Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff: Worst Maritime Disaster in History

- 44 67 when to 0-0 at 1-0 runway 31 left cleared for pickle in 1936 Adolf Hitler ordered the construction of a cruise ship which would serve as the flagship of the German labor fund and would offer subsidized pleasure cruises to Germans as part of the strength through joy effort which aimed to make beneficial leisure activities available to the masses a cruise on the ship that would become known as vilhelm Kozlov was available for a quarter of the price of a comparable vacation vilhelm Kozlov was launched in 1937 sailed on her maiden voyage in April 1938 and was immediately popular among the German public but the story is not about pleasure cruising instead it is about the worst maritime disaster in history the sinking of Germany's civilian flagship would result in more deaths than Titanic Lusitania Empress of Ireland Britannic Sultana Atlantic and the Halifax Explosion combined by the beginning of 1945 the Soviet offensive on Poland and other Eastern German territories was underway the earlier atrocities committed by the Germans against the Soviets were suddenly a liability to the German civilians residing in those territories the Soviets would surely have their revenge stories of Soviet vengeance began to filter through to the German people evocative descriptions of the rape and murder of women spread and were pushed by desperate Nazi regime German civilians fled and were pushed into ports along the coast of the Baltic Sea roads and railways to the west were blocked or destroyed and the Baltic Sea was a barrier the only way out was by ship on January 23rd 1945 Germany's Grand Admiral Karl dönitz sent orders to the authorities in occupied Poland to begin evacuating refugees this evacuation was codenamed Operation Hannibal later known as Germany's Dunkirk operation Hannibal recruited hundreds of merchant vessels to the cause of saving as many civilians as possible from the Soviets wrath one of these vessels was the Vilhelm Gustav on January 22nd 1945 vilhelm Gustav was enlisted for operation Hannibal by then the beloved German flagship had been for four years and there were concerns about the condition of her engines but she was a large ship in the right place and was desperately needed Gustav and many other ships liners cargo ships and tugs alike are placed under the direct command of Admiral Karl dönitz to ensure that preparations are carried out with urgency eleven days earlier Soviet submarine s13 departed Finland to patrol the Baltic Sea as part of a small group of four submarines the departure was late the summaries commander Alexander Marin schoo had disappeared for three days on a New Year's binge marine schoo narrowly escaped being court-martialed and had a lot to prove in order to redeem himself vilhelm Gustloff was the flagship of the convoy being ready to leave go in haven thousands of people in the city are scrambling to get their hands on one of the coveted tickets that will allow them to board the goose loaf or one of the other ships recruited for operation Hannibal u-boat crews and wounded soldiers were given priority then refugees those with connections were able to obtain tickets others tried to buy tickets one of the lucky ones who was allowed to board was a young boy named Horst Boyd who was fleeing with his mother before boarding the ship he stole a jackknife from his uncle's kitchen this stolen knife would later save Horst and his mother desperation was rampant and the situation on the docks was becoming unruly officers could not keep up with the task of checking tickets and eventually could not even hold back the crowds trying to gain access to the Gustav to avoid losing control of the situation captain Frederic Peterson ordered the ship to move away from the dock so that Borden could proceed by tender only Vilhelm Kozlov departed go in Haven on January 30th at 12:30 with approximately 10,000 refugees on board five times her designated capacity yet many frustrated and scared refugees were left behind as the ship sailed away they would have to wait for the next ship to leave as Wilhelm Gustloff made way for Kiel passageways on board were overcrowded to the point of barely being navigable public rooms on the ship were filled far beyond capacity allowing for standing-room-only every nook on the ship was occupied by a refugee desperate to escape the vengeful Soviet Army as vilhelm Gustav was making for the open sea she was approached by the ship revel which came up alongside and transferred an additional 600 passengers to the Gustloff everyone on board knew the ship was a target were taken anti-aircraft guns were mounted on deck she was escorted by the German frigate Lowe and the torpedo boat tf1 and set alongside another liner called the Hansa these were the lines of defense that stood between ten thousand people including some four thousand children and infants and the freezing temperatures of the Baltic Sea the unusual circumstances of the voyage led to a situation where there are four captains aboard the Vilhelm Gustloff in addition to captain Peterson there were three other officers who were captains in their own right captain Jean was in charge of two thousand submariners aboard the ship while captain Koehler and captain Weller were brought on as senior watch officers while captain Peterson was the true commander and theoretically had the final word the other three were leaders used to being in command and presented a challenge to Peterson's Authority tensions among the men rose immediately the officer's order all passengers to wear their lifejackets and not to take them off under any circumstances but it was beginning to snow so most passengers were crammed inside where it is hot and overcrowded so many disobey the orders on the bridge stress builds after two of the ships in their convoy had to turn back due to engine problems the exceptionally overcrowded Vilhelm Gustloff was now sailing through hostile waters in harsh conditions gales heavy snow and hail with only the frigate low as an escort the officers had two options for a route to Kiel they could sail close to shore where it was too shallow for submarines to operate but where there could be mines lying in wait or they could move away from the coast and settle into shipping lane number 58 which had been cleared by minesweepers but was deep enough for soviet submarines to lurk the officers came to the conclusion that given the weather and the difficulty of operating a u-boat in these conditions it would be safer to sail in the shipping lane and so they did but shortly after settling into the shipping lane the ship received wireless messages informing them of German minesweepers sailing along the shipping lane in the opposite direction the visibility was low and both the fleet of minesweepers and the Vilhelm Kozlov had their navigation lights off to avoid enemy detection captain Peterson wanted to turn the lights on believing that the risk of collision was more of a threat than enemy detection captain's on and vehemently disagreed but Peterson was the captain and had the final word the red and green navigation lights were switched on it did not take long once the lights were on for Ville homeless loft to be spotted by a Soviet submarine Alexander marine scow commander of the s13 saw the sizable liner and immediately jumped into pursuit it is twenty hundred aboard the Ville hum Christoph Adolf Hitler's voice comes on over the public address system this is a live radio transmission of Hitler speech commemorating the 12th anniversary of the Nazi party's rise to power for some this is a source of comfort for others it is a reminder that the country is about to fall to the Allies as it turns out this would be Hitler's last speech meanwhile s13 catches up to Ville hum Gustav and moves into position between the ship and the shore s13 is in dangerous waters and could run aground but Marines go needs a win to detract from his earlier treachery Marines go orders for torpedoes to be loaded into the tubes once ready he orders all four torpedoes to be fired at once three are launched but one armed torpedo is stuck in its tube putting the safety of the submarine and its crew at risk of self-destruction the crew works to disarm the remaining torpedo while the three others cruise through the water toward their unidentified target at 21:00 16 the first torpedo strikes the bow instantly killing many crew members in their cabins seconds later the next torpedo struck the ship further aft breaching the part of the ship housing the pool and many passenger cabins the third torpedo struck the engine room flooding it with water and knocking out the power for the entire ship the chaos that would unfold the next hour would happen in the dimness of the ship's emergency lights vilhelm Gustav was already listing to port 10,000 people instantly knew that they needed to get up on deck and into a lifeboat below deck stampedes of people rushed for the stairwells people didn't walk but were pushed and carried through the corridors sirens and announcements from the bridge were drowned out by the shouting it only added to the chaos anyone who stumbled and fell was trampled to death designed with 2,000 people in mind the insufficient stairwells become bottlenecks upon deck those who were lucky enough to get to the lifeboat struggled to prepare and launch them most of the crew who were trained on the lifeboats were trapped deep within the hull the ship was listing more with each passing minute rendering the boat on the starboard side useless only 11 of the 20 to the lifeboats on board could possibly be launched but even on the port side the lines and launching gear were iced over and frozen in place only five lifeboats made it safely away from the ship most of which were cut away rather than launched correctly young horse Roy and his mother were on one of these lifeboats whose lines were frozen to the ship keeping the boat in place the ship was going down fast and would soon drag the lifeboat down with it filled with women and elderly refugees horse with the only one with a knife the knife he stole from his uncle he sprung into action and cut the lines freeing the boat and saving the seventy people on board including his mother the low approached the sinking of Gustav and her crew dropped nets and lines over the side of the ship so that some survivors might climb aboard but the low could only get so close as the Vilhelm Gustloff list became more severe in the situation more desperate some officers saw the writing on the wall and took matters into their own hands there are reports of officers bringing their families into cabins to kill them and themselves rather than allowing them to freeze or drown in the baltic sea torpedo from the safety of a submarine alexander marines co watts threw his periscope as the ville homeless loft stern rose out of the water and made her final plunge at 20 to 18 one hour and two minutes after the first torpedo struck the freezing and rough waters of the Baltic that night killed quickly given the conditions and the circumstances it is a miracle that any one was saved the ghost left escort lo picked up four hundred and seventy two people from the sea and several of the mine sweepers that cause goes off to fatefully turn on her now creation lights came to the aid of the victims in such a chaotic environment some people in the water were killed by the rescue ships approaching the scene the Paranoid crew of the torpedo boat t36 dropped depth charges to protect itself from soviet u boats while they picked up survivors the subsequent explosions killed dozens of victims in the water more than nine thousand people were killed in the sinking of the Ville hunga Slav for weeks frozen bodies washed up on shore after the sinking s13 remained in the Baltic and one week later sank the General von Steuben killing at approximately four thousand two more people alexander marines go eventually found himself in prison but this was despite killing thirteen thousand Germans not because of it in 1990 marine schoo was posthumously awarded the hero of the Soviet Union medal by the Soviet government operation Hannibal commonly referred to as the German Dunkirk successfully evacuated approximately two million people the Soviets though killed as many as 20,000 helpless refugees by sinking the Goya the general von Steuben and the Vilhelm Gustav despite the horrific outcome historians generally consider the sinking of the villa Holmquist off by the Soviets to have been legitimate while she had served as a hospital ship in the past she was not marked as a hospital ship on her final voyage additionally while she was carrying wounded soldiers she was also carrying active military personnel to continue the war effort on top of that the ship was armed with anti-aircraft guns it might be tempting to place the blame for the disaster on the German government for greatly overloading the ships taking part in operation Hannibal however there was reason to believe that the safety of the German civilians was at risk and that time was of the essence like many disasters there are many contributing factors and it may not be possible or wise to place blame on any one party in the end the sinking of the ville Holmquist LOF was yet another catastrophic event resulting from world war ii this video was uploaded on January 30th 2020 the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the Vilhelm Kozlov and is dedicated to all who lost their lives at sea during Operation Hannibal you you

Channel: The Great Big Move

Views: 972,195

Keywords: Wilhelm Gustloff, gustlof, sinking, documentary, Wilhelm, uboat, u-boat, u boat, ocean liner, died, dead, deaths, lives, submarine, torpedo, world war 2, ww2, maritime history, titanic, lusitania, ship, germany, German, captain, shipwreck, refugee, refugees, footage, historical, animations, animation, cruise ship, hitler

Id: JIlcP1fW5I4

Length: 13min 7sec (787 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 30 2020