However, the doctor certified him as fit only for limited duties (bedingt tauglich), as pneumonia in childhood had left him unfit for service in U-boats.

The voyage took Lindemann to Dartmouth in England, Vilagarcía de Arousa in Spain, Faial Island in the Azores and as far as Halifax in Nova Scotia.

The return trip then went via Vera Cruz in Mexico, Havana in Cuba, Port-au-Prince in Haiti, Kingston in Jamaica, Port of Spain in Trinidad and then to the Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Spanish mainland, arriving back in Germany in the middle of March 1914, first in Brunsbüttel and two days later in Kiel.

[21][22] With the German declaration of war in August 1914, all further training at the naval academy was terminated and the normal compulsory officer examination was skipped.

Lindemann was assigned to SMS Lothringen, a battleship which belonged to the 2nd Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet under the command of Vizeadmiral (vice admiral) Reinhard Scheer,[Tr 2] taking on the position of 3rd wireless telegraphy officer.

[23][Tr 3] Lothringen was mostly tasked with patrolling the North Sea, sailing back and forth between Altenbruch (now part of Cuxhaven) and Brunsbüttel without engaging in combat.

[22][24][Tr 5] On 19 March 1916, Lindemann was transferred to the newly commissioned battleship SMS Bayern (under the command of Captain Max Hahn), with the same rank of 2nd wireless telegraphy officer.

Operation Albion's objective was the invasion and occupation of the Estonian islands of Saaremaa (Ösel), Hiiumaa (Dagö) and Muhu (Moon), then part of the Russian Republic.

As a result of the Treaty of Versailles which was signed on 28 June 1919, the former Imperial German Navy was downsized to 15,000 men, including 1,500 officers, while being renamed the Reichsmarine in the era of the Weimar Republic.

[22] On 9 April 1934, he was ordered to the Wilhelmshaven Shipyard (9 April–11 November 1934) for training in ship construction and familiarisation with the heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer, under the command of Captain Wilhelm Marschall.

[34] Lindemann's main responsibilities included commanding the German landing parties and acting as diplomatic aid and interpreter for Captain Marschall.

[42] In November 1940, Von Müllenheim-Rechberg was sent to the Naval Gunnery School at Wik to complete his heavy gun training courses, which ended his position as Lindemann's personal adjutant.

[49] The goal of Operation Rheinübung (Rhine Exercise) was for Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen—under the command of Lindemann's Crew 1913 classmate Captain Helmuth Brinkmann—to break into the Atlantic and attack Allied shipping.

The heavily outgunned British cruisers retired to a safe distance and shadowed the enemy until their own heavy units could draw closer.

The Germans sighted the smokestacks of two ships at 05:45, which the first gunnery officer Lieutenant Commander Adalbert Schneider initially reported as two heavy cruisers.

Vice-Admiral Lancelot Holland planned on targeting Bismarck first, but due to the reversed German battle order, Hood opened fire on the Prinz Eugen instead.

), an impatient Lindemann responded: "Ich lasse mir doch nicht mein Schiff unter dem Arsch wegschießen.

[56] Following the explosion, Prince of Wales was targeted by both German ships and disengaged from combat after seven direct hits, four by Bismarck and three by Prinz Eugen, at about 06:09.

During this brief engagement, Prince of Wales had also hit Bismarck three times, first striking the commander's boat and putting the seaplane catapult amidships out of action.

Lütjens, apparently mindful of the fleet order to avoid unnecessary contact with similar enemy units, rejected this without discussion.

[59] In the afternoon, Admiral Lütjens ordered Prinz Eugen to break away from Bismarck and operate independently against the enemy's merchant shipping.

At 23:30 (local time 19:30) on 24 May an attack was made by a small group of nine Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers of 825 Naval Air Squadron under the command of Eugene Esmonde from the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious.

With asymmetric power applied, speed reduced to 8 kn (15 km/h; 9.2 mph), Bismarck was on a converging course with the Royal Navy units on the chase.

Throughout the night Bismarck was targeted by incessant torpedo attacks by HMS Cossack, Sikh, Maori, Zulu, and ORP Piorun, denying Lindemann and the crew much-needed rest.

The Befehlshaber der U-Boote (U-boats Commander-in-Chief) Karl Dönitz had ordered U-556 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Herbert Wohlfarth to pick up Bismarck's war diary.

[67] Lindemann's body was never recovered, and it is thought that he, Lütjens and other officers were probably killed in action when shellfire from the British warships landed on Bismarck's bridge at 09:02.

The surviving Matrose Paul Hillen—who had managed to escape to the upper deck in the final phase of the battle—stated that he had seen a group of 20–30 people standing at the bow, among them a man with a white peaked cap.

The battery consisted of three heavy 40.6 cm (16 in) SK C/34 guns housed in casemates, originally intended for the early H-class battleships.

Today the structure is partly covered by excavated material from the Channel Tunnel, and only the command bunker with a number of smaller strong points are still visible.

[81] Austrian actor Carl Möhner played Captain Ernst Lindemann in the 1960 black-and-white British war film Sink the Bismarck!