Vizeadmiral Helmuth Brinkmann

SOME OF THE PRISONERS HELD AT
SPECIAL CAMP 11

NAME: Vizeadmiral Helmuth Brinkmann

PW NO: A938991

RANK: Vizeadmiral

CAPTURED: Northern Germany

DATE: 26th May 1945

PERSONAL

DATE OF BIRTH: 12 March 1895

PLACE OF BIRTH: Lübeck

DATE OF DEATH: 26 September 1983

PLACE OF DEATH: Dießen / Bayern

NATIONALITY: German

RELIGION: Evangelist

OCCUPATION: Naval Officer

HEIGHT: 183cm

WEIGHT: 180lbs

HAIR COLOUR: Fair

EYE COLOUR: Brown

NEXT OF KIN: Else Brinkmann, Esslingen / Neckar (American Zone)

Promotions:

1 April 1913: Entered the Imperial German Navy as a Sea Cadet.
1 April 1913-2 August 1914: Initial training and training aboard the protected cruiser Vineta.
1 April 1914-2 August 1914: Naval School Mürwick.
7 August 1914-6 January 1915: Assigned to the pre-dreadnought battleship Kaiser Friedrich III.
7 January 1915-5 March 1915: Assigned to the pre-dreadnought battleship Kaiser Karl der Große.
6 March 1915-28 October 1915: Radio Officer aboard the light cruiser Regensburg.
29 October 1915-31 July 1918: Assigned to various torpedo boats in the 2nd Torpedo Boat Half Flotilla (see below).
29 October 1915-3 June 1917: Watch Officer aboard the torpedo boat G 196.
19 August 1917-29 September 1917: Watch Officer aboard the torpedo boat G 192.
30 September 1917-12 November 1917: Watch Officer aboard the torpedo boat V 190.
8 June 1918-31 July 1918: Watch Officer aboard the torpedo boat S 133.
1 August 1918-20 September 1918: Attended the Navigation Course.
21 September 1918-30 November 1918: Watch Officer aboard the torpedo boat G 86 in the 1st Torpedo Boat Half Flotilla.
1 December 1918-16 May 1920: Watch Officer and Adjutant of the torpedo boat V 130 in the 2nd Torpedo Boat Half Flotilla and then the 2nd Iron Flotilla.
31 July 1920-29 September 1922: Commander of the tender T 144.
30 September 1922-10 February 1925: Commander of the torpedo boats G 7, G 10 and S 18 in the I. Torpedo Boat Flotilla.
12 February 1925-17 September 1926: Company Leader in the Baltic Sea Ship Cadre Division.
18 September 1926-2 October 1928: Consultant in the Baltic Sea Ship Cadre Division.
3 October 1928-5 November 1930: Second Adjutant on the staff of the Command of the Baltic Sea Naval Station.
6 November 1930-21 December 1932: Navigation Officer of the light cruiser Königsberg.
10 January 1933-31 March 1935: Consultant in the Reich Defense Ministry.
20 May 1935-6 May 1938: Commander of the state yacht and fleet tender Grille [this ship served as Adolf Hitler’s state yacht].

9 May 1938-26 October 1938: Consultant in the Marinewehrabteilung in the Kriegsmarine High Command.
27 October 1938-24 July 1940: Chief of the Marinewehrabteilung in the Kriegsmarine High Command.
1 August 1940-4 August 1942: Commander of the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. [See details below.]
5 August 1942-21 November 1943: Chief of Staff of Navy Group Command South.
22 November 1943-9 November 1944: Commanding Admiral Black Sea.
10 October 1944-21 December 1944: Naval Liaison Officer to the 20th Mountain Army in Norway.
6 January 1945 1945-31 May 1945: Deputy Commanding Admiral Baltic Sea.
20 April 1945-31 May 1945: At the same time, Deputy Commanding Admiral North Sea.
31 May 1945-29 November 1947: Prisoner of war in British captivity.
- 9th January 1946 transferred to Island Farm Special Camp 11 from Camp 1
- 9th May 1946 transferred to Camp 99 from Island Farm Special Camp 11
- 2nd November 1946 transferred to Island Farm Special Camp 11 from 99
- 25th November 1947 Repatriated

Decorations & Awards:

Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross: 17 May 1944, Vizeadmiral, Commanding Admiral Black Sea.
German Cross in Gold: 12 March 1942, Kapitän zur See, Commander of the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen.
Prussian Iron Cross, 1st Class (1914): 24 July 1920.
Prussian Iron Cross, 2nd Class (1914): 10 October 1915.
1939 Bar to the Prussian Iron Cross, 1st Class: 9 June 1941.
1939 Bar to the Prussian Iron Cross, 2nd Class: 3 June 1941.
Cross of Honor for Combatants 1914-1918: 15 October 1934.
Armed Forces Long Service Award, 1st Class (25-year Service Cross)
Armed Forces Long Service Award, 3rd Class (12-year Service Medal)
Commemorative Medal of 1 October 1938
Commemorative Medal for the Return of the Memel District
Spanish Order of Naval Merit, 2nd Class: 8 November 1934.
Order of the Crown of Italy, Commander: 8 October 1937.
Bulgarian Military Merit Order, Grand Officer's Cross with War Decoration: 16 March 1943.
Hungarian Merit Order, Commander's Cross on the War Ribbon with Swords: 2 January 1943.
Hungarian Merit Order, Commander's Cross with Star and War Decoration on the War Ribbon with Swords: 18 February 1943.
Romanian Order of Michael the Brave, 3rd Class: 30 May 1944 (Royal Decree No. 1072).
High Seas Fleet War Badge: 5 April 1942.

As the first commander of the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, Hellmuth Brinkmann took part in two of the most notable surface actions fought by the German Navy during World War II. On 18 May 1941, Brinkmann’s Prinz Eugen sortied from Gotenhafen with the new battleship Bismarck on “Rheinübung” (Rhine Exercise), a breakout into the Atlantic to conduct commerce raiding. On 24 May 1941, the German ships were intercepted in the Denmark Straight off Greenland by the British battlecruiser HMS Hood and battleship HMS Prince of Wales. In the action that followed, the Bismarck destroyed the Hood (1,338 killed, 3 survivors) and damaged the Prince of Wales. Shortly after the battle, Admiral Günther Lütjens, the Fleet Chief aboard the Bismarck, ordered the Prinz Eugen to break away from the battleship and operate independently. On 27 May 1941, the Royal Navy finally caught and sank the Bismarck by battleship gunfire and cruiser-launched torpedoes. The Prinz Eugen arrived safely at Brest, France on 1 June 1941.

This is a painting by Randall Wilson titled "Breakout." It depicts the battleship "Bismarck" (in foreground) and the heavy cruiser "Prinz Eugen" departing Bergen, Norway at the start of their Atlantic breakout, May 1941.

By early 1942, the powerful German naval squadron based at Brest found itself increasingly vulnerable in the face of escalating British air attacks. To preserve the fleet for further operations in Norwegian waters, the German High Command ordered the squadron to return to Germany via the closest route: straight through the English Channel. On the night of 11 February 1942, Vizeadmiral Otto Ciliax, Commander of Battleships, led the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst (Kapitän zur See Kurt Caesar Hoffmann – with Ciliax aboard) and Gneisenau (Kapitän zur See Otto Fein), the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen (Kapitän zur See Helmuth Brinkmann), six destroyers, 14 torpedo boats and numerous smaller craft from Brest to begin their daring daylight dash— codenamed Operation “Cerebus”—through the English Channel. Protected by a heavy Luftwaffe fighter umbrella directed by Oberst Adolf Galland, the German ships successfully warded off determined British air and destroyer attacks. Although both the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were mined along the way, the squadron arrived in German waters on 13 February 1942.

Painting titled “Channel Dash” by Robert Taylor. Here we see the battlecruisers “Scharnhorst” and Gneisenau” in the van followed by “Prinz Eugen” while overhead the Me 109s of the Luftwaffe provide air cover

However, as it turned out, only the “Scharnhorst” ever made it to Norway; the British quickly got their “revenge” on the other two major warships that made the Channel Dash! The “Gneisenau” was bombed by air attack while in dry dock at Kiel on the night of 26-27 February 1942. A bomb hit detonated and burned out the forward magazines, an explosion that wrecked the entire forecastle. Although she went to Gotenhafen for repair, it was never carried out. Her stripped down hulk was scuttled in Gotenhafen as a block ship in March 1945.

On 21 February 1942, the heavy cruisers Prinz Eugen (with Vizeadmiral Ciliax aboard) and Admiral Scheer (Kapitän zur See Wilhelm Meendsen-Bohlken) and five destroyers departed Germany for Operation “Sportpalast” (Sport Palace), a transfer of naval surface forces to Norway. On 23 February 1942, the British submarine HMS Trident torpedoed the Prinz Eugen off Norway nearly severing her stern. Brinkmann managed to get his badly damaged ship to Trondheim where she remained under temporary repair until May 1942. The Prinz Eugen then returned to Kiel where she remained under further repair until October 1942.

Prinz Eugen (heavy cruiser)

Painting (artist/title unknown) showing British Swordfish torpedo aircraft
attacking the German fleet in the Straits of Dover during the "Channel Dash"

To find out more about the Prinz Eugen, as well as other information on the German ships,weapons and men of the Kriegsmarine, visit www.prinzeugen.com

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