January 30, 1945

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Martin Antonenko

A Fixture
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The most lossy shipwreck in world history!

The Nazi passenger ship "Wilhelm Gustloff", crammed with at least 10,300 people - refugees and Wehrmacht members - was torpedoed in the Baltic Sea on January 30, 1945 and sank within an hour...:



The “Wilhelm Gustloff” was sighted by the Soviet submarine S-13 at around 9 p.m. near Stolpmünde.



The ship is under the command of the Kriegsmarine corvette captain Wilhelm Zahn...



...flies the Nazi war flag and is escorted by a warship, the torpedo boat "Löwe" (T-36). ..:



According to the custom of the war, this makes this a legitimate goal!

At 9:16 p.m., the commander of S-13, Aleksandr Ivanovich Marinesko...



... fired four torpedoes from a distance of about 700 meters. One torpedo jams, three hit the "Wilhelm Gustloff" at the bow, under the E-deck and in the engine room...:



After a little over an hour, at around 10:15 p.m., the ship sinks about 23 nautical miles from the Pomeranian coast...:









Over 9,000 people (probably more!) are killed in the ice-cold water - at least six times as many when the "Titanic" tore to its death!

The irony of history: This happened on the 12th anniversary of Hitler's "seizure of power" ...

And even more ironic of the story:
The submarine S 13 (rather the whole class several boats!) was a design by the German Germania shipyard (Kiel) and the Bremen “Deschimag” (Deutsche Schiffsmaschinenbau AG)!





Since the German state had been banned from building submarines after the First World War by the Treaty of Versailles, the design was handed over to the Soviet Union.

Construction of the S-13 began on October 19, 1938. Launched on April 25, 1939, the boat was put into service with the Baltic Red Banner Fleet on July 31, 1941. Home port was the Finnish Turku.




The commander of the S 13, Captain 2nd rank Marinesko ...



... sinks the refugee steamer "Steuben" on February 10th ...





... which in turn cost the lives of at least 4,000 people.

Marinesko was not awarded the title "Hero of the Soviet Union" for his actions, as he expected (and repeatedly demanded!), As he had a serious drinking problem and was prone to indiscipline.

Almost as suspiciously his superiors eyed the very familiar contact the popular commander had with his people.

Instead of an order, Marinesko got the dishonorable discharge immediately after the war!



He later spent two years in the prison camp for theft. In 1963 he died in Leningrad...:



In 1990, however, 27 years after his death, Marinesko was rehabilitated and posthumously named "Hero of the Soviet Union" by Mikhail Gorbachev...:



Today a monument in Kaliningrad commemorates him ...:

30Januar_6.jpg
 
Good research again Martin, and quality photo back-up! Wilhelm Gustloff - wasn't he an arms manufacturer?

Phil
 
No, he was a Nazi leader!

Wilhelm Gustloff (30 January 1895 – 4 February 1936) was the founder of the Swiss NSDAP/AO (NSDAP Auslandsorganisation, the Nazi Party organisation for German citizens abroad) at Davos...:



Gustloff was shot and killed in Davos in 1936 by 18 years old David Frankfurter...



... a Croatian Jewish student incensed by the growth of the NSDAP.Frankfurter surrendered immediately to the Swiss police, confessing "I fired the shots because I am a Jew".

Gustloff was given a state funeral in his birthplace of Schwerin in Mecklenburg, with Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Martin Bormann and Joachim von Ribbentrop in attendance. Thousands of Hitler Youth members lined the route. His coffin, transported on a special train from Davos to Schwerin, made stops in Stuttgart, Würzburg, Erfurt, Halle, Magdeburg and Wittenberg. Gustloff's widow, mother and brother attended the funeral and received personal condolences from Hitler.









Gustloff was proclaimed a "Blutzeuge" of the Nazi cause and his murder became part of the propaganda that served as pretext for the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom. His wife Hedwig, who had been Hitler's secretary, received from Hitler personally a monthly "honorary pay" of 400 Reichsmark, the equivalent of some $13,000 today.


David Frankfurter was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment...



...and spent the war in a Swiss prison.Frankfurter was pardoned...



... and emigrated to Paletine at the end of the Second World War.

He became officer of the Israeli armed forces and died 19 July 1982 aged 73 at Ramat Gan.


Cheers
 
Thanks as always Martin.

If Marinesko was considered to have had 'a serious drinking problem' back then... he must've been really, really bad!
 
Hi Martin

Terrible loss of lives in the ships , seems crazy not carrying a different flag with civilians on board...escorted as well ..not good .

Another fascinating series of events , wasn't really aware of that assassinated one with the funeral used as propaganda no doubt

Thanks for sharing

Nap
 

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