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If you thought that the Titanic was the largest ship disaster in history, then you would be
absolutely...wrong! This ship tragedy was SIX times deadlier than the Titanic!
In January of 1945, this German ship known as the Nazi Titanic was hit by three torpedoes
in the Baltic Sea while evacuating refugees
and Nazi officials who were surrounded by the Red Army in East Prussia.
The Wilhelm Gustloff was launched in May, 1937 and was supposed to be named after Adolf
Hitler but was instead named after Wilhelm Gustloff, a leader of the National Socialist
Party in Switzerland who was assassinated in 1936.
The ship was built to be a cruise liner and host concerts, cruises, and other trips for
German soldiers, politicians, and their families, and to present "a more acceptable image of
the Third Reich.” In 1939 she started her military career and
was in charge of bringing the Condor Legion back from Spain after the victory of the Nationalist
Party forces under General Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War. The Condor Legion
were German Airforce and Army volunteers that developed methods of terror bombing which
were used widely in the Second World War. They were responsible for the
bombing of Guernica, made famous by Picasso’s painting, shown here.
She served as a hospital ship for about a year until she was turned into barracks for
U-boat trainees in the port shown right here on the map. The trainees actually acted as extras
in the German remake of the movie Titanic in 1942.
The Wilhelm Gustloff sat on the docks for over 4 years until someone thought of using
her as part of Operation Hannibal. Operation Hannibal was the naval evacuation
of German military personnel and refugees from Prussia
as the Red Army advanced. Here is a map so you have some idea.
The intention was to take everyone from here.....to here
10,582 people were on a cruise ship that was meant to accommodate only about 1,900. Most
of them were refugees and about 5000 of them were children. As the ship was
leaving it was spotted by a Soviet submarine that launched 3 torpedoes hitting it on its
side. The ship sunk in less than 45 minutes and the majority of the passengers drowned
in the freezing water. So why do so few people know about the Wilhelm
Gustloff? It is possible the Nazi regime actively tried to hide the facts and Germans were hesitant
to claim that they had been victims. The Soviets were also not very keen on bragging
about sinking the ship since the captain of the submarine was facing a court martial due
to his problems with alcohol and they did not want to consider him a hero.
An estimated 9,400 people were killed in the disaster, making it the largest known loss
of life during a single ship sinking in recorded maritime history.