Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
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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 ...:
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 ...: