MS Wilhelm Gustloff, 9,000 lives lost in 1945
With a death toll six times greater than the Titanic, new light has been shed on MS Wilhelm Gustloff, as a result a TV series that aired on Germany’s ZDF Channel last night.
The Independent is reporting:
“There was this sea of adult heads floating all around me, but alongside them there were hundreds of children’s legs half sticking up in the air. Their heads were under water,” Mr Schön, now 82, said. “They all drowned. Nobody realized that a child’s head is heavier than its legs.”
The Independent post is here.
An estimated 9,000 passengers and crew, fleeing East Prussia, perished (5,000 children) as a result of the the sinking of MS Wilhelm Gustloff back in January, 1945. Gustloff was carrying 10,000 refugees packed into every corner of the ship. Struck by three Soviet torpedoes, she took only 70 minutes to sink.
During her life, MS Wilhelm Gustloff saw many incarnations: Cruise ship, Hospital ship, Navy ship, and Rescue ship.
The sinking (from Gustloff website) Sometime before 8PM , the first officer on the S-13 spots lights in the distance. Marinesko promptly makes his way to the conning tower. When the snow clears for a moment he spots in his words “the silhouette of an [enormous] ocean liner, even [with its] lights showing”. Over the next two hours, Marinesko shadows the Wilhelm Gustloff, fine tuning his plan of attack. His crew on board begin to sense that their luck is about to change.
MS Wilhelm Gustloff in better days
Her history is well chronicled here.
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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Axel Heye // Mar 5, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I was told by Germans with maritime background that this movie had nothing to do with reality.
2 Tim Flanagan // Mar 5, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Thanks for the post. I had never heard of this disaster. Titanic, Lusitania, Bismark, Edmund Fitzgerald…THEM I’ve heard of! Funny how this little 9,000-casualty event escapes ones notice.
3 Axel Heye // Mar 6, 2008 at 4:31 am
Well there was another one with 4.600 fatalities. The ships name was Cap Arkona from Hamburg Sued. I just can’t find anything in english about it
4 Tim // Mar 6, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Great Story — how come no one knows about this???
5 Axel Heye // Mar 6, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I found some info on the Cap Arkona desaster. the link is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap_Arcona
We never learned at school about it but since my father was the youngest PT boat commander and my grandfather the boss of the German Navy Seals (Einzelkaempfer/1-Mann U-Boote) we talked at home about it
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