Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff January 1945

The Worst Maritime Disaster in the 20th Century took 9,000 Lives

Apr 10, 2009

The story of the Wilhelm Gustloff is closely tied to the on-going discussion of German refugees fleeing from the East in 1945 as Russian armies advanced on Berlin.

As Germany nears the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II, controversial topics will cause renewed discussion and debate. Tied to the already confrontational stance between Germany and Poland over the issue of World War II refugees fleeing to west, the saga of the Wilhelm Gustloff – “Hitler’s Titanic,” will receive new scrutiny. With over 9,000 killed, mostly women and children, on January 30, 1945, it remains as the worst maritime disaster of the 20th Century.

On January 21st, 1945, Grand Admiral Donitz implemented Operation Hannibal, an effort to transport millions of German refugees fleeing before the advancing Russian armies to Germany. The port of Gotenhafen outside of Danzig saw the assembling of various crafts including minor warships of the German Kriegsmarine.

The Wilhelm Gustloff would be one of those ships taking terrified refugees, wounded soldiers, and the wives and children of military personnel back to the relative safety of the Reich. Commissioned in 1937 as a pleasure liner, part of Hitler’s “Strength through Joy” movement, the vessel had been docked in Gotenhafen, used as a barracks.

The ship had no armaments and would have to depend on air cover and naval escorts. The lifeboats – motor-powered, had been removed long ago. Yet as explosions were heard constantly in the direction of the old Prussian capital Konigsberg, the Gustloff’s Captain, Friedrich Petersen, was ordered to cram thousands into a ship that before the war accommodated between 1,500 and 1,800 passengers.

Petersen, 63, hadn’t commanded a ship in some years. He was assisted by three other captains. Because the Russian forces were drawing increasingly closer, Petersen was forced to sail without the promised escorts. He had managed to find lifeboats of inferior quality as well as thousands of collapsibles.

Petersen sailed into poor weather, a blessing to ships avoiding submarine attacks. Shortly before 9:00 P.M., signals indicated the presence of multiple Russian submarines. Although other German ships received the signal, the Gustloff did not. Captain Petersen’s main concerns were mines, never realizing that a Russian submarine was only minutes from sinking his ship.

Captain Alexander Marinesko commanded the “S 13.” Having circled back to the main channels leading into Kiel, he spotted the great liner and order four torpedoes be fired. Three torpedoes raced toward the ship, the fourth was jammed in the submarine’s tube. All three torpedoes hit the Gustloff, the last one destroying the engine room.

The Gustloff’s SOS galvanized craft into action at top speeds to rescue survivors. For most of the unfortunates, help would be too late. The waters of the Baltic were frigid. Chaos reigned aboard the Gustloff as fear-crazed people fought for the few lifeboats. Some of the lifeboats crashed into the waters and capsized; few managed to clear the sinking ship.

By the time the cruiser Admiral Hipper arrived, the Gustloff was already gone. Realizing that it would be impossible to attempt a rescue operation without endangering his own vessel, the Hipper’s captain left the scene. This was not, however, the case of Lieutenant Robert Hering, a young officer commanding the newly commissioned Torpedo boat T 36.

Hering would become the “hero,” the energetic commander responsible for the rescue of hundreds in the boats or clinging to floating debris. Hering never saw himself as a hero, however, and kept the events of the night of January 30th to himself, not even discussing them with his own children.

The sinking of the Gustloff was kept from the German people but through the survivors the story soon became public. Fewer than 500 survived. Whether the action constituted a “war crime” is a matter for further analysis. Gunter Grass’ recently published novel Crabwalk, written about the disaster albeit as a piece of stream-of-consciousness, helped renew the discussion of refugees in 1945. The tragedy of the Gustloff is a major chapter in that discussion.

The copyright of the article Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff January 1945 in WW II History is owned by Michael Streich. Permission to republish Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff January 1945 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.