On Board the Tirpitz: A Historical Novel

By Larry R. Sherman

Merriam Press Historical Fiction HF8 (First Edition, 2014). The hero, Gerhard Traeger, a gunnery officer in the Kriegsmarine, and heroine, Elaine Fabian, a French widow, are fictional characters in a story about real ships in a real war. Gerhard is serving on the Scharnhorst when the war starts and in 1941, after a successful sortie in the Atlantic, followed by a training accident, the ship is laid up and Gerhard is transferred to the Tirpitz. Elaine follows him to Norway, where they have a charming love affair while the Tirpitz rarely ventures from the safety of the Norwegian fjords due to fuel shortages. Populated with many real and fictional characters, On Board the Tirpitz provides an interesting glimpse of life in Germany's World War II Navy. 31 photos.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312461420

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On Board the Tirpitz: A Historical Novel

On Board the Tirpitz: A Historical Novel

Larry R. Sherman

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Historical Fiction 8

Bennington, Vermont

2014

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First Edition

First published in 2014 by the Merriam Press

Copyright © 2014 by Larry R. Sherman

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

The views expressed are solely those of the author.

ISBN 9781312461420

This work was designed, produced, and published in the United States of America by the Merriam Press, 133 Elm Street, Suite 3R, Bennington VT 05201.

Book design by Ray Merriam

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WARNING

The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

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Foreword

The hero, Gerhard Traeger, and heroine, Elaine Fabian, are both fictional characters along with many Germans and non-Germans. Most of the senior German and British officers are real people; however, a good deal of liberty has been taken in conversations and exploits. If no reference is given, it is probably the author’s imagination. All ships are real. The battles and most of the losses are real.[1] Since the ships ply the Norwegian coast from Bergen to North Cape, there would be little story if only the real anchorages were always used; thus, a number of fictitious fjords have been created to make the story flow or real fjords are located in the wrong place.

The hero entered the German Navy in January, 1918 to become the gunnery officer on the Schleswig-Holstein in July, 1918. In 1934, he was transferred to the newly commissioned battle cruiser, the Scharnhorst. After a poor start, the ship participated in a very successful sortie into the Atlantic in early 1941. She needed repairs and went to Brest, France. In a training exploit, she was badly damaged and laid up for many months. During his time in Brest, Gerhard met a French widow, Elaine Fabian, and fell in love with her.

Because the Scharnhorst was laid up, Gerhard was transferred to the Battleship Tirpitz as the chief gunnery officer. The ship moved to Trondheim, Norway where it basically remained until it sank in November, 1944. Elaine followed Gerhard to Norway, and they had a charming love affair because the ship rarely left the port because of fuel shortages. They became active in the Norwegian State Church and celebrated two traditional spiritual Scandinavian Christmases. The Tirpitz was sunk in a Lancaster raid in November, 1944. Gerhard was killed. Elaine made her way back to France through Lisbon on a neutral Spanish ship. She joined a cousin in a convent in Etampes, near Paris, so she could escape abuse by the French resistance fighters but does not take vows.

Chapter 1: Gerhard Traeger

In November, 1944, Commander Gerhard Traeger lay on his bunk thinking about his time in the German navy. He had served for 26 years, and they had been good years. Now was the time to quit, especially since his ship was no longer combat worthy; furthermore, he had been wounded. He had tried to retire when he had 25 years of service, but the Captain told him that he needed his expertise. He did not submit the papers. Now that the ship would never go to sea again, he asked again for retirement. He was no longer needed, and there were several junior officers who could easily replace him since his guns may never fire again in combat. He rose and went looking for the Captain. He found him inspecting the radar facilities. When finished, he asked, Captain, I asked for retirement. When I asked you a year ago, you told me you needed my expertise. Since the ship may never be sea worthy, there are others who can fulfill my duties. What happened to the papers?

I sent them to naval headquarters with my recommendation that you be retired on November 30. It will take two to three weeks for SKL[2] to approve them. Stop into my office tomorrow, and I will see if any progress has been made. I assume you want to get out of the War?

Yes, but I also want to get married. In the past year, I have spent a great deal of time especially when recovering from my wounds with my fiancée, Elaine Fabian. As you know, she is French, and I need to retire to marry her since Germans cannot marry French women. Your predecessor was at the engagement party. My concern is where I will go. All of Europe is a mess. It looks as if the Allies will win the War, and I think the best I could do is go to Sweden. If the Navy will send my retirement check there, I can just peacefully wait for the end.

I am envious of you. I wish I could retire and follow you to Sweden to live a few years in peace, but I am still needed to manage this hunk of steel. If I am relieved of command, I will just be sent someplace else.  I doubt if they will retire me.  You have already trained Lt. Crump to take your place. Maybe I can give you a few extended leaves until a decision on your retirement is received. Check your turret, and then see me again. I might be able to give you the rest of today and tomorrow off.

Gerhard checked the turret. Lt. Crump and four seamen were there. The guns were in excellent shape. Four AA shells were stacked ready to be loaded into the big gun, As soon as the range finder issued the location, he ordered command to fire. Gerhard was satisfied, and he returned to his cabin for a short nap before seeking the Captain a second time.

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In January, 1918, Gerhard joined the Kaiserliche Marine and was sent to officer’s training camp because he had superior rating on his enlistment exams. When he arrived at camp, he was told that he had the highest exam out of all the non-university enlistees in the class. He did well in camp and earned four superior ratings. In July, he was commissioned an Ensign in the Navy. After a short leave, he was assigned to the coal burning coastal patrol vessel Schleswig-Holstein, as the junior gunnery officer in the rear gun turret (B turret). The 14,800 ton Schleswig-Holstein was completed in 1908. Since he and six other crew members were new appointees to the Schleswig-Holstein, his first cruise was a training mission. He learned to read and transmit fire control orders from the ship’s nerve center. The Kaiserliche Marine was stationed in Headland, and the Schleswig-Holstein patrolled the Baltic coast trying to suppress smuggling or Allied spy ships. Since the Schleswig-Holstein was a pre-dreadnought[3] ship of the line, she was incapable in participating in a fight with modern battle cruisers; thus, she spent the whole war patrolling the Baltic Coast. The Schleswig-Holstein confronted a few Russian ships, but it was before Gerhard entered the officer corps. Since Russia surrendered early in 1918, Gerhard’s gun crew never fired a shot in combat during the last five months of the War. He spent many hours at his battle station and watched carefully that the enlisted men did not load the guns until a battle order was issued. This almost never occurred, and the guns needed to be unloaded at the end of each vigil.

The Navy had several mutinies during 1918. Fortunately for Gerhard and other officers on the Schleswig-Holstein, she was at sea during all but one of the mutinies and was not affected even though several enlisted men jumped ship when it was in dock. None of the mutineers ever tried to come on board the ship, but twice they paraded on the dock in front of the ship carrying signs accusing the Captain/Navy of denying them the right to better facilities. A compromise was arranged between the top naval officers and the mutineers. The Navy agreed that all food rations would be the same for both officers and enlisted men. This was one of the causes for low morale among the enlisted men. Other concessions were made, but they meant little to Gerhard. With the standardizing of the food, many of the small problems on board disappeared. When Germany surrendered in November, 1918, the Schleswig-Holstein was kept on active duty patrolling the same coastal area that it had done during the war. The navy was looked upon very unfavorably after the War, and his parents considered it a bad time for Gerhard to stay on a pre-dreadnought ship.

Early in 1919, the total naval manpower was reduced to 15,000 men at all levels. Gerhard requested peace time duty on the ship; it was granted because his service was among the best for officers on his ship. Only good men were kept, and they were thoroughly interviewed by the former boatswain from the Kaiser’s yacht. His parents asked him why he stayed in the Navy instead of coming home to work in his Father’s machine shop. He wrote, My Grandfather, Otto, was in the Imperial Navy until he was offered the command in 1903 as Captain of a merchant ship. He would probably still be a ship Captain if he had not gone down with his ship during the hurricane of 1913. The sea is in our family’s blood. Dad never wanted to be a seaman, but for centuries all our ancestors went to sea. I am just following the family tradition. Although his parents did not like his preference, they accepted the fact that he wanted to be a naval officer.

As an Ensign, Gerhard had all the privileges of an officer, but since he had no seniority, his duties were primarily those that the other officers did not want. Since the rear turret of the Schleswig-Holstein contained two 28 cm (11 inch) guns, most of his duties were routine. Smuggling was a real problem, so the ship was on constant duty trying to intercepting illegal ships. The only serious confrontation was during the inflationary period of 1922-23. Smuggling was rampant. Germans were trying to move gold and silver in and out of the country. The Captain did order the firing a few warning shots over ships that would not halt when given the signal to allow a boarding party to inspect the ship. Most of the time Schleswig-Holstein fired 40 mm shells across the bow of the smuggler’s ships, and the latter usually allowed a boarding party to inspect the outlaw ship. Twice the Schleswig-Holstein was hit by 20 mm shells that the smugglers fired upon the patrol boat. In both cases, the Captain ordered ‘open fire’ with the 28 cm guns, and they blew the smugglers out of the water. They only recovered three men in the two engagements, and all were badly injured. One died before they could get him to a hospital in port. In both cases where smuggler’s ships were destroyed, Gerhard’s guns did not participate because they operated in the rear direction. All of these combat encounters were fulfilled by the forward gun (A turret).[4]

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Twice during the 1920s the Schleswig-Holstein was designated to be scrapped, but in both cases there were no plans to replace it since the Versailles treaty (WW I peace treaty) forbade building ships of more than 10,000 tons. Instead, the Schleswig-Holstein was updated each time. One time four torpedo tubes were added, her boilers were converted to oil, and a funnel was removed. Her secondary armaments were converted to 5.9 inch guns. She was often used as a training ship and made a number of visits to foreign ports in Northern Europe.

In the 1920s, there was also the fear that a war might break out with Poland. Because of the establishment of the Polish Corridor, East Prussia was cut off from the rest of Germany and the Schleswig-Holstein made communication trips between the German Baltic ports and East Prussia. She often transported troops since it was the only way they could move between the split country. If a conflict broke out, the Schleswig-Holstein was given orders to attack Gdynia, the port built in the Polish Corridor, where the new nation stationed its growing naval fleet. Gdynia was thought to have been built for the interruption of communications with East Prussia, and the Schleswig-Holstein made many of her trips with the men standing at their battle stations. The cruises to and from East Prussia were always made just outside the three mile territorial limit. Gerhard assumed this was to show Poland that any threatening movement would be met with force. Occasionally, a Polish ship would tail the Schleswig-Holstein to check that she stayed in international waters. The Polish ships were always within range of the rear gun. Gerhard felt that they may be trying to create an incident. The tension was high, but Gerhard never had his men load their guns. If the order came to fire, the crew was ready and could do so in 30 seconds. Fortunately, no incidents ever occurred.

Although the Schleswig-Holstein sometimes patrolled the North Sea, her orders were to move as fast as possible to the Baltic if any naval action was foreseen. The local army was ordered to defend any challenges to the North Sea coast. There was also the fear that France might send some of her capital ships into the Baltic Sea if the tensions with Poland became serious. Fortunately, no conflicts occurred. By the end of the 1920s the economy had improved, and peaceful agreements were reached with Poland and France. There was little to do at this point in time except check incoming ship papers and make friendly visits to Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russian Baltic Sea ports.

Gerhard slowly advanced in rank in the peace time Navy. In 1922, he became the senior gunnery officer of the B turret and was promoted to lieutenant. Most of his operations were routine testing and training of his men. He had an excellent rapport with the enlisted men and his guns earned many citations for their speed and accuracy trials. He was very satisfied with his personal activities, but hoped he would eventually have more duties than being on a ship that was designated to patrol the German coast.

Late in 1928, the Schleswig-Holstein chased an unidentified ship into Dutch waters and met a Dutch gun boat.  A number of signals were exchanged and the Dutch granted the Schleswig-Holstein permission to enter port but did not allow it to board the unidentified ship. The Captain of the Schleswig-Holstein asked the crew to go ashore and try to identify the ship that they had chased; however, the unidentified ship left the port before any of the men could find it and determine its name and point of registration. Since it was a suspicious ship but had not broken any international laws, the Schleswig-Holstein returned to its German home port without filing an incident report. During the entire chase and international confrontation, Gerhard stood by his gun carefully listening to see if there would be an engagement, or if the incident would be classed as a misunderstanding, which it was.

The Schleswig-Holstein often entered Swedish ports for routine visits or occasionally after it was converted to oil to obtain fuel. The Swedes always had oil and freely sold it to the Germans. If there were any tensions over filling the fuel tanks at Swedish docks, Gerhard was not aware of it. The visits gave Gerhard the opportunity to see many of the cultural and historic cities in the country. During one stay in Stockholm, he had a three day leave and traveled the back roads in central Sweden. By 1930, he obtained a driver’s license and could rent a car when the ship was in a foreign port.

Each year Gerhard had a one month leave and went home to Reichenhausen in Northern Bavaria. He spent most of his time with his family. When he was not at home, he spent most of his leave time traveling and sightseeing in Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. He learned to identify wine from different areas of Germany and Switzerland.

Even though he saw many of the girls whom he had known in school, he did not date any since none were Protestants. He knew there would be family disagreements if he dated a Catholic. His parents were strong Evangelicals and sometimes had difficulties because Bavaria was a Catholic state that observed all the major Catholic Holy Days. This meant that his Father had to close his machine shop for their Holy Days but could not do so for the Protestant religious festivals. It occasionally produced bad feeling between his family and the local government officials. Gerhard tried to avoid these squabble. However, he had to take his leaves when the Captain felt he did not need a gunnery officer. He found himself involved in the religious disagreements even though he wanted to stay clear of them. He attended Protestant services whenever the ship was in port. There was no chaplain on the ship so there were almost no religious services at all. What few services that were held on major national religious holidays, Christmas, Easter, and Whitsunday, were led by the Captain.

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When the German Navy started to rebuild its capital ships in 1934, it required experienced officers; Gerhard was promoted to lieutenant commander and transferred to the newly commissioned Scharnhorst (designated as Panzerschiff D). It was named for a WW I armored cruiser. The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were launched at the same time; they displaced 38,100 tons fully loaded. The new ships were among the largest ships that the German Navy had commissioned since the end of WW I. Each had a contingent of 1800 men, had nine 11 inch guns, twelve 5.9 inch guns, and fourteen 4.1 inch guns, plus three twin 105 mm AA guns in mid-ship, sixteen 37 mm, and ten 20 mm antiaircraft guns in open turrets. The ships had a belt armor of 12 inches and a deck armor of 4 inches. The new ships weighed twice as much as the Schleswig-Holstein and could move at a maximum speed of 32 knots (34 mph) under good conditions. The older shore patrol vessel’s maximum speed was 21 knots. The ships had three range finders located in armored cupolas next to the guns. There were engine design flaws that showed up in many of its engagements. The engines had been tested on the Kaiser’s yacht, Grill, and were too small for the duty they had to perform on the new battle cruisers. At one time during the War, eleven destroyers were in dock for engine reconditioning. The size was not the only fault.[6] When radar was installed on the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, it was never modified during the life of the ships since the ships needed a major overhaul to change more than very minor parts to the radar system.

After the transfer, Gerhard assumed the duties of chief gunnery officer in the C Turret, the rear turret. He was responsible for training the gunnery crews and the efficiency of the gunnery on the entire ship and not just his own turret. He had to learn a great deal about changes in naval gunfire. The Schleswig-Holstein became a training ship in the mid-1930s and Gerhard was delighted to be transferred to a battle cruiser rather than remaining on a training ship. He had had an excellent camaraderie with the Captain on the Schleswig-Holstein and tried to set the same friendly relationship with Captain Cliaz. But the latter was aloof, and the rapport was not reestablished until Kurt Hoffman became the Captain in September, 1939.[6] They became professional friends which lasted as long as Gerhard was on the ship.

The Scharnhorst had an Evangelical chaplain, Lt. Benedict Moritz. The chaplain held services every Sunday morning when the ship was in harbor or on training missions. He even held them when the ship was on a combat sortie where only a minimum number of men were needed to man the essential battle stations. He discovered that Gerhard had a deep knowledge of the Lutheran liturgy and had read many of Martin Luther’s books. Gerhard and he became good