Bismarck Survivor

by AusfPanzerkampf

Petty Officer Karl Essyn has died abord the Bismarck. He is reincarnated in a world similar to his own - though with one very major change. Now as the commander of a fleet of literal ship girls, Karl must weave his way through many difficulties and hardships to secure his comrade's dying wish - as well as to fulfill a few of his own.

1. Prologue

I'm back.

Yes, yes. It's been a while. My apologies. I unfortunately lost a lot of my writing passion over COVID season and such, and lost interest in continuing Der Overlord. Looking back, the work really wasn't my best, and I had been planning on a rewrite for some time. I've improved in my writing skill since it was initially published. As such, after I wrap up/get far into this book, I might get to working on Re:Der Overlord as I've dubbed it.

However, I recently have been working on a Azur Lane FanFiction by the name of The Bismarck Survivor (duh). I published it over on Wattpad ( JimothyCo) and have been working on it steadily since then. Though, I never cross-published it here which, looking back, was bit of a mistake. So here I am.

This chapter will comprise the character bio of Karl Essyn - our protagonist - as well as the prologue. A slightly extended version of it with pictures can be found on Wattpad if you feel inclined to take a look. I'll be dumping all the Ha chapters I currently have, 1 through 6 (technically 7 if you count the prologue). I'm also around halfway through the 7th chapter at time of writing this.

Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy.

Name: Karl Eyssn

Age: 25

Height/Weight: 5' 10/156lbs.

Nationality: Germany

Ethnicity: Caucasian European/German

Rank: Petty Officer Stabsoberbootsmann

Prologue - An Eye for An Eye

Petty officer Karl Eyssn of the Kriegsmarine gripped the cold guard rails on the edge of the deck of the KMS Bismarck, the breeze from the rushing wind and small particles of icy water slapping at his face like small little bites from insects. He shivered a few times as his uniform didn't give nearly enough heat insulation to keep himself remotely comfortably warm. Every so often he would have to let his hands off the rails to let them warm up a bit as he fears frostbite- though it was unlikely, it wasn't that cold.

Ah, just the way he liked it. He took out a cigarette from a small pack he had kept secret in his uniform as smoking was banned for the Navy and put it in his mouth. From the same breast-pocket he took the pack out of he also took out a Zippo lighter, flicking it open with a quick movement of his wrist and lighting it after a few tries.

"I need to get a new flint roll for this lighter." He said under his shaky cold breath, setting the small flame onto the end of the cigarette and taking a long drag. A satisfying warmth filled his mouth, throat, all the way down to his chest and Karl exhaled the white smoke with a smile on his face.

"Ah." He nodded to himself silently as he went for another drag, the end of the cigarette slowly shrivelling and burning up as he did so.

A few audible steps began to approach his backside. Knowing damn well who it was he quickly turned around and bit down on his cigarette, covering his calves. The man behind him was crouched down, a hand up and ready to slap what Karl had been protecting.

"You can't get me- stop trying." Karl said with a confident tone in his voice. "Two-to-Zero lead, Eichmann. Get over it- heh."

The man- Eichmann- sighed in defeat and stood as he dusted off his uniform, taking off his officer cap. "Damn you- this fucking deck is too loud."

Eichmann leaned over to look behind Karl, taking a small step forward. "What is out there anyway? Why're you always out here- at this time of day- smoking in this exact spot."

Karl shrugged and took another hit of his cigarette, placing his hand on the butt of it to take it out as he exhaled.

"Not sure. I just like it here, on the deck. This specific place just resonates with me. Plus, the high command takes their lunch break right about now so-" Karl pointed upwards to the superstructure, specifially the windows of the main commanding room. "-no prying eyes while I smoke."

"My eye is prying." Eichmann noted, walking up next to Karl and placing his hands on the rails. He shivered a few times as the breeze began to pick up.

"Damn! Its cold." Eichmann retracted his hands and relocated them to hug himself in an attempt to insulate the heat. "The jackets they give us are useless."

Karl looked over to him and reached his hand out with the cigarette between his fingers, offering it to him to warm him up. Eichmann rejected, citing the fact he wasn't a smoker and didn't plan on becoming one.

Suddenly, in the midst ahead of them the bow of another massive ship came slowly into view. The two men leaned over the railing of their own battleship to get a better view- despite the fact it probably wouldn't help with the distance between the two.

They knew the ship that emerged slowly from the midsts well. The two had served on the ship for almost 3 years before being transfered to the Bismarck. The famed Hipper-class heavy cruiser KMS Prinz Eugen. Probably the most powerful ship in the German fleet behind the Bismarck and Tirpitz, it was made to be as powerful as a battleship and as small and nimble of a cruiser. Due to the severe restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles limiting the tonnage, size, and gun calibers of German ships among other things the Kriegsmarine invested a lot into smaller cruiser and destroyer ships. They were banned from making anything like battleships.

Eichmann looked over to Karl, a smirk on his face. "If the Prinz was a human girl what do you think she'd look like?"

Karl narrowed his eyes in slight response to the question, leaning onto the rail and turned over to his friend. "What- how would I know?"

"Like- think of the Prinz."

"Yeah."

"Now think of her as a woman."

"...why?"

Eichmann put a hand on his hip and turned to face Karl as well. "Just do it..." He pointed over to the Prinz Eugen still in sight.

"Imagine that warship as a girl. What would she look like if she was personified?"

Karl sighed and look a minute to think, stroking his chin as if he had a beard before shrugging.

"Idun fucking know." Eichmann sighed heavily and facepalmed.

"Do you have no imagination Karl? Its- its not hard."

"Fine... I guess. I dunno. Short-ish. German obviously. Long brown hair? On the petite side? This fields weird. You're asking me to make a basically large floating rock into a girl."

"I'd think she'd have big tits." Eichmann said perfectly straight faced, not a drop of sarcasm in his voice as he looked deadeye into Karl.

Karl burst out laughing, dropping his cigarette onto the deck as he held onto the rail, grabbing his stomach in actual pain as breath rapidly escaped him.

"HAHA- Ohh- OhAHHAA... OH- fuck I ca-cant fuckinnnn- ohhhhh" Karl knelt down as he laughed at his statement trying to catch himself and his breath.

"Are you good Karl?" Eichmann bent down and put a hand on his back.

"ohhnono- no- the way you fffucking said that- holy shit that was golden." Karl took deep breathes, grabbing a hold of the guardrails and calming himself down a bit. It would take a solid thirty seconds before Karl was able to get back on his feet with resembalnce of stability, though he still needed time to breathe.

"It is good to see my men in high spirits!" A voice called out to their right. The two men with smiles still on their faces looked over-

"Captain Lindemann!" Karl yelped out, straighening himself and quickly saluting the man.

Otto Ernst Lindemann, Kapitan zur See of the Bismarck. A hardlined man with years of naval experience and great great pride in both himself and his Navy. A man who was almost a celeberity in the Kriegsmarine and a man the both of them only saw every-so-often. This same man was now walking up to the two with a casual smile in his face, his right hand giving a friendly wave with the other secured in his pocket.

Eichmann quickly followed suit with his own salute, a drop of sweat accumulating on the side of his head. Lindemann chuckled as he walked up to the two, giving a gesture to stand down.

"At ease, men. At ease." Lindemann said with a smile and the two men let out a solid, calming sigh.

"Captain, you seem to be in a good mood." Karl pointed out and Lindemann nodded in agreement.

"I am, I am. I have been for the past day. I'm sure you can guess why, petty officer... who?"

"My name is Karl Essyn, Captain. And my best guess would have to be our victory of the Royal Navy and the sinking of the HMS Hood. Sir."

Lindemann snapped his fingers. "Precisely, Karl. A great victory, really. Morale of the ship has been as its highest I've seen. How could mine not be up?"

Lindemann took another step forward and put a hand on Karl's soldiers, putting his boot somewhere in front of him. "Lunch has been put forward an hour, men." He simply said, the same smile on his face. Lindemann patted his shoulder and looked over to Eichmann and gave him a nod before taking a step back, turning around and walking off.

Karl looked down to where Lindemann had been and saw his stomped-out cigarette, then looked up at the tower.

"...he saw." Eichmann made obvious.

"No shit." Karl replied. "We're also late for our duties." He took a look at his watch, rolling up his sleeve so it can actually be in view.

"How late?" Eichmann leaned over see the time.

"Too late- lets go." Karl put his sleeve down and quickly rushed off the deck with Eichmann in tow, turning to a door into the ship itself.

11:40 PM. A massive eruption struck the back of the ship, hard enough to shake the entire hull with considerable force and enough to cause everyone in the room Eichmann and Karl had been in to go silent.

Battle had commenced not too long ago and the Karl, Eichmann, and a few others were in the lower decks of the superstructure of the Bismarck, rushing to the main batteries in the back of the ship. Karl and Eichmann were assaigned to the guns most closest to the superstructure named Ceasar, and the two other ones with them were with the farthest guns named Dora.

"Shit! They hit us, didn't they?" Karl yelled out, AA fire on the deck was still loud enough to reach inside parts of the ship and thus forced the crew near them to talk at high volumes.

"No shit, Karl." Eichmann was behind Karl with the two other officers in the front some ways away from them.

"Fuck! Where, do you think they hit?" Karl and Eichmann began to pick up speed, hesitating to sprint to conserve some energy.

"Alarms are not blaring so they didn't penetrate the armor. Hopefully nothing important."

Karl nodded in agreement and the two continued to run. Little did the two know that the hit would render the Bismarck's fate sealed.

9:04 AM. Karl and Eichmann ran around the main turret compartment, giving orders and organizing the firing of the main guns along with many other officers. It was chaos, the men had been working for hours and hours at that point, firing their main guns with not a single confirmed direct hit on any British ship. The Bismarck had been basically ambushed though the brass knew a battle was coming. The Prinz Eugen was gone- word had it that they were refueling but Karl nor Eichmann nor many others knew that. The two had seen the heavy cruiser just two days ago, and if the Prinz Eugen had gotten out, why not the Bismarck?

The hit hours earlier had did nothing but immobalize the ship as it had struck the rudder and stearing gear, dooming it to forever turn 12 degrees to port. This made aiming the guns harder as they constantly had to compensate for the turning the entire time for every shot. What made things worse was that they had stopped getting optical rangefinding readings from the superstructure after a particular nasty-feeling and sounding hit had struck them two minutes prior.

A man rushed into the area Eichmann and Karl were in, a mutural friend named Franz. He was short and lean with brown hair and slight stubble, similiar to Eichmann but on a smaller scale.

"Franz-! What the hell are you doing, you're supposed to be helping direct AA fire!" Karl yelled out amid the clammering of machines and the buzz of hydrolics. Franz shook his head, sweat rushing off his face and splattering on Karl.

"K-Karl..." He was noticably out of breath, "...The fucking superstructure was hit! Its fucking gone man, its in flames!"

"WHAT?!" Eichmann yelled rushing over, bags under his eyes. He had a stain on his uniform after a bad attempt to make some very quick coffee.

"Its fucking done man! Most of the higher ups are fucking dead I bet! Huff... Shit guys, we're fucking screwed!"

Karl wiped his face hard, a vain attempt to steady himself as panic set in. "That explains why were lost our range reports... the fucking optical rangefinder atop the towers fucking gone, isn't it?"

Franz nodded. "I-I'd guess so! Along with pretty much everyone that was in the structure!"

"How many died?" Eichmann asked and Franz didn't know, just giving him a look of despair.

"Its all on fire."

Eichmann threw his hands in the air and began to scream profanities. Karl simply dropped down in suprise and awe, putting his hands on his face and slowly dragged them down.

He looked back up at Franz. "Are we fucked?"

Franz nodded.

9:28 AM. Without proper fire control from the main superstructure the remaining two guns in the rear of the ship, Ceasar and Dora, were forced to fire erradically. A few brave souls went up to the deck to try and scope out and make a small attempt to approximate the range of the ships but without proper height nor optics it was damn near impossible. It was like trying to golf blind and you're only allowed to get hole and ones- and the hole is constantly moving and you're also constantly moving. Oh and your partner who is good at golf has died from a hit with a 16 inch naval shell. Oh and you're also exhausted.

Eichmann and Karl knew it was a lost cause. A few men of the many who helped load and operate the guns had tried to run off, one or two shot themselves. The constant bangs, the endless hits to the hull of the ship, and just how tired and demoralized the crew was made it so no one could blame dissertion or suicide at this point.

The two had been on a lower part of the hull in the loading mechanism, just a floor above the internal magazine. They were stressing to get the shells up to the gun and the powder as well, making sure everything was in order though with the absolute state of the battle, no man wanted to do their jobs at that point.

Suddenly, minutes later after Eichmann and Karl were helping get another shell up to the main guns a massive detonation came from above them, taking them to their feet clutching their ringing ears. The entire area shuck with formidable force, screams of men being luckily drowned out by the aformentioned ringing in their ears. The two of them took a second to get their barrings, shaking their heads and grabbing hold of one another to help get eachother up. They knew full well what had just happened.

The remaining guns had been struck. The area began to heat up as fires above them began to spread below deck, the vents now seeping black smoke. They now had one duty- survive.

They yelled for everyone to 'fucking run' as they did so themselves, their work now meaningless as they had nothing to work for. The battle was lost. They rushed out of the area they had been working in via doors previously used by Franz, running down the halls of the ship with other men. No one had any idea where to go as the entire deck of the ship stem to stern was ablaze, a few members of the AA crew that had retreated down had given them this information. Repeated torpedo and guns strikes rattled the ship with little pause the they attempted escape.

9:44 AM. The ship was now starting to list twenty degrees or so, and Eichmann and Karl were so exhausted they were barely jogging. Their goal was to hopefully find a window or door above deck that they could maybe be able to get out of, but so far had no luck. They as well feared bailing the ship, doubting the Royal Navy would bother with rescuing them and the Atlantic was known for is raging, icy waters.

9:48 AM. Another hit strikes the Bismarck extremely close to where the two had been. As the tilt of the ship slowly increased and red flood alarms blared, Eichmann was shoved into a room with Karl being knocked into a wall hard. The door of the room Eichmann had been shoved into had closed behind him. He was unable to stop it as he had hit the floor of the room hard and the tilt had rolled him some feet away from it, preventing him from blocking it.

Karl slowly gets up, rubbing his head in pain and with vision blurred. A panic attack slowly began to set into him, feeling his own heart begin to jump and race as everything had began to close in on him it felt. And Eichmann was gone as well.

"Eichmann!" Karl yelled. "Eichmann come on! We need to go!"

A door to the right of him began to bang. Karl quickly ran over to it and found Eichmann hitting on the window, a muffled voice screaming for Karl's name as well. Karl grabbed at the handle and shook it in an attempt to open the door but with no luck.

"Open the fucking door!" Karl yelled, continuing to try himself.

"I-I fucking can't man! Its jammed, I swear!"

"It can't be Eichmann! Fucking unlock it!"

A hard click came fron behind the door and the handle moved ever so slightly more. The door opened only an inch or so though, just enough to let Karl's hands grip it and for Eichmann's voice to become unmuffled. Some sort of metalic object had jammed the door hard, and it had to be moved.

"Fuck!" Karl yelled, running his hands up and down the door in attempt to find the jam. With such force he did so, where when he did find it he cut deep into his finger, forcing him to retract his hand and slicing a good bit of skin off.

Karl attempted to get the jam out but it was too sharp to handle and he had no time to find gloves or anything of the sort. In his mind, the best option was to pry the fucking thing open.

With bloody hands he gripped the door. "Eichmann I have to force it! Kick the fucking thing with your feet!"

"What?!" Eichmann struggled to hear with the alarms and panic in general.

"KICK THE FUCKING DOOR!" Karl yelled right into the small slit between the door and the wall. Eichmann nodded and began to do so as Karl pulled hard on the door.

His wet, bloody hand slipped off the door, pushing him back onto the floor. He gripped and tried again, for the same thing to happen

With Eichmann still kicking the door and a salty oder coming upon their noses Karl wiped his hand on his uniform and tried again. Now with a solid grip he used his foot as leverage and continue to pull.

To no avail.

Karl kicked the wall, heart racing as Eichmann slumped over, tired from the constant kicking.

"WHY THE HELL WON'T YOU OPEN YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Karl began to shake the door violently, banging his hand on it while he did so. Tears of despair welled up in his eyes "FUCK! FUCK! FU-"

"Karl..." A tired voice caught his ears and Karl looked down at his friend through the slit/

"Keep kicking, dam-"

"I don't wanna die..." Karl noticed how fucked up Eichmann was. His eyes were bloodshot, blood flowed down the angled floor of the room- presumably from his foot from the constant hard kicking. Karl was taken aback, falling to the floor like he did before.

"E-Eichmann..." He got close to the slit. "Keep kicking- you're not gonna die."

"Its fucked man."

"I-It is fucked Eichmann b-"

Eichmann reached into his pocket and took out a fine gold pocket watch, a shaky hand bringing towards Karl.

"K-Karl... take it... the ships sinking... and I want my dad to have it... its his, he gave it to me to... sell if I ever fell back on money..."

Karl gulped. "N-no, you need it, give it to him yourself."

Eichmann threw it to Karl through the opening with Karl narrowly catching it, gripping it tightly with bloody hands from the stress of the door and the previous cut.

"156 Westerlied street... take it there once you get out!"

"E-Eichmann..." Karl choked out between tears. "W-Wh-What... what makes you think I'll survive?"

"I don't think... you will." Eichmann took deep breathes between pauses, catching his breath.

"Fuck! I-I can't leave you man!"

"You have to... get it back to him dammit..."

"E-Eichmann, no- I-"

Eichmann's eyes flared up and he reached upwards. "You have too... I can't..." He put a hand on the door handle. Karl, knowing what he was doing, grabbed the other handle himself, tears streaming down his face.

"No! N-no! No! Eichmann! St-Stop! Please! L-Let me save you!"

His wet hands slipped off the door and it shut with a bang. Karl was launched backwards from the sudden lose of grip and just stared in realization...

He had lost Eichmann.

He began to cry, screaming no in denial of what had happened as the ship started tilt hard now, more and more water flowing in so fast he could hear it. Shakily, he got up and began to back away, putting the watch in his pocket and in a vain attempt he retreated to try and maybe escape and honor his friends wishes.

The salty smell grew worse, screws in the walls had began to pop, showing the area in water. Alarm after alarm slowly silenced as they lost power, leaving only the dim red glow from the auxillery power pumping to keep the lights on.

"I-I can't..." Karl tried to run but only managed an exhausted limp away, his face and body being showered in cold sea water. Body now shivering, he attempted to turn a corner-

Only to find a rush of water coming his way, the tilt of the ship now at a forty degree angle. Karl dove for cover but it was too late as the water swiped him away, slamming him against the walls of the ship hard. He screamed to no answer, instead emerging as bubbles errupting from his mouth. Only one thought raced through his mind as he desperately reached out in the rushing waters for something to hold.

I can't. I must. I can't. I must. I can't. I must.

I'm sorry. I can't. But... I'll try.

I must try.

10:32 AM. The Bismarck's guns were now silent, the tilt turned into a slow capsize of the ship. By 10:35, the ship finally flipped. The fires were replaced with rushing waters, the stern of the ship slowly sinking, bringing the rest down with it.

10:40 AM. The Bismarck finally slipped beneath the waves of the Atlantic at the cost of 2,200 lives. The pride of the Kriegsmarine was no longer. Bubbles emerged from the ship as it went down, its final salvo it will ever fire.