Bruno Rzonca

  On Course To Oblivion is a book by Robert C. Gramberg based on Rzonca's story

Bruno Rzonca (Left with MOS Director Michael McBride) was born in East Prussia on 19 May 1918. He enlisted in the Kreigsmarine (German Navy) in 1939 and received his training in basic seamanship, knot tying, and marksmanship. Rzonca was assigned to the the cruiser Karlsruhe where he participated in the German invasion of Norway in April of 1940 when his ship was ordered to invade the harbor at  Kristiansand. The Germans captured the area, but as the ship was leaving the harbor on 9 April 1940, the British submarine Truant fired a  torpedo which disabled the Karlsruhe. The ship was later scuttled and the crew transferred to shore. For his work in the boiler room on that fateful day, Rzonca was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class.  

    Rzonca was then assigned to the battleship Bismarck which was still under construction at the Blohm & Voss shipyards in Hamburg. The pride of the German Navy in WWII, DKM Bismarck went to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean on 27 May 1941 after an epoch battle with the Royal Navy. 

    One of the largest battleships in the German fleet, Bismarck was manned by over 2,000 sailors and officers, and was considered one of the most powerful vessels afloat during the early part of the war. Bismarck became the target of the British home fleet after sinking the Battlecruiser HMS Hood during the Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24 May, 1940. The Hood sank with a loss of 1,415 lives and only three survivors.  

    The hunt was on for Bismarck as the British mobilized all available ships to track her down. A strike by a single torpedo from a Swordfish aircraft on the night of 26 May disabled the rudder of the Bismarck and sealed her fate. The ship came under heavy attack the next morning by the battleships HMS Rodney and HMS King George V and the heavy cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire. Badly outnumbered, the Bismarck fought back, but ultimately sank around 10:40 AM with the loss of almost 2000 lives. 

    On the day of the Bismarck’s sinking, Bruno said he remembered the screams of his comrades, the smell of the burning ship, and how the frigid water turned red with blood. Rzonca was one of only 115 men who survived the sinking. More than 700 British rounds hit Bismarck during the battle. “We couldn’t shoot back, we had nothing left” Rzonca said. Fire was everywhere and the command was given to abandon ship.

    While swimming in the ocean, Rzonca stated he “only wanted to be rescued, and didn’t care by who”. He was rescued by a British ship and treated very well even being offered a whiskey. He decided it was so good, that he later had a second round.

    Rzonca was taken to England for questioning, and then on to a prison camp in Ontario, Canada for five years and eight months. Rzonca was returned to his native Lithuania at the end of the war, but returned to the United States in 1952 and worked 29 years as a machinist in Chicago. Of the 115 Bismark survivors approximately ten are still alive, and Rzonca was the only one living in the United States. Bruno Rzonca passed away on 23 July, 2004 in Crown Point, Indiana.