The Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff (The Deadliest Sinking in History)

Part of Operation Hannibal Wilhelm Gustloff was assigned to Be Part of the Evacuation of Women and Children on the operation. on January 30, 1945, in the dark and freezing waters of the Baltic Sea was the Soviet submarine S-13 commanded by Captain Alexander Marinesko.
As Wilhelm Gustloff steamed slowly to the west, Marinesko shadowed it, then, at 9 PM Soviet submarine S-13, fired a spread of four torpedoes. Three of them hit home, striking Wilhelm Gustloff on the bow, stern, and amidships. The packed ship was soon filled with panicked and shaken passengers, with explosions, fires, children blown and thrown overboard, passengers slipped and sliding, and some crushed to death on the icy deck and tumbling into the sea. No other vessel was near when the Gustloff was sinking. Indeed, most of the ship’s actual crew was trapped in the forecastle, behind watertight doors that had locked automatically upon impact.

Wilhelm Gustloff sank within an hour. Those who had not been killed by the initial blast or by the chaos on board after the attack froze to death in the icy Baltic or even were killed by the Minesweepers. The estimated death is between 6,000-9,000. The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff was worse than the Titanic disaster, the Britannic, Lusitania, and the Empress of Ireland combined, and still is the deadliest sinking in History.

Operation Hannibal proved to be a failure for The Nazis and Captain Alexander Marinesko also sunk two more vessels during the operation and is later known as a hero in the Soviet Union.

  ~History Animation~

collision144

There were survivors of about 1,200 who were rescued on the tragedy

2 years ago   Reply

  collision144

ay..
its bizzare how i havent heard of the Wilhem gustloff If it was this deadly.
worse to think that there werent any survivors..

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