The sinking of 'Wilhelm Gustloff'. Destruction of Wilhelm Gustloff Wilhelm Gustloff ship
The most expensive film to date was released several weeks ago and brought record box office receipts. That movie, of course, is Titanic, and it's about the sinking of the ocean liner Titanic on April 15, 1912, which killed 1,513 people after the ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank.
There are a lot of superlative adjectives in this film. The Titanic was the largest ship ever built. It was the most luxurious ship, designed for comfortable, high-speed transatlantic travel of the rich and jaded. The implication is that the sinking of the Titanic was the greatest maritime disaster of all time. I am sure that the vast majority of Americans believe that this is true, but it is not so. Everyone has heard about the sinking of the Titanic, but few have heard about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, which was the greatest maritime disaster.
It's easy to see why everyone has heard of the Titanic: it was a very large, very expensive ship, supposedly virtually "unsinkable", that sank on its maiden voyage with a record number of celebrity tycoons on board. The irony of the sinking caused a public outcry and widespread press coverage. In contrast, when the Wilhelm Gustloff sank, killing over 7,000 people, the controlled media took the deliberate position that nothing much worth writing about or even mentioning had happened. Like the Titanic, the Wilhelm Gustloff was a large passenger sea liner, relatively new and luxurious. However it was German passenger airliner. She was sunk in the Baltic Sea on the night of January 30, 1945 by a Soviet submarine. It was packed with almost 8,000 Germans, most of them women and children fleeing the advancing Soviet Army.
Many of these German refugees lived in East Prussia, the part of Germany that the communists and their democratic allies decided to take from Germany and give to the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. Others lived in Danzig and surrounding areas, which the Democrats and Communists decided to take from Germany and give to Poland. All these refugees were fleeing the terror of the Reds, who had already shown what was in store for those Germans who fell into their hands.
When Soviet military units intercepted columns of German refugees fleeing to the west, they did something that had not been seen in Europe since the Mongol invasion in the Middle Ages. All men - most of whom were peasants or Germans employed in vital professions and thus exempt from military service - were usually simply killed on the spot. All women, almost without exception, were gang raped. This was the fate of eight-year-old girls, eighty-year-old women, and women in the last stages of pregnancy. Women who resisted rape had their throats cut or shot. Often, after gang rape, women were killed. Many women and girls were raped so many times that they died from it alone.
Sometimes Soviet tank columns simply crushed fleeing refugees under their tracks. When units of the Soviet Army occupied settlements East Prussia, then they began such a bestial, bestial orgy of torture, rape and murder that it is not possible to fully describe it in this program. Sometimes they castrated men and boys before killing them. Sometimes they gouged out their eyes. Sometimes they burned them alive. Some women, after being gang raped, were crucified by nailing them while still alive to barn doors and then using them as shooting targets.
This brutal behavior of the communist troops is partly explained by the nature of the communist system, which, under the leadership of the Jews, overthrew Russian society and the Russian government at the hands of the dregs of Russian society - embittered losers, incompetent envious people and criminals. They were set against the more successful and fortunate, the noble and prosperous, with promises to the mob that if they overthrew the best of their people, they would take their place: the first would be last, and the last would be first.
And it was from among such rabble, these dregs of Russian society, that the heads of local Soviets and work collectives were recruited, if these posts were not already occupied by Jews. The Soviet soldiers of 1945 grew up under this rule of the worst; for 25 years they lived under commissars chosen from the scum of Russian society. Any tendency towards nobility or sublimity was ruthlessly eradicated. Stalin massacred 35,000 Red Army officers, half of the Russian officer corps, in 1937, just two years before the war began, because he did not trust gentlemen. The officers who replaced those executed during the 1937 purge were by no means more civilized in their behavior than the commissars themselves.
But a much more immediate and direct cause of the atrocities against the German population of East Prussia was Soviet misanthropic propaganda, which deliberately incited Soviet troops to rape and kill - even young German children. The chief of Soviet propaganda was a Jew imbued with animal hatred named Ilya Ehrenburg. One of his addresses to the Soviet troops said:
“Kill! Kill! There is nothing but evil in the German race; neither among those already living, nor among those not yet born, there is only one evil! Follow the commandments of Comrade Stalin. Destroy the fascist beast once and for all in its lair. Trample the racial pride of these German women. Take them for yourself as your rightful spoil. Kill! Moving forward uncontrollably, kill, valiant soldiers of the Red Army.”Of course, not all Soviet soldiers were rapists and murderous butchers: only the majority of them. Some of them retained a sense of decency and morality that even Jewish communism could not destroy. Alexander Solzhenitsyn was one of them. When the Red Army entered East Prussia in January 1945, he was a young captain. He later wrote in his Gulag Archipelago:
We all knew very well that if the girls were Germans, they could be raped and then shot. It was almost a badge of military distinction.In one of his poems, “Prussian Nights,” he describes a scene he witnessed in one of the houses in the city of Neidenburg, East Prussia:
Heringstrasse, house 22. It was not burned, just looted and devastated. Sobs against the wall, half muffled: a wounded mother, barely alive. Little girl on a mattress, dead. How many were there on it? Platoon, company? A girl turned into a woman, a woman turned into a corpse... The mother begs, “Soldier, kill me!”Because he did not take Comrade Ehrenburg's directives to heart, Solzhenitsyn was reported to the political commissar of his unit as politically unreliable, and thrown into the Gulag, a Soviet concentration camp.
So, German civilians fled East Prussia in horror, and for many of them, the only escape was through the icy Baltic Sea. They crowded into the port of Gotenhafen, near Danzig, hoping to sail west. Hitler ordered all available civilian vessels to be involved in the rescue operation. "Wilhelm Gustloff" was one of them. A passenger liner with a displacement of 25,000 tons, before the war it was used by the organization "Strength through Joy", which organized inexpensive travel and excursions for German workers. On January 30, 1945, when she set sail from Gotenhafen, she was carrying 1,100 officers and crew, 73 seriously wounded soldiers, 373 young women from the Women's Auxiliary Naval Service, and over 6,000 distraught refugees, most of them women and children.
Soviet submarines and aircraft were the main danger to this rescue operation. They viewed the refugee ships in the light of Ehrenburg's genocidal propaganda: the more Germans they killed, the better, and they did not care whether their victims were soldiers, women or children. Just after 21:00, when the Wilhelm Gustloff was 13 miles off the coast of Pomerania, three torpedoes from the Soviet submarine S-13, under the command of Captain A. I. Marinesko, hit the ship. Ninety minutes later he plunged under the icy waters of the Baltic. Despite heroic efforts by other German ships to pick up the drowning men, barely 1,100 people were rescued. The rest, more than 7,000 Germans, died that night in the freezing water.
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| Diagram of torpedo hits in the hull of Wilhelm Gustloff |
A few days later, on February 10, 1945, the same Soviet submarine sank the German hospital ship General von Steuben, drowning the 3,500 wounded soldiers on board who had been evacuated from East Prussia. For the Soviets, incited by Jewish misanthropic propaganda, the Red Cross sign meant nothing. On May 6, 1945, the German ship Goya, also taking part in the rescue operation, was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, and more than 6,000 refugees from East Prussia were killed.
The lack of awareness of these terrible maritime disasters of 1945 is widespread, even among people who consider themselves knowledgeable about maritime history. And this ignorance is due to the deliberate policies of the controlled media, policies that have relegated these disasters to the category of insignificant events. The reason for this media policy was originally the same reason why Jewish media bosses blamed the Germans for the murder of 15,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in the Katyn Forests in 1940. They knew it was the Soviets who wanted to “proletarianize” Poland and make the Poles more receptive to communist power, but they did not want to tarnish the image of our “valiant Soviet ally,” as the controlled American media called the Reds during the war. They wanted Americans to think of the Germans as the bad guys and the Soviets as the good guys, so they lied about the Katyn massacre.
Likewise, even in recent months war, they did not want the Americans to know that our “valiant Soviet ally” was killing and raping the civilian population of East Prussia and deliberately sinking civilian ships transporting refugees across the Baltic Sea. This could have a negative impact on America's enthusiasm to continue to destroy Germany with the help of our “valiant Soviet ally.” That's why the controlled media didn't report these things.
After the triumph of the democratic and communist allies and the unconditional surrender of Germany, this reason, of course, lost its relevance. But by that time another motive had taken its place. The Jews began to create their own "Holocaust" story, and demand sympathy from the whole world, as well as reparation money from everyone they could get it from. When they began to lament about their supposed six million fellow tribesmen being killed in the “gas chambers” by the bad Germans, and portrayed themselves as innocent and harmless victims of the greatest crime in history, they did not want the presence of any facts that could interfere with their enterprise. And they certainly didn't want Americans to be aware of both sides of the conflict; they did not want the Germans to be seen as victims either. All Germans were evil, as Comrade Ehrenburg said so; and all Jews were good; and that's the point. The Jews suffered, but the Germans did not suffer, and therefore the whole world owes the Jews money for not stopping the “Holocaust.”
It could seriously damage their "Holocaust" propaganda if the American public learned about what was happening in East Prussia or the Baltic Sea - or learned that our "valiant Soviet ally" exterminated the layer the best people of the Polish nation in the Katyn Forest, and that some of the murderers who took part in this heinous crime were Jews. This is why there was a conspiracy of silence among the Jewish media bosses in America. That's why Hollywood spent $200 million on the Titanic but will never make a movie about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. And the point is not that such a film would not make money - I think that a film about East Prussia and Wilhelm Gustloff would be a huge success - but that there should be no sympathy for the Germans. There should be no reconsideration of the reasons why America waged war against Germany, no doubt whether we did the right thing by aligning ourselves with communism in the interests of the Jews. Apart from these considerations, the truth does not count, at least for the Jews who control our media.
This page of history is the reasons for America's participation in the war in Europe, which was completely unrelated to the war in Pacific Ocean, despite the alliance between Germany and Japan - this page of history has always amazed me. And the reluctance of many Americans to explore this page is a curious phenomenon. I understand how the Clintonite elements feel. For this class of people who voted for Clinton, the Soviets were the good guys and the Germans the bad guys, for ideological reasons. Gang rapes, mass murders, and sinkings of boats by refugees are not crimes in the eyes of Bill-and-Hillary types if they are committed by communists against “Nazis.”
But among the Americans who fought in Europe there were also many decent people, American anti-communists, and many of them do not want to think about and admit the fact that they fought on the wrong side. People like the American Legion and the WFU don't want to hear about who actually killed Polish intellectuals and Polish leaders in the Katyn Forest. They don't want to know what happened in East Prussia in 1945. They really don't like it when I ask them why we fought Germany in the name of freedom, and at the end of the war we gave half of Europe into communist slavery? They get angry when I suggest that perhaps Franklin Roosevelt was the same sort of lying Jewish collaborator and traitor as Bill Clinton, and that in exchange for media support he lied to us into a war on the side of the Jews, just as Clinton lies to us into the war in the Middle East on the side of the Jews.
I was too young to be in the military during World War II, but I'm sure if I had fought in that war I would have been even more interested in what was behind it. I am confident that knowing the truth about these things is much more important than the carefully guarded belief that our cause was supposedly right. I believe we need to understand how we have been deceived in the past in order to avoid being deceived in the future.
William Pierce, March 1998
William Luther Pierce - Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff
"Wilhelm Gustloff"
In the second half of the 1930s. The German organization “Kraft Dürch Freude” (“Strength through joy”), designed to provide adequate rest for workers and employees, decided to take up sea cruises. For this purpose, ships of various German companies were first chartered, and in 1935 Kraft Durtsch Freude ordered two first-class cruise ships for itself - Wilhelm Gustloff and Robert Ley. The first of them was laid down in May 1937 at the Blom und Voss shipyard in Hamburg. The new ship was named after the Nazi party leader, founder and head of the Swiss branch of the NSDAP. He was killed by Jewish student David Frankfurter in 1936, after which he was declared a “martyr” by the Third Reich.
"Wilhelm Gustloff"
The basic data of the two formally similar courts were somewhat different. The gross tonnage of the Wilhelm was 25,484 brt, length - 208.5 m, width - 23.5 m, draft - 7 m, the power plant consisted of four eight-cylinder Sulzer diesel engines with a total power of 9500 hp, speed - 15.5 knots, crew – 417 people. During the cruise voyage, the ship could carry 1,463 passengers.
In terms of accommodating tourists, the liners were very democratic: they had only one class, and the level of comfort was considered quite high. Both ships were equipped, for example, with indoor swimming pools. "Wilhelm" and "Ley" can be considered the prototypes of modern cruise ships: they had a shallow draft, allowing them to enter most European ports. The economical power plant made it possible to do without bunkering for a long time. True, the new liners could not boast of high speed, which, however, was not a significant drawback. In addition, diesel engines had a fairly high level of vibration.
In March 1938, the Wilhelm Gustloff set off on its maiden voyage. The ship was relocated to the Mediterranean Sea and began making week-long cruises around Italy, where vacationers from the Reich were transported by train. Already on the very first voyage, “Wilhelm”, its captain and crew had a chance to deservedly become famous - in the most severe storm conditions, an operation was carried out to rescue the crew of the sinking English steamer “Pegaway”.
On August 26, 1939, Wilhelm was recalled from her cruise to Hamburg. As a medical evacuation transport, it was involved in the Norwegian campaign. Until the end of November 1940, the ship made four voyages to Norway and one to the Baltic, transporting more than 7,000 wounded. When the need for active use of the Wilhelm disappeared, the ship was transferred to Gotenhafen (Gdynia) and turned into a dormitory for cadets of the 2nd training division of submarines. Several classrooms were also equipped on board the liner, and practical classes - for example, in diving - were held in the ship's swimming pool. After training, school graduates were sent to newly formed submarine crews. During its stationary service, Wilhelm was bombed twice by Allied aircraft on October 9, 1943 and December 18, 1944, but was able to avoid damage.
In January 1945, after the successes of the Soviet army in Poland and East Prussia, the Hannibal plan came into effect. It provided for the transfer educational units German submarines stationed in the Eastern Baltic regions, to the ports of Kiel Bay.
On January 21, the captain of the Wilhelm Gustloff, Friedrich Petersen, received orders to prepare to go to sea. Four days later, after checking all the systems of the ship that had been idle for a long time, the liner was ready to sail. On board were 173 crew members, 918 officers and sailors of the submarine school under the command of Corvette Captain Wilhelm Zahn and 373 female Kriegsmarine auxiliary servicemen. By January 30, the day of sailing, the Wilhelm had received more than 4,000 refugees from East Prussia, resulting in a population of approximately 6,600 people, including approximately 2,000 women and 3,000 children, at the time of sailing.
On the evening of the same day, at 23:08, the Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of captain third rank A.I. Marinesko. Three torpedoes hit the left side of the ship: one in the bow, the second in the captain's bridge area, and the third in the midsection area. Despite the fact that all the watertight doors of the ship were immediately closed, it immediately became clear that it would soon sink. The third torpedo disabled the liner's power plant, which resulted in its complete loss of power. The distress signal was sent from the torpedo boat Löwe, which accompanied the Wilhelm on this voyage. "Wilhelm Gustloff" began to plunge with its nose, with an increasing list to the left side. In the very first seconds after the explosions, refugees from the lower decks began to rush upstairs to the lifeboats and rafts. As a result of the crush that occurred on the stairs and in the passages of the overloaded ship, as it turned out later, about a thousand people died. Many, desperate to get to life-saving means, committed suicide or asked to be shot.
Many members of the liner's crew assigned to the boats died in the explosions, and submariners took over the leadership of the rescue operation. They allowed only women and children to board the launch boats. Naturally, there was no talk of any rowing in the watercraft equipped in this way; the boats began to drift across the cold winter sea. Only a few lucky ones were taken from the decks of the Wilhelm and picked up from the Loewe boats and the large destroyer T-36 that approached the disaster site.
Around midnight, when the liner's list reached 22°, Captain Petersen gave the order to abandon the ship and save himself. A huge number of refugees crowded onto the glass-enclosed promenade deck, waiting to be loaded into lifeboats. When water appeared in the bow of the deck, a crush began again in the passages to the boat deck. Attempts to knock out the thick triplex glazing led nowhere. Only one of the armored glasses, already below the water level, eventually burst, and through the resulting gap several people were thrown to the surface of the sea. Before the liner completely sank, about 2,500 more people died on board. The Wilhelm Gustloff sank with a list of about 90° shortly after midnight. The agony of the liner lasted only about an hour. At an air temperature of minus 18°, the people in the boats had little chance of survival. Many died from hypothermia. According to rough estimates, after landing in life-saving equipment About 1,800 people died. The exact number of victims of the disaster has not been fully clarified - according to researchers, depending on the assessment of the information at their disposal, it ranges from 5,340 to 9,343 people, including about 3,000 children. "Wilhelm Gustloff" still lies in the place of its destruction near Gdynia.
In the USSR, and in modern Russia propaganda declared the S-13 attack “the attack of the century.” A number of legends were associated with the sinking of the Wilhelm: supposedly on board there were formed and trained crews for the new German submarines (although there were only “training” cadets there) and Nazi bosses; in Germany, after the sinking of the ship, three days of mourning were declared, and Hitler called A.I. Marinesko as his “personal enemy.” But throughout the entire war, three-day mourning was declared only for the Wehrmacht’s 6th Army destroyed in Stalingrad, and Soviet publications confuse the mourning declared in 1936 after the death of the Swiss Nazi W. Gustloff with the one allegedly declared after the sinking of the ship. Hitler did not declare Marinesco his personal enemy. The myth about bonzes is explained by the fact that the evacuation documents of most passengers were certified by the local party leadership (a similar practice existed in the USSR when moving the population from front-line areas to the rear). However, the other extreme – accusing Marinesko of committing a war crime – is also untenable. By attacking the Wilhelm, the C-13 commander was fulfilling his duty. The transport was not officially declared a hospital ship, and besides, it was accompanied by a warship. Therefore, it is simply impossible to accuse Marinesko of excessive cruelty.
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Wilhelm Gustloff, sunk by Marinesco on January 30, 1945, was a German ten-deck passenger ship a cruise ship, one of the world's first ships of this type. Hitler was not only a good organizer, he was also an outstanding social manipulator and demagogue. Built with funds from the organization “Strength through Joy” (German: Kraft durch Freude - KdF it was Hitler’s analogue of the Soviet All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, a huge trade union collective farm). The ship was named after the murdered Nazi party leader Wilhelm Gustloff. At the time of construction it was one of the largest passenger ships.
Launched on May 5, 1937 at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg. The descent ceremony was attended by Adolf Hitler himself and the main leaders of the Nazi Party in Germany. The traditional bottle of champagne was broken on the side of the liner by Gustloff's widow. Before the outbreak of World War II, the ship was used as a floating holiday home. Made 50 cruises off the coast of Europe.
In September 1939, the ship was transferred to the Navy and converted into a floating hospital with 500 beds. It was used as an infirmary during the hostilities of the German army in Poland.
Since 1940, it was once again converted, now into a floating barracks. Used as a training vessel for the 2nd Submarine Training Division in the port of Gotenhafen (Gdynia).
On January 30, 1945, this liner sank off the coast of Poland after a torpedo attack by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of A. I. Marinesko. S-13 fired three torpedoes into the ship. He didn't have a chance. After 1942, USSR submariners stopped saving torpedoes and began firing them in a fan, three or four at a time. There's no way around this! The sinking of the ship is considered one of the largest disasters in the maritime history of mankind. The exact composition and number of passengers on board the ship is still unknown. According to official data, 5,348 people died in it; according to some historians, the real losses could exceed 9,000, including 5,000 children. Most likely, up to 10 thousand people died. The population of a small town, all at once!
Back in 1933, after the National Socialist German (note the workers!!!) Workers' Party led by Adolf Hitler came to power, one of its activities was the creation of a social security system and services, which would increase social support for Nazi policies among the population Germany. Already in the mid-1930s, the average German worker, in terms of the level of services and benefits that he was entitled to, compared favorably with workers in other European countries. To spread and strengthen the influence of the ideas of National Socialism and organize wide access for the working class to social benefits, organizations such as “Strength through Joy” were created, which was part of the German Labor Front (Hitler loved different fronts... Although front is a terrible word... .). The main goal of this organization was to create a system of recreation and travel for German workers. To realize this goal, among other things, a whole flotilla of passenger ships was built to provide cheap and affordable travel and cruises. The flagship of this fleet was to be a new comfortable airliner, which the authors of the project initially planned to name after the German Fuhrer. But then, on February 4, 1936, in Davos, Jewish medical student David Frankfurter killed the hitherto little-known Swiss NSDAP activist Wilhelm Gustloff. The story of his death gained scandalous publicity, especially in Germany, given the nationality of the killer. In the light of the propaganda of the ideas of National Socialism, the case of the murder of a German, moreover, the leader of the National Socialists of Switzerland, became an excellent confirmation of the Nazi conspiracy theory of world Jewry against the German people. From one of the ordinary leaders of foreign Nazis, Wilhelm Gustloff, through the efforts of Goebbels's propaganda, quickly turned into a “symbol of suffering” (the so-called Blutzeuge). He was buried with state honors; a wide variety of objects, dozens of streets and squares were named in his honor throughout Germany. Everything then had to be renamed back when the “thousand-year” Reich was covered with a copper basin in 12 years.
In this regard, when in 1937 the cruise ship ordered from the Blohm + Voss shipyard was ready for launch, the Nazi leadership decided to perpetuate the name of “the hero of the National Socialist cause and suffering for the German people.” At Hitler's initiative, it was decided to name the new liner Wilhelm Gustloff.
From a technological point of view, the Wilhelm Gustloff was not an exceptional vessel. The liner was designed for 1,500 people and had ten decks. Its engines were of medium power, and it was not built for fast travel, but rather for slow, comfortable cruising. And from the point of view of amenities, equipment and recreational facilities, this liner was truly one of the best in the world. One of the newest technologies used on it was the principle of an open deck, but covered with especially strong glass, with cabins that had direct access to it and a clear view of the landscapes. This glass, when the ship was torpedoed, increased the number of victims by hundreds of people. People could not leave the deck. At their disposal were a luxuriously decorated swimming pool, a winter garden, large spacious halls, music salons, several bars and cafes. Unlike other ships of its class, the Wilhelm Gustloff, in recognition of the "classless character" of the Nazi regime, had cabins of the same size and the same level of comfort for all passengers.
In addition to purely technical innovations and the best devices for an unforgettable trip, Wilhelm Gustloff, which cost 25 million Reichsmarks, was a unique symbol and an effective means of propaganda for the authorities of the Third Reich. According to Robert Ley, who headed the German Labor Front (another front...), liners like this could “... provide the opportunity, at the will of the Fuehrer, to the mechanics of Bavaria, the postmen of Cologne, the housewives of Bremen, at least once a year, to carry out affordable price cruise to warm Madeira, along the Mediterranean coast, to the shores of Norway and Africa.”
For German citizens, a trip on the Wilhelm Gustloff was supposed to be not only unforgettable, but also affordable, despite social status. For example, a five-day cruise along the coast of Italy on a motor ship cost only 150 Reichsmarks, while the average monthly earnings of an ordinary German was 150-250 Reichsmarks (the cost of a ticket on this liner was only a third of the price of similar cruises in Europe, where only representatives of wealthy sections of the population or nobility). Thus, Wilhelm Gustloff, with its amenities, level of comfort and accessibility, strengthened the disposition of the German people towards the Nazi regime. It also had to demonstrate to the whole world the achievements and advantages of National Socialism.
After the ship's ceremonial launch, 10 months passed before Gustloff underwent sea trials in May 1938. During this time, the finishing and arrangement of the interior of the liner was completed. As a thank you to the ship's builders, they took the ship on a two-day cruise in the North Sea, which qualified as a test cruise. The first official cruise took place on May 24, 1938, and almost two-thirds of its passengers were citizens of Austria, which Hitler dreamed of annexing to Germany with the complete delight of the Austrians. The unforgettable trip was intended to stun the Austrians - the cruise participants - with the level of service and amenities and convince everyone of the benefits of an alliance with mighty Germany. The cruise was a real triumph, evidence of the achievements of the new German government. The press all over the world enthusiastically described the impressions of the cruise participants and the unprecedented luxury on board the ship. Hitler himself arrived on the liner, which symbolized all the best achievements of the country under his leadership.
Although Wilhelm Gustloff offered truly unforgettable and cheap travel and cruises, it also remained in history as a brilliant means of skillful propaganda and popularization of the Nazi regime. The first successful, although unplanned, incident occurred during the rescue of sailors from the English ship Peguey, which was in distress on April 2, 1938 in the North Sea. The courage and determination of the captain, who left a procession of three ships to save the British, was noted not only by the world press, but also by the English government - the captain was awarded, and a memorial plaque was later installed on the ship. Thanks to this occasion, when on April 10 Wilhelm Gustloff is used as a floating polling station for the Germans and Austrians of Great Britain participating in the plebiscite on the annexation of Austria, all publications have already written favorably about it. To participate in the plebiscite, almost 2,000 citizens of both countries and a large number of correspondents sailed to neutral waters off the coast of Great Britain. Only four of the participants in this event abstained from voting in favor. The Western and even the British communist press were delighted with the liner and the achievements of the new Germany.
As the flagship of the cruise fleet, Wilhelm Gustloff spent only a year and a half at sea and during this time completed 50 cruises as part of the Strength Through Joy program. About 65,000 vacationers visited it. Usually, in the warm season of the year, the liner offered travel along the North Sea, along the coast of Germany, along Norwegian fjords. In winter, the liner went on cruises around Mediterranean Sea, the coast of Italy, Spain and Portugal. For many, despite such minor inconveniences as being prohibited from going ashore in countries that did not support the Nazi regime, these cruises remained an unforgettable and most best time from the entire period of Nazi rule in Germany. Many ordinary Germans took advantage of the “Strength through Joy” program and were sincerely grateful to the new regime for providing recreational opportunities incomparable to those of the population in other European countries.
In addition to cruise activities, Wilhelm Gustloff, while remaining a state-owned ship, was involved in various events carried out by the German government. So on May 20, 1939, Wilhelm Gustloff transported troops for the first time - German volunteers of the Condor Legion, who took part in civil war in Spain on Franco's side. The arrival of the ship in Hamburg with “war heroes” on board caused a great stir throughout Germany, and a meeting of exceptional scope and pomp was staged in the port
The ship's last cruise took place on August 25, 1939. Unexpectedly during this scheduled flight in the middle North Sea the captain received an encrypted order to urgently return to port. The time for cruises was over - less than a week later, Germany attacked Poland and World War II began.
Later, a small messenger ship, which arrived at the scene of the tragedy of the liner on January 30, 1945, unexpectedly found, seven hours after the sinking of the liner, among hundreds of dead bodies, an unnoticed boat and in it a living baby wrapped in blankets - the last rescued passenger from the ship. The baby was adopted by one of the sailors who rescued people. The baby survived and grew up.
Gustloff's beautiful tale ended with three torpedoes on the port side. As a result, according to various estimates, from 1,200 to 2,500 people out of a little less than 11 thousand on board managed to survive. Maximum estimates place losses at 9,985 lives.
Anyone can easily find on the Internet a description of the terrible scenes of the death of the liner and thousands of dead babies floating upside down. Vests for adults are not easy to put on a small child so that he does not turn over in the water. Although in any case, the children would have died from hypothermia in 5-7 minutes, otherwise they would immediately choke. The most interesting thing is that none of the survivors blame Marinesko. They surprisingly calmly say that a ship with anti-aircraft guns and a thousand soldiers on board was completely legitimate war booty. Moreover, those who survived say that Hitler is to blame for everything... But Marinsko had nothing to do with it, he just fired torpedoes, like at the shooting range. The idiot captain did not turn off the lights on the ship and in the darkness of the winter night the liner shone like a Christmas tree! It was hard to miss. It is clear that any accusations against Marinesko are meaningless.
There was a war going on! And at such a time, the death of peaceful people is completely natural! This once again simply reminds us of the inhumanity of wars. Hitler received a “gift” for the anniversary of his rise to power on January 30, 1933. He received the “gift” on January 30, 1945; it was 10 thousand corpses in the icy water of the Baltic Sea. The beginning of Hitler’s activity received a worthy conclusion at its end! It is even possible that Marinesko had an order to carry out the attack, precisely taking into account the significance of the date for Hitler! In the USSR they really loved “dates”!
The Soviet system, which for many years did not recognize Marinesko’s merits, which only added fuel to the fire of doubts regarding the justification of the sinking of Gustloff. Although, of course, the scale of the tragedy is shocking. Almost 50 years after the attack of the Marinesco century, he was finally given proper honors. At the Bogoslovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg, Marinesco’s grave is very visited!!!
The title screen features two flagships of the German cruise fleet: Robert Ley and Wilhelm Gustloff. I was unable to wedge in the Marinesko monument. I hope history will forgive me for this.
Background [ | ]
History of the name[ | ]
Characteristics [ | ]
Launching the liner "Wilhelm Gustloff". Photo, 1937
From a technological point of view Wilhelm Gustloff was not an exceptional vessel. The liner was designed for 1,500 people and had ten decks. Its engines were of medium power and it was not built for fast travel, but rather for slow, comfortable cruising. And from the point of view of amenities, equipment and recreational facilities, this liner was truly one of the best in the world. One of the newest technologies used on it was the principle of an open deck with cabins that had direct access to it and a clear view of the scenery. At their service were provided a luxuriously decorated swimming pool, a winter garden, large spacious halls, music salons, and several bars. Unlike other ships of this class, Wilhelm Gustloff, in confirmation of the "classless character" of the Nazi regime, had cabins of the same size and the same excellent amenities for all passengers.
In addition to purely technical innovations and the best equipment for an unforgettable trip, Wilhelm Gustloff, which cost 25 million Reichsmarks, was a unique symbol and means of propaganda for the authorities of the Third Reich. According to Robert Ley, who led the German Labor Front, liners like this could " ...to provide the opportunity, by the will of the Fuhrer, to mechanics of Bavaria, postmen of Cologne, housewives of Bremen, at least once a year, to make an affordable sea voyage to Madeira, along the Mediterranean coast, to the shores of Norway and Africa.»
For German citizens, travel by ship Wilhelm Gustloff it had to be not only unforgettable, but also affordable, regardless of social status. For example, a five-day cruise along the coast of Italy cost only 150 Reichsmarks, while the average monthly salary of an ordinary German was 150-250 Reichsmarks (for comparison, the cost of a ticket on this liner was only a third of the cost of similar cruises in Europe, where only representatives of the wealthy strata of the population and the nobility). Thus, Wilhelm Gustloff with its amenities, level of comfort and accessibility, it not only cemented the disposition of the German people towards the Nazi regime, but also had to demonstrate to the whole world the advantages of National Socialism.
The flagship of the cruise fleet[ | ]
After the ceremonial launching of the ship, 10 months passed before Wilhelm Gustloff passed sea trials in May 1938. During this time, the finishing and arrangement of the interior of the liner was completed. As a thank you to the builders, the ship was taken on a two-day cruise in the North Sea, which qualified as a test cruise. The first official cruise took place on May 24, 1938, and almost two-thirds of its passengers were citizens of Austria, which Hitler intended to soon annex to Germany. The unforgettable trip was intended to stun the Austrians on the cruise with the level of service and amenities and convince others of the benefits of an alliance with Germany. The cruise was a real triumph, evidence of the achievements of the new German government. The world press enthusiastically described the impressions of the cruise participants and the unprecedented luxury on board the ship. Even Hitler himself arrived on the liner, which symbolized all the best achievements of the country under his leadership. When the excitement around this symbol of the Hitler regime subsided somewhat, the liner began to fulfill the task for which it was built - to provide affordable, comfortable cruises to the workers of Germany.
Propaganda tool[ | ]
Passenger airliner "Wilhelm Gustloff". Photo, ok. 1938
Although Wilhelm Gustloff offered truly unforgettable and cheap travel and cruises; it also remained in history as a prominent means of propaganda for the Nazi regime. The first successful, although unplanned, incident occurred during the rescue of the sailors of the English ship Peguey, which was in distress on April 2, 1938 in the North Sea. The courage and determination of the captain, who left a procession of three ships to save the British, was noted not only by the world press, but also by the English government - the captain was awarded, and a memorial plaque was later installed on the ship. Thanks to this occasion, when April 10 Wilhelm Gustloff used as a floating polling station for the Germans and Austrians of Great Britain participating in the plebiscite on the annexation of Austria, not only the British but also the world press have already written favorably about it. To participate in the plebiscite, almost 2,000 citizens of both countries and a large number of correspondents sailed to neutral waters off the coast of Great Britain. Only four of the participants in this event abstained. The Western and even the British communist press were delighted with the liner and Germany's achievements. The use of such a sophisticated vessel in the plebiscite symbolized the new things that the Nazi regime was introducing in Germany.
Cruises and troop transport[ | ]
Like the flagship of a cruise fleet Wilhelm Gustloff spent only a year and a half at sea and completed 50 cruises as part of the Strength Through Joy (STF) program. About 65,000 vacationers visited it. Typically, during the warm season, the liner offered travel around the North Sea, the coast of Germany, and the Norwegian fjords. In winter, the liner went on cruises along the Mediterranean Sea, the coasts of Italy, Spain and Portugal. For many, despite such minor inconveniences as being prohibited from going ashore in countries that did not support the Nazi regime, these cruises remained an unforgettable and the best time of the entire period of Nazi rule in Germany. Many ordinary Germans took advantage of the Strength Through Joy program and were sincerely grateful to the new regime for providing recreational opportunities incomparable to other European countries.
In addition to cruise activities, Wilhelm Gustloff remained a state-owned ship and was involved in various activities carried out by the German government. So May 20, 1939 Wilhelm Gustloff for the first time transported troops - German volunteers of the Condor Legion, who took part in the Spanish Civil War on the side of Franco. The arrival of the ship in Hamburg with “war heroes” on board caused a great stir throughout Germany, and a special welcoming ceremony was held in the port with the participation of state leaders.
Military service [ | ]
The liner's last cruise took place on August 25, 1939. Unexpectedly, during a planned voyage in the middle of the North Sea, the captain received a coded order to urgently return to port. The time for cruises was over - less than a week later, Germany attacked Poland and World War II began.
Military hospital[ | ]
floating hospital, July 1940
As the war spread to most of Europe Wilhelm Gustloff first received wounded during the Norwegian campaign in the summer of 1940 ( on illus.), and then prepared to transport troops in the event of an invasion of Great Britain. However, the invasion did not take place and the ship was sent to Danzig, where the last 414 wounded were treated, and the ship awaited assignment to subsequent service. However, the ship's service as a military hospital ended - by decision of the Navy leadership, it was assigned to the submariner school in Gotenhafen. The liner was again repainted in gray camouflage, and it lost the protection of the Hague Convention that it previously had.
Floating barracks[ | ]
The ship served as a floating barracks for the Kriegsmarine submarine school for almost four years, most of this time being away from the front line. As the end of the war approached, the situation began to change not in Germany's favor - many cities suffered from Allied air raids. On October 9, 1943, Gotenhafen was bombed, as a result of which another ship of the former KDF was sunk, and itself Wilhelm Gustloff received damage [ ] .
Evacuation of the population[ | ]
According to modern estimates, there should have been 10,582 people on board: 918 junior cadets of the 2nd training submarine division (2. U-Boot-Lehrdivision), 173 crew members, 373 women from the auxiliary naval corps, 162 seriously wounded military personnel, and 8,956 refugees, mostly old people, women and children. When at 12:30 Wilhelm Gustloff accompanied by two guard ships, finally departed; disputes arose on the captain's bridge between the four senior officers. In addition to the ship's commander, Captain Friedrich Petersen (German), called up from retirement, the commander of the 2nd submarine training division and two merchant marine captains were on board, and there was no agreement between them as to which fairway to navigate the ship and what precautions to take regarding enemy submarines and aircraft. The outer fairway (German designation Zwangsweg 58) was chosen. Contrary to recommendations to go in a zigzag to complicate the attack by submarines, it was decided to go straight at a speed of 12 knots, since the corridor in the minefields was not wide enough and the captains hoped to get out into safe waters faster this way; In addition, the ship lacked fuel. The liner could not reach full speed due to damage received during the bombing. In addition, the TF-19 torpedo boat returned to port, having received damage to its hull when it collided with a reef, and only one destroyer remained on guard Lowe. At 18:00, a message was received about a convoy of minesweepers that was supposedly heading towards them, and when it was already dark, it was ordered to turn on the running lights to prevent a collision. In reality, there were no minesweepers, and the circumstances of the appearance of this radiogram have remained unclear to this day. According to other sources, a group of minesweepers was trawling towards the convoy and appeared later than the time specified in the notification.
Sinking [ | ]
At 21:16, the first torpedo hit the bow of the ship, later the second blew up the empty swimming pool where the women of the naval auxiliary battalion were, and the last hit the engine room, the engines stalled, but the lighting continued to work due to the emergency diesel generator. The passengers' first thought was that they had hit a mine, but Captain Peterson realized it was a submarine, and his first words were: Das war's(That's all). Those passengers who did not die from the three explosions and did not drown in the cabins on the lower decks rushed to the lifeboats in panic. At this moment it turned out that by ordering the watertight bulkheads in the lower decks to be closed, according to the instructions, the captain blocked part of the team, which was supposed to lower the boats and evacuate passengers. In the panic and stampede, not only many children and women died, but also many of those who climbed to the upper deck. They couldn't get down lifeboats, because they did not know how to do this, besides, many of the davits were iced over, and the ship had already received a strong list. Through the joint efforts of the crew and passengers, some boats were able to be launched, but many people still found themselves in the icy water. Due to the strong roll of the ship, an anti-aircraft gun fell off the deck and crushed one of the boats, already full of people. About an hour after the attack, the Wilhelm Gustloff sank completely.
Rescue of survivors[ | ]
Destroyer Lowe(a former ship of the Dutch Navy) was the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy and began rescuing the surviving passengers. Since the temperature in January was already −18 °C, there were only a few minutes left before irreversible hypothermia set in. Despite this, the ship managed to rescue 472 passengers from the lifeboats and from the water. The guard ships of another convoy, the cruiser Admiral Hipper, which also, in addition to the crew, also had about 1,500 refugees on board, also came to the rescue. Due to fear of attack from submarines, he did not stop and continued to retire to safe waters. Other ships (by “other ships” we mean the only destroyer T-38 - the sonar system did not work on the Lion, the Hipper left) managed to save another 179 people. A little more than an hour later, new ships that came to the rescue could only fish out dead bodies from ice water. Later, a small messenger ship that arrived at the scene of the tragedy unexpectedly found, seven hours after the sinking of the liner, among hundreds of dead bodies, an unnoticed boat and in it a living baby wrapped in blankets - the last rescued passenger from the ship Wilhelm Gustloff hospital ships had to be marked with the appropriate signs - a red cross, could not wear camouflage colors, and could not travel in the same convoy with military ships. Also, they could not carry any military cargo, stationary or temporarily placed air defense guns, artillery pieces or other similar equipment on board.
Wilhelm Gustloff was a warship on which six thousand refugees were allowed to board. The entire responsibility for their lives from the moment they boarded the warship rested with the appropriate officials of the German navy. Thus, we can assume that Wilhelm Gustloff was a legitimate military target of Soviet submariners due to the following facts:
- Wilhelm Gustloff carried out operations in a combat zone and was not a civilian ship: it had weapons on board that could be used to fight enemy ships and aircraft;
- Wilhelm Gustloff carried out the transfer of active-duty military personnel;
- Wilhelm Gustloff was a training floating base for the German submarine fleet;
- Wilhelm Gustloff was accompanied by a warship of the German fleet (destroyer Lowe);
Soviet transports with refugees and the wounded during the war repeatedly became targets for German submarines and aircraft (in particular, the motor ship "Armenia", sunk in 1941 in the Black Sea, was carrying more than 5 thousand refugees and wounded on board. Only 8 people survived However, “Armenia”, like Wilhelm Gustloff, violated the status of a medical ship and was a legitimate military target).
Reaction to tragedy[ | ]
In Germany, reaction to the sinking Wilhelm Gustloff at the time of the tragedy was quite restrained. The Germans did not disclose the scale of losses, so as not to worsen the morale of the population even further. In addition, at that moment the Germans suffered heavy losses in other places. However, at the end of the war, in the minds of many Germans, the simultaneous death of so many civilians and especially thousands of children on board Wilhelm Gustloff remained a wound that even time did not heal. [ ] Of the four captains who escaped after the death of the ship, the youngest, Kohler, committed suicide shortly after the war.
Based on the results of the campaign, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union, but the higher command refused this, replacing it with the Order of the Red Banner. The reason for his refusal was a number of disciplinary violations he committed. At the end of 1945, the law declared this place a mass grave and prohibited private individuals from visiting the remains. An exception was made for researchers, the most famous among whom is, who in ]
"Wilhelm Gustloff" (German: Wilhelm Gustloff) is a German passenger liner, owned by the German organization "Strength through Joy" (German: Kraft durch Freude - KdF), since 1940 a floating hospital. Named after the party leader Wilhelm Gustloff, who was killed by a Jewish terrorist.
Launched on May 5, 1937. During World War II it was used as an infirmary and dormitory. The death of the ship, torpedoed on January 30, 1945 by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of A. I. Marinesko, is considered biggest disaster in maritime history - only according to official data, 5,348 people died in it, and according to estimates of a number of historians, the real losses could be from eight to more than nine thousand victims.
Submarine type "C"
Background
After the National Socialist German Workers' Party, led by Adolf Hitler, came to power in 1933, one of its activities was the creation of a wide network of social security and services for the German population. Already in the mid-30s, the average German worker, in terms of the level of services and benefits that he was entitled to, compared favorably with workers in the capitalist countries of Europe. To organize the leisure of the working class, organizations such as “Strength through Joy” (German: Kraft durch Freude - KDF), which was part of the German Labor Front (DAF), were created. The main goal of this organization was to create a system of recreation and travel for German workers. To realize this goal, among other things, a whole flotilla of passenger ships was built to provide cheap and affordable travel and cruises. The flagship of this fleet was to be a new comfortable airliner, which the authors of the project planned to name after the German Fuhrer - Adolf Hitler.
Assassination of Wilhelm Gustloff
On February 4, 1936, the Swiss leader of the NSDAP, Wilhelm Gustloff, was assassinated in Davos by Jewish terrorist David Frankfurter. The story of his death became widely publicized, especially in Germany. The murder of the leader of the National Socialists of Switzerland was a clear confirmation of the fact that world organized Jewry declared open war against the German people, who had escaped their control. Wilhelm Gustloff was buried with state honors, numerous rallies were held in his honor throughout Germany, and a wide variety of objects in Germany were named after him.
In this regard, when in 1937 the cruise liner ordered from the Blom & Voss shipyard was ready for launch, the German leadership decided to perpetuate its name in the name of the ship.
At the ceremonial launching on May 5, 1937, in addition to the country's government officials, Gustloff's widow also arrived, and at the ceremony, according to tradition, she broke a bottle of champagne on the side of the liner.
Characteristics
From a technological point of view, the Wilhelm Gustloff was not an exceptional ship. she was built for comfortable cruising. However, in terms of amenities, equipment and recreational facilities, this ship was truly one of the best in the world. Unlike other ships of its class, the Gustloff, in confirmation of the “classless character” of the National Socialist system, had cabins of the same size and the same excellent amenities for all passengers. The liner had ten decks. One of the newest technologies used on it was the principle of an open deck with cabins that had direct access to it and a clear view of the scenery. The liner was designed for 1,500 people. At their service were provided a luxuriously decorated swimming pool, a winter garden, large spacious halls, music salons, and several bars.
In addition to purely technical innovations and the best devices for an unforgettable journey, the Wilhelm Gustloff was a kind of naval symbol of the Third Reich, as the first national socialist state in history. According to Robert Ley, who headed the German Labor Front, liners like this could: provide the opportunity for mechanics of Bavaria, postmen of Cologne, housewives of Bremen to make an affordable sea trip at least once a year to Madeira, along the Mediterranean coast, to the shores of Norway and Africa
For German citizens, a trip on the Gustloff should have been not only unforgettable, but also affordable, regardless of social status. For example, a five-day cruise along the Italian coast cost only 150 Reichsmarks, while the average monthly income of an ordinary German was 150-250 Reichsmarks. For comparison, the cost of a ticket on this ship was only a third of the cost of similar cruises in Europe, where only representatives of the wealthy and nobility could afford them. Thus, “Wilhelm Gustloff”, with its amenities, level of comfort and accessibility, not only personified the successes and achievements of a new, truly popular state system, but also clearly demonstrated to the whole world the advantages of National Socialism.
Passenger liner "Wilhelm Gustloff"
The flagship of the cruise fleet
The first official cruise took place on May 24, 1938, and almost two-thirds of its passengers were citizens of Austria, whose people considered themselves part of Germany. The cruise was a real triumph, evidence of the achievements of the new German government. The world press enthusiastically described the impressions of the cruise participants and the excellent service on board the ship. Even the Reich Chancellor of Germany himself arrived on the liner, which symbolized all the best achievements of the country under his leadership. After this event, the ship began to fulfill the mission for which it was built - to provide affordable, comfortable cruises to the workers of Germany.
Launching. "Wilhelm Gustloff."
"Wilhelm Gustloff", in the course of its passenger cruise activities, also turned out to be a rescue ship. The first successful, although unplanned, incident occurred during the rescue of the sailors of the English ship Peguey, which was in distress on April 2, 1938 in the North Sea. The courage and determination of the captain, who left a procession of three ships to save the British, was noted not only by the world press, but also by the English government - the captain was awarded, and a memorial plaque was later installed on the ship. Thanks to this occasion, when on April 10 the Gustloff was used as a floating polling station for the Germans and Austrians of Great Britain participating in the plebiscite on the annexation of Austria, not only the British but also the world press already wrote favorably about it. To participate in the plebiscite, almost 2,000 citizens of both countries and a large number of correspondents sailed to neutral waters off the coast of Great Britain. Only four of the participants in this event abstained. The Western and even the British communist press were delighted with the liner and Germany's achievements. The participation of such a perfect vessel in the plebiscite symbolized what was new everywhere in Germany at that time.
As the flagship of the cruise fleet, the Wilhelm Gustloff spent only a year and a half at sea and completed 50 cruises as part of the Strength Through Joy program. About 65,000 vacationers visited it. Typically, during the warm season, the liner offered travel around the North Sea, the coast of Germany, and the Norwegian fjords. In winter, the liner went on cruises along the Mediterranean Sea, the coasts of Italy, Spain and Portugal. For many, these cruises remained unforgettable and the best time of the entire period of national socialism in Germany. Many ordinary Germans took advantage of the services of the “Strength through Joy” program and were sincerely grateful to the country’s leadership for providing recreation opportunities incomparable with other European countries.
In addition to cruising activities, the Wilhelm Gustloff remained a state-owned ship and was involved in various activities carried out by the German government. So on May 20, 1939, the Wilhelm Gustloff transported troops for the first time - German volunteers of the Condor Legion, which took part in the Spanish Civil War. The arrival of the ship in Hamburg with German volunteers on board caused a great stir throughout Germany, and a special welcoming ceremony was held in the port with the participation of state leaders.
Military service
The ship's last cruise took place on August 25, 1939. Unexpectedly, during a planned voyage in the middle of the North Sea, the captain received a coded order to urgently return to port. The time for cruising was over—World War II began less than a week later.
Military hospital
With the outbreak of war, almost all KDF ships ended up in military service. "Wilhelm Gustloff" was converted into a hospital ship (German: Lazarettschiff) and assigned to the German Navy. The liner was repainted white and marked with red crosses, which was supposed to protect it from attack in accordance with the Hague Convention. The first patients began arriving on board in October 1939. Remarkable fact- most of the first patients were wounded Polish prisoners. Over time, when German losses became noticeable, the ship was sent to the port of Gothenhafen (Gdynia), where it took on board even more wounded, as well as Germans (Volksdeutsche) evacuated from East Prussia.
The ship's service as a military hospital ended - by decision of the Navy leadership, it was assigned to the submariner school in Gotenhafen. The liner was again repainted in gray camouflage, and it lost the protection of the Hague Convention that it had previously had.
Having turned into a floating barracks for a submarine school, the Wilhelm Gustloff spent most of her life in this capacity. short life- almost four years. As the end of the war approached, the situation began to change not in Germany's favor - many cities suffered from Allied air raids. On October 9, 1943, Gotenhafen was bombed, as a result of which another ship of the former KDF was sunk, and the Wilhelm Gustloff itself was damaged.
Evacuation of the population
In the second half of 1944, the front came very close to East Prussia. Communist military propaganda in every possible way fanned the anti-German psychosis and called on its soldiers to take just revenge on the German “fascists”.
In October 1944, the first detachments of the Red Army were already on the territory of East Prussia. First German city, captured by the communists, was Nemmersdorf (now the village of Mayakovskoye Kaliningrad region). A few days later they managed to recapture him for a while, but the picture of mass murder and rape that presented itself plunged all of Germany and Europe into shock. These terrible atrocities of the communists caused a backlash - the number of volunteers in the Volkssturm militia (People's Squads) increased, but as the front approached, millions of people found themselves refugees.
Poster: "For freedom and life."
At the beginning of 1945, a significant number of people were already fleeing in panic. Many of them headed to ports on the coast Baltic Sea. To evacuate a huge number of refugees, on the initiative of German Admiral Karl Dönitz, a special operation “Hannibal” was carried out, which went down in history as the largest evacuation of the population by sea in history. During this operation, almost 2 million civilians were evacuated to Germany - to large ships, like "Wilhelm Gustloff", as well as on bulk carriers and tugs.
In those days, the communists were rapidly moving west, towards Konigsberg and Danzig. Hundreds of thousands of German refugees were moving towards port city Gdynia - Gotenhafen. On January 21, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz gave the order: “All available German ships must save everything that can be saved from the Soviets.” Operation Hannibal was the largest evacuation in the history of navigation: over two million people were transported to the west.
Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz
Gotenhafen became refugees for many last hope- not only large warships stood here, but also large airliners, each of which could take on board thousands of refugees. One of them was "Wilhelm Gustloff".
Developments
Thus, as part of Operation Hannibal, on January 22, 1945, the Wilhelm Gustloff began taking refugees on board. When tens of thousands of people gathered at the port and the situation became more complicated, they began to let everyone in, giving preference to women and children. Since the planned number of places was only 1,500, refugees began to be placed on decks and in passages. Women soldiers were even accommodated in an empty swimming pool. On last stages After the evacuation, the panic intensified so much that some women in the port, in desperation, began to give their children to those who managed to get on board, in the hope of at least saving them in this way. At the end, on January 30, 1945, the ship’s crew officers had already stopped counting the refugees, whose number had exceeded 10,000.
According to modern estimates, there should have been 10,582 people on board: 918 cadets, 173 crew members, 373 women from the auxiliary naval corps, 162 seriously wounded military personnel, and 8,956 refugees, mostly old people, women and children. When at 12:30 the Wilhelm Gustloff, accompanied by two escort ships, finally departed.
Contrary to recommendations to go in a zigzag to complicate the attack by submarines, it was decided to go straight at a speed of 12 knots, since the corridor in the minefields was not wide enough and the captains hoped to get out into safe waters faster this way; In addition, the ship lacked fuel. The liner could not reach full speed due to damage received during the bombing. In addition, the TF-19 torpedo boat returned to the port of Gotenhafen, having received damage to its hull in a collision with a stone, and only one destroyer, Löwe, remained in guard duty. At 18:00, a message was received about a convoy of minesweepers that was supposedly heading towards them, and when it was already dark, it was ordered to turn on the running lights to prevent a collision. In reality, there were no minesweepers, and the circumstances of the appearance of this radiogram have remained unclear to this day.
Sinking
When the commander of the Soviet submarine S-13 Marinesko saw the Wilhelm Gustloff, brightly lit, contrary to all norms of military practice, he followed it on the surface for two hours, choosing a position for attack. Even here, fate failed the Gustloff, as submarines were usually unable to catch up with surface ships, but Captain Peterson was moving slower than the design speed, given the significant overcrowding of passengers.
At about nine o'clock, S-13 came from the shore, where it was least expected, and from a distance of less than 1,000 m at 21:04 fired three torpedoes.
At 21:16 the first torpedo hit the bow of the ship, later the second blew up the empty swimming pool where the women of the naval auxiliary battalion were located, and the last hit the engine room. The passengers' first thought was that they had hit a mine, but Captain Peterson realized that it was a submarine, and his first words were: Das war's (That's all). Those passengers who did not die from the three explosions and did not drown in the cabins on the lower decks rushed to the lifeboats in panic. At that moment, it turned out that by ordering the watertight compartments in the lower decks to be closed, according to the instructions, the captain had accidentally blocked part of the team, which was supposed to lower the boats and evacuate passengers. Therefore, in the panic and stampede, not only many children and women died, but also many of those who climbed to the upper deck. They could not lower the lifeboats because they did not know how to do this, besides, many of the davits were iced over, and the ship was already heavily listing. Through the joint efforts of the crew and passengers, some boats were able to be launched, but many people still found themselves in the icy water. Due to the strong roll of the ship, an anti-aircraft gun came off the deck and crushed one of the boats, already full of people. About an hour after the attack, the Wilhelm Gustloff completely sank.
Two weeks later, on February 10, 1945, the submarine C-13 Marinesco sank another large German transport, the General Steuben, carrying refugees, killing about 3,700 more people.
German transport "General Steuben"
Rescue of survivors
The destroyer "Lion" was the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy and began rescuing the surviving passengers. Since the temperature in January was already -18 °C, there were only a few minutes left before irreversible hypothermia set in. Despite this, the ship managed to rescue 472 passengers from the lifeboats and from the water. The guard ships of another convoy, the cruiser Admiral Hipper, also came to the rescue, which, in addition to the crew, also had about 1,500 refugees on board. Due to fear of attack from submarines, he did not stop and continued to retire to safe waters. Other ships (by “other ships” we mean the only destroyer T-38 - the sonar system did not work on the Lev, the Hipper left) managed to save another 179 people. A little more than an hour later, new ships that came to the rescue could only fish dead bodies from the icy water. Later, a small messenger ship that arrived at the scene of the tragedy unexpectedly found, seven hours after the sinking of the liner, among hundreds of dead bodies, an unnoticed boat and in it a living baby wrapped in blankets - the last rescued passenger of the Wilhelm Gustloff.
Cruiser "Admiral Hipper"
As a result, according to various estimates, from 1,200 to 2,500 people out of more than 10 thousand on board survived. Maximum estimates put the loss at 9,343 lives.
During the war, Soviet transports with refugees and wounded on board also became targets for enemy submarines and aircraft (in particular, the motor ship "Armenia", sunk in 1941 in the Black Sea, was carrying more than 5 thousand refugees and wounded on board. Survived only 8 people. However, “Armenia”, like “Wilhelm Gustloff”, violated the status of a medical ship and was a legitimate military target).
motor ship "Armenia", sunk in 1941
Reaction to tragedy
In Germany, the reaction to the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff at the time of the tragedy was rather restrained. The Germans did not disclose the scale of losses, so as not to worsen the morale of the population even further. In addition, at that moment the Germans suffered heavy losses in other places. However, after the end of the war, in the minds of many Germans, the simultaneous death of so many civilians and especially thousands of children on board the Wilhelm Gustloff remained a wound that even time did not heal. Together with the bombing of Dresden, this tragedy remains one of the most terrible events of the Second World War. Of the four captains who escaped after the death of the ship, the youngest, Kohler, unable to bear the feeling of guilt for the tragedy of the Wilhelm Gustloff, committed suicide shortly after the war.
In Soviet historiography, this event was called the “Attack of the Century.” Marinesko posthumously received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Monuments were erected to him in Kaliningrad, Kronstadt, St. Petersburg and Odessa. In Soviet military historiography he is considered submariner No. 1.
"Wilhelm Gustloff" in literature and cinema
In 1959, the feature film “Night over Gotenhafen” (German: Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen) about the tragedy of the shipwreck was shot in Germany.
The novel “The Trajectory of the Crab” (Im Krebsgang, 2002) by German writer and Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass received great attention. The book is narrated on behalf of a journalist, a resident of modern Germany, who was born on board the Gustloff on the day the ship crashed. The Gustloff disaster does not let go of the hero Grasse, and the events of more than half a century ago lead to a new tragedy. The book extremely negatively describes Marinesko, the submariner who sent 13 thousand refugees to the bottom.
On March 2-3, 2008, a new television film was shown on the German channel ZDF called “Die Gustloff”
"Wilhelm Gustloff" was sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of Marinesko on January 30, 1945.
