Hospital Ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff & MV Steuben The sinking of Germanys huge luxury passenger liner the Hospital Ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff remains the worse ever maritime disaster . It occurred in the final stages of WW2 on 30 January 1945 . She was consequently re-painted in internationally recognized hospital colour scheme . Wilhelm Gustloffs final voyage was during Operation Hannibal while participating in the evacuation of civilian refugees who were surrounded by the Red Army in East Prussia . The Red Army had stormed into East Prussia & German Pomerania . Urged on by Stalin the Red Army would embark on an orgy of rape & destruction . Operation Hannibal was a Kriegsmarine operation involving the evacuation by sea of civilian refugees who were surrounded by the Red Army in Courland East Prussia & the Polish Corridor from 33 January – 8 May 1945 . This is not to forget the depleted Wehrmacht & Waffen-SS trying to hold the Soviets back while civilians evacuated . The Hospital Ship Wilhelm Gustloff was sighted by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of Captain Alexander Marinesko . Marinesko launched three torpedoes at the Wilhelm Gustloff . Soon after that captain Marinesko fired at torpedo boat Löwe that had come to the aid of the Hospital Ship . Despite Löwe being overloaded with 564 survivors . Heinz Schön who carried out extensive research into the sinking during the 1990s concluded that the Hospital Ship Wilhelm Gustloff was carrying some military personnel & 8956 civilian refugees among them an estimated 4000 children for a total of 10582 passengers & crew . The figures from the research of Schön make the total lost in the sinking to be about 9343 men women & children . This would make it the largest loss of life in a single sinking in maritime history . On 9 February 1945 the German luxury passenger liner MV Steuben sailed from Pillau in the bay of Danzig for Swinemünde . East Prussian refugees headed West away from the city of Königsberg & ahead of the Soviet Red Armys advance into the Baltic states & East Prussia . The Steuben was in the fleet of ships sent for the purpose . On board were 2800 wounded soldiers 800 civilian refugees & 270 navy medical personnel . Just after midnight Captain Alexander Marinesko launched two torpedoes from his Soviet submarine S-13 . Between three & four thousand people died in the sinking . About 300 survivors were saved by torpedo boat T-196 & brought to Kolberg . Soviet Captain Alexander Marinesko was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously in May 1990 . The worlds second worst maritime tragedy was the Soviet sinking of the German transport ship MV Goya . The sinking of this vessel shares many similarities with the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff & Steuben . Image : Public domain . Stefan Davis .
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 07:45:48 +0000
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