what sank the wilhelm gustloff

Many ships have sunk with terrible loss of life, but never before or since have so many lives been lost on a single ship. More than 10,000 women, children, sick, and elderly pack aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a former cruise ship. The Gustloff along with other liners, fishing boats, cargo ships, pleasure craft, and other vessels had been pressed into service to evacuate these refugees and military personnel, military technicians, and wounded soldiers in an operation that has been called the German Dunkirk. 5.0. H.S Wilhelm Gustloff. Found insideFrom the Kyrenia ship of 300 BC to the Mary Rose, through to the Kursk submarine tragedy of 2000, this is a thrilling work of narrative history from one of our most talented young historians. Over the years, as the ship stood at the dock serving as a barracks, a number of the boats had been borrowed for other uses around the harbor. Hundreds of ship wrecks take place every year in the whole world covering minor to major ship wrecks. The sinking of “Wilhelm Gustloff ” has been considered as the biggest maritime catastrophe of all time- even surpassing the combined calamities of Titanic (which sank taking more than 1,500 people with it after hitting an iceberg) and Lusitania (which sank with 1,119 people after getting hit by a German torpedo). In January, however, he had taken charge of the evacuation and had requisitioned ships of all kinds, including 25 substantial cargo ships and 13 liners. When the captains (there were four on board) were informed of a German minesweeper convoy coming towards them, they decided, after much argument, to switch on the navigation lights to avoid colliding into the convoy, but by doing so the ship also became visible to a Soviet submarine lurking nearby. In the dead of night, in the Baltic Sea, the WG was hit by three torpedoes from the S-13 and sank … The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. The Titanic Story studies the RMS Titanic, the supposedly unsinkable, world-class passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic in 1912. The MV Wilhelm Gustloff in port at Oslo, Norway, c. 1940. In The Devils' Alliance, acclaimed historian Roger Moorhouse explores the causes and implications of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, an unholy covenant whose creation and dissolution were crucial turning points in World War II. Forged by the German ... They fled desperately to the Baltic port in the hopes of being evacuated. THE sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff came at a time when Nazi Germany was already on the brink of collapse, so much so that Captain Petersen, who survived the sinking, was not even disciplined, though he died shortly after the end of the war. Since navigation proved difficult, they had to turn on the lights to be able to see the German convoy. With forty-eight hours’ notice before departure, there were scenes of chaos and blind panic in the frozen German port of Gotenhafen as people, frantic for a place, fought on the dock and surged aboard the ship. He knew very well that the Gustloff was an innocent refugee ship and this in my view typifies the disgraceful, inhumanity shown by the Soviets as a nation, despite their being portrayed as the ‘good guys,’ by the bankster-controlled media at the time. From January to May 1945, as the Red Army advanced from the east, German refugees, military and civilian,were being evacuated through German-held ports on the Baltic Sea. The USS Arizona Story studies the USS Arizona, one of the American battleships sunk by Japanese aircraft during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Wilhelm Gustloff as Lazarettschiffe D. On the bitterly cold night of January 30th, 1945, the former KdF Cruise Liner Wilhelm Gustloff, at the time serving as a barracks ship for the Kriegsmarine, left from the Baltic port of Gotenhafen and set sail for the relative safety of the west, away from the advance of Soviet forces that were converging on the region. The entire scenario in Gotenhafen at that time was one of pure panic as throngs of people fought and pushed their way into the ship, desperate for a spot inside. The subs surged into the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland with orders to attack any shipping they encountered. For years we have concentrated on how Europe slid into tyranny, violence, war and genocide; this book describes how humanity began to get back out. Amazingly, 1,239 people were saved by the heroic and selfless work of a number of smaller German ships in the area but the losses were six-times greater than those of the Titanic. Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. A tribute to Rod Serling's legacy as a visionary, storyteller, and humanist, As I Knew Him is also a moving testament to the love between fathers and daughters. The exact number of deaths is debated, but historians agree that the event is the worst … Some women were holding up their children. She sank taking down with her as many as 9,500 people. In the last months of World War II, German forces were in full retreat from Eastern Europe. Was: Previous Price. The story of the Wilhelm Gustloff’s sinking in the freezing waters of the Baltic is dramatic and it has rarely been satisfactorily told in the English language. Hunks of ice could be seen on the surface of the sea. Unfortunately, the poor visibility, cold temperatures, and heavy snow made it more difficult to navigate the ship. On the 30 th January 1945, with the murderous, rampaging Red Army bearing down on them, the German civilians of East Prussia, desperate to escape, fled to the Baltic ports hoping to be evacuated by sea. In Death in the Baltic, by drawing on interviews with survivors, as well as the letters and diaries of those who perished, award-wining author Cathryn Prince reconstructs this forgotten moment in history. Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. The vessel was designed to hold a maximum of 1,880 passengers and crew. We probably know how disastrous the story of Titanic was. The ship was forced to stop almost immediately after casting off, however, when it was surrounded by a flotilla of small boats filled with refugees pleading to be picked up. Horses that had pulled the cars that brought them and dogs that had tagged along were abandoned and wandered through the city. However, f… The Wilhem Gustloff was filled to the bursting point with over 10,000 panicked Germans fleeing the approaching Russians. A German leisure vessel and cruise ship converted by the German military into a transport ship to aid in the evacuation of German civilians at the end of the war. Before the war started, it had already sailed on more than fifty cruises. The Little-Known Stories of the Wilhelm Gustloff, the General Steuben and the Goya. Wilhelm Gustloff's final voyage was to evacuate German refugees, military personnel, and technicians from Courland, East Prussia, and Danzig-West Prussia. Not long after she began her journey west, she was spotted by the Russian submarine S-13, which launched three torpedoes. Many of the lifeboats could not be unlatched as they were frozen in their positions leaving only a few for the overloaded vessel. However, for fear of his name being tarnished should the vessel be sunk, Hitler refused. By John Ries. The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, with its vast loss of life, provides the plot for "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys, a story of World War II refugees from several nations. The Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff – A War Crime. Sep 27, 2013 - Ships are born to face hardships, struggle and wrecks. The Wilhelm Gustloff was the most lethal shipwreck in history, but some details of the sinking remain unknown. However, against a submarine attack the Gustloff was powerless. When the Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed by a soviet submarine and sank, it was an event unlike any in naval history, because of the sheer scale of the tragedy. To this day, the deliberate sinking of this refugee ship filled with women and children remains not only the worst nautical disaster in world history but one of the most heartless and sadistic war crimes ever committed. Aboard were 6,050 people: 173 crewmembers, 918 naval officers and men, 373 women’s naval auxiliaries, 162 wounded soldiers, and 4,424 refugees, including numerous women and children. Found insideTender and wise, The Ship We Built is about the bravery it takes to stand up for yourself—even to those you love—and the power of finding someone who treasures you for everything you are. MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German ship which was sank by a soviet submarine. The MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German ship which was sunk on 30 January 1945 by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea while evacuating German civilians, officials and military personnel from Gdynia (Gotenhafen), occupied Poland, as the Red Army advanced. The Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff Dr. William Pierce What's said to be the most expensive motion picture ever made was released a few weeks ago and has been earning record money at the box office. Once again, the figure depends on the initial figure for those on board. The suffering of those on board the Gustloff was unspeakable and whether these people were ‘enemies’ or not is irrelevant, they were fellow human beings, the vast majority of them ‘innocents,’ i.e. They claimed they were diving at the Terra tanker, located seven kilometres from Gustloff. Nine hours later, Wilhelm Gustloff was in its death throes, after being hit three times by torpedoes from the Russian submarine S13, which assumed it was full of troops and a legitimate target. In 1945, the Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed by the Soviet Union’s U-Boat S-13. To put that in perspective, about 1,500 people died on the Titanic, and about 4,400 in the worst peacetime disaster (the Doña Paz in 1987). No one bothered to count them, but radio officer Rudi Lange later said, “I think I remember being told by one of the ship’s officers to send a signal that another 2,000 people had come aboard.”. For the first year of the war she had served as a hospital ship before being held in dock in the port of Gotenhafen on the Baltic coast (modern-day Gdynia) where, until early 1945, it had served as barracks for U-boat trainees. Less than 40 minutes after being struck, Wilhelm Gustloff was lying on her side. She sank bow-first 10 minutes later, in 44 m (144 ft) of water. Over the years since the sinking, historians have argued about whether the Gustloff was a legitimate war target and whether her sinking should be classified as a war crime. Similar to the Titanic, the Joola, the SS Kiangya, and the MV Doña Paz were carrying civilians when they were sunk. © Copyright 2021 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved. The Wilhelm Gustloff was considered one of the biggest naval disasters ever recorded in history. Witness History: Archive 2011. Die Gustloff: Directed by Joseph Vilsmaier. This gripping Kindle Single will explore the history of the German ship that suffered the deadliest maritime disaster of all time. With Ed Galea, Kathleen Kern, Eva Dorn, Robert Hering. On its final voyage, Germany's Wilhelm Gustloff carried soldiers and thousands of civilians, many of them children. He was overruled by the senior civilian captain, Friedrich Petersen, who argued that the ship could not maintain her top speed for long and was too large to hold a zigzag course. Berlin plans an eleventh-hour exodus for the German civilians trapped in the Red Army’s way. To date, many books have been written about her maiden voyage, her final voyage and her sinking, but this book, produced by the Wilhelm Gustloff Museum, discusses the liner's early days, its construction and launching. The accident is termed as the deadliest maritime disaster in the maritime history. The Germans, however, did not consider the submarines a menace, believing they were few and badly handled. Fleeing before them, refugees were streaming into the German-held Baltic ports, clogging the docks, and mingling with the wounded soldiers left by German ambulance trains. Found insideRacing to freedom with thousands of other refugees as Russian forces close in on their homes in East Prussia, Joana, Emilia, and Florian meet aboard the doomed Wilhelm Gustloff and are forced to trust each other in order to survive. More than 9,000 people perished in the disaster. MV Wilhelm Gustloff was one of the ships constructed for Nazi Germany's "Strength Through Joy" (Kraft durch Freude) organization 1937. Found insideIn this transporting and illuminating book, the award-winning journalist vividly reconstructs the story of Inge's life from the rise of the Nazis through the brutal postwar years, from falling in love with a man who was sent to the Eastern ... German KdF flagship during 1937–1945, constructed by the Blohm & Voss shipyards. The sinking of the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945 was the worst maritime disaster in history, with an estimated 9,250 fatalities. That figure was probably an estimate at best, but if close it sent the Gustloff’s complement to about 8,000 people. Wilhelm Gustloff sank within an hour. The Wilhelm Gustloff (1945): The deadliest shipwreck in history. Soon, the ship became officially named, The Battle of 73 Easting: The Last Great Tank Battle Of The 20th Century, Robert E. Lee Statue Removed From Richmond, Virginia Following State Supreme Court Decision, Here’s why Fidel Castro Froze the body of an American soldier after the Failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, Ajax Programme Could be Cancelled As $4.8 Billion Fiasco Continues To Draw Criticism, The Biggest Traitors In Military History And How They Betrayed Their Countries, Here’s What Happened To America’s 12 Concrete Ships. An estimated 9,000 passengers were killed in the sinking, making it the greatest maritime disaster in history. Three torpedoes fired from a Russian submarine had scored direct hits on the ship. By early 1941, the Soviet advance westward had freed the Navy’s submarine fleet, which had been bottled up in Leningrad and Kronstadt. from Russian Federation. Read another story from us: USS Indianapolis -True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. As soon as the ship was locked in, the Soviet sub fired three torpedoes. It takes more than two years to build a normal sized economical ship capable of sailing in the normal and smooth weather, it takes a lot of time, money and man power. What followed was a cause for an utter horror. It was the night of January 30, 1945, and disaster awaited her. It was launched in 1937 and began as a luxury liner. When the Gustloff left the relative protection of the harbour at Gotenhafen on 30th January 1945, the weather was extremely poor with a wind strength of 7, it was snowing, the temperature was minus 10 degrees Celsius, and there were copious amounts of sea-ice. January 1945: the outcome of World War II has been determined. Some were crushed in the ensuing panic, and others fell into the freezing waters. In addition to the Wilhelm Gustloff, the Red Army also sank other evacuation ships, like the Cap Arcona, the Goya, the Thielbeck, and the General Steuben, with probably 20,000 to 30,000 killed alone on these five ships - maybe even more, as many passengers were not registered. When the Red Army finally got the upper hand, the German civilians in Prussia attempted to escape. On land, Soviet armies, enraged by earlier German atrocities, were moving into Poland and Prussia from the east, avenging themselves against the military personnel and civilians they met. The Wilhelm Gustloff, which was packed with refugees when it sank on the night of Jan 10, 1945, in what experts say is the worst maritime disaster in … Sank after being torpedoed by the Soviet submarine S-13 on 30 January 1945. The dock area was jammed with refugees and wounded soldiers trying to escape to the West and cluttered with horse-drawn covered wagons that had brought them to the docks. Ever heard of the Wilhelm Gustloff?Neither had I. MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German military transport ship which was sunk on 30 January 1945 by Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea while evacuating German civilians, Nazi officials and military personnel from Gdynia (Gotenhafen) as the Red Army advanced. One of the most notorious events of World War II was the sinking of the MV Wilhelm Gustloff. In the dead of night, in the Baltic Sea, the WG was hit by three torpedoes from the S-13 and sank in an hour. MV Wilhelm Gustloff. by Karl Hoffman On January 30, 1945, the German liner "Wilhelm Gustloff" sank in the Baltic Sea between the Bay of Danzig and the Danish island of Bornholm. The little-known stories of the Wilhelm Gustloff, the General Steuben and the Goya. Wilhelm Gustloff facts. German film loosely based on the sinking, by a Soviet submarine, of a Nazi troop-transport ship in the Baltic Sea on January 30th 1945. by John Ries. Hailed by critics and readers alike as Gnter Grass's best book since The Tin Drum, Crabwalk is an engrossing account of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff and a critical meditation on Germany's struggle with its wartime memories. Intended to be christened “Adolf Hitler”, he was eventually named after Wilhelm Gustloff, the assassinated leader of the (“WWII Germany”) Party Foreign Organization in Switzerland.He was launched into the Elbe river on May 5th 1937. The vessel was designed to hold a maximum of 1,880 passengers and crew. When Bernie Gunther takes on a blackmail case and gets involved in the affairs of British spies, the former detective risks exposing his own dark past in this thrilling novel hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “one of Kerr’s ... Her book, Death in the Baltic: The World War II Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, is an example of what non-fiction writing should be. On the bitterly cold night of January 30th, 1945, three torpedoes from the Soviet submarine S-13 sank a ship that was evacuating 10,573 German refugees from advancing Russian forces. Found insideHistorian Tim Heath searches for the answers and provides a definitive voice for this unique, and until now, unheard generation of German females. “An essential account of the women who served Hitler during his years of power. Sunk by a Soviet submarine in 1945, the death toll on the Wilhelm Gustloff was equivalent to nearly six Titanics. Wilhelm Gustloff sinking Thread starter Whirlwind21; Start date Dec 19, 2011; Whirlwind21 The Real Merchant of Doom. “Because road and rail transport was so dangerous at the time, it was considered best to send these girls on the Gustloff. The ship was escorted by 3 other vessels, but the captains could not agree on a route. Thus, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff became the worst maritime disaster in history in regard to greatest loss of life.. Not only did people die in the explosions, get trapped in the ship or drown, but the cold weather (0°F air temperature and 39°F water temperature) caused many to perish from hypothermia. 1945 at the age of 20 years had to sacrifice her young life. The dead numbered between 6,000-9,000. A greater danger, the Germans believed at the time, came from British torpedo planes and bombers as well as from mines. Unfortunately, it only made the ship easier to spot by Soviet submarines nearby. It was windy and cold with hail bombarding the deck and the few passengers hardy enough to be outside. The MV Wilhelm Gustloff sank after being torpedoed by the Soviet submarine S-13 on January 30, 1945. THE sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff came at a time when Nazi Germany was already on the brink of collapse, so much so that Captain Petersen, who survived the sinking, was not even disciplined, though he died shortly after the end of the war. Scale model 1:1250 German cruise ship "WILHELM GUSTLOFF" 1937. Episode 12 - The Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff from The Podcast of Doom on Podchaser, aired Thursday, 8th May 2014. Save my name, email, and site URL in my browser for next time I post a comment. “There must have been 60,000 people on the docks,” Walter Knust, the Gustloff’s second engineer, later said. Wilhelm Gustloff: World's Deadliest Sea Disaster: Directed by Robert M. Wise, James Younger. On January 30, 1933, Hitler was elected by the German electorate to be their Chancellor. This story is primarily told through her photographs, letters, survivor accounts, and original artifacts from on board and salvaged from her wreck. Young adult author Ruta Sepetys revisits the ship's 1945 sinking in Salt to the Sea. On Jan. 30, 1945, the MV Wilhelm Gustloff, a German military transport carrying refugees, was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine and sank in the Baltic Sea. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Once underway, the Wilhelm Gustloff began to battle its way through the choppy, blustery Baltic Sea, un-escorted and with its only protection being the few anti-aircraft guns it had on-board. Oddly, she also had two lead captains, one civilian and one military.
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