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Av Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H27992 / Sönnke, Hans / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5434070
31 Jan 2025

Fire & Rescue in the Rear View Mirror: 9400 people died in the sinking of M/S Wilhem Gustloff in 1945

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On January 30, 1945, the German military transport ship Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea while evacuating civilians and military personnel from East Prussia and the German-occupied Baltic states. 

An estimated 9,400 people perished, making it the largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history. 

en.wikipedia.org

 

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons License
The shiuip in 1939 at rthe beginning of the war. By:  Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H27992 / Sönnke, Hans / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5434070

 

Originally constructed as a cruise ship for the Nazi Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude) organization in 1937, Wilhelm Gustloff was requisitioned by the German navy in 1939. She served as a hospital ship in 1939 and 1940, then as a floating barracks for naval personnel in Gotenhafen (now Gdynia, Poland), before being fitted with anti-aircraft guns and put into service to transport evacuees in 1945. 

en.wikipedia.org

 

The ship was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of Captain Alexander Marinesko. The attack resulted in the ship sinking within an hour, leading to the massive loss of life. 

nationalww2museum.org

 

Despite the scale of the tragedy, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff remains relatively unknown outside of Germany and Eastern Europe. Factors contributing to this include the chaotic conditions at the end of World War II, the focus on other wartime events, and the fact that the victims were primarily German civilians and military personnel. 

smithsonianmag.com

 

For more detailed information, you can refer to the following resources:

Additionally, this video provides a dramatic depiction of the sinking: