremely serious, with a serious appearance and a certain degree of fatalism, which earned him the nickname from his peers as 'the black devil'. The sailors considered him a very dominant officer, little considerate and inflexible in carrying out the orders he issued.

He maintained a great distance on board the Bismarck from his commander Ernst Lindemann, whom he considered a simple subordinate, a situation that would bring serious operational and communication misalignments between both sailors that would contribute to the end of the battleship.

Personal life

Lütjens married Margarete Backenköhler, daughter of the Geheimen Sanitätsrat ('Private Councilor for Hygiene', honorary title awarded to a distinguished doctor) Dr. Gerhard Backenköhler, in the summer of 1929. She was 27 years old. at the time of the wedding and was the sister of Otto Backenköhler. Admiral Otto Backenköhler was Lütjens' chief of staff in fleet command (October 24, 1939 – July 31, 1940). A year later, his first child, Gerhard, was born on August 31, 1930 in Swinemünde. The marriage produced a second son, named Günther in honor of his father, on August 28, 1932 in Berlin. His daughter Annemarie was born on August 27, 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. Less than a month after Lütjens' death, his wife gave birth to his fourth child, Peter. Lütjens had descendants who emigrated to the South American country, Chile, Viña del Mar.

Legacy

The German post-war navy, the Bundesmarine, baptized the first missile destroyer (1969-2003), one of three of the modified Charles F. Adams class, as Admiral Lütjens. It had descendants who currently live in Chile.