When we talk about the worst cruise disaster, the Titanic comes to our mind, and rightly so. Over 1,500 died on that fateful day on a ship that was considered unsinkable. However, this falls really short of what actually is the deadliest cruise disaster in humanity’s history. This article talks about Wilhelm Gustloff, one of Germany’s biggest cruise liners, which was sunk by the Soviets, leading to the death of over 9,000 people, six times more than the Titanic!
Historical Background
In the 1930s, Nazi Germany launched the ‘Strength Through Joy’ (Kraft durch Freude), a government-run cruise program to provide leisure and cultural experiences, much like today’s cruise tourism. One of the main ships in this fleet was the MV Wilhelm Gustloff, a white cruise liner built by Blohm and Voss and launched in May 1937. It was to be named Adolf Hitler, but it was renamed after Wilhelm Gustloff, who had led the Nazi Party’s Swiss branch before being assassinated in 1936. Hitler had personally chosen his name as a mark of honour. Some of the properties of the ship were:
Length: 208.5 meters (684 feet)
Capacity: Designed for 1,465 passengers in 489 cabins
Crew: Over 400 personnel
Features: Uniform cabins to promote the illusion of a classless society—except for one larger cabin reserved for Hitler himself
Till the start of World War II, the ship carried tens of thousands of Germans on trips all across Europe. It became a symbol of Nazi prosperity and unity. However, after the outbreak of the war, its fate changed. It was initially converted into a hospital ship, then used as floating barracks for U-boat trainees and later docked and forgotten for four years until the end of the war. In 1945, when the Soviets started their invasion of Germany, the Germans launched Operation Hannibal, a massive evacuation of civilians and military personnel. The Wilhelm Gustloff was brought into action for a mission which unfortunately proved to be its last.
The Night of Tragedy
On 30th January 1945, the Wilhelm Gustloff departed with over 10,000 people, including more than 5,000 children, along with civilians, wounded soldiers, and navy men. The ship was made to carry only 2,000 people, but somehow managed to carry the other 8,000!
The captain of the ship, Friedrich Petersen, decided to travel through the deep waters rather than along the coast. During the war, nations had placed mines across their coasts to stop naval invasions from enemies. Hence, the captain decided to use a deepwater route to avoid these mines. However, this decision was a gamble as the deep waters were filled with Soviet submarines as well. Besides, the ship was accompanied by only one escort vehicle due to mechanical failures in other ships.
The ship was sailing smoothly in the Baltic Sea without being detected. However, at 6 pm, a mysterious message from an unknown source warned the captain about a convoy ship in the vicinity. It was then that Captain Petersen made a deadly mistake, which sealed the fate of the Wilhelm Gustloff! Captain Petersen decided to turn on navigation lights to avoid collision with the rumoured ship, which made their ship visible to enemy submarines. A soviet submarine S-13, led by Captain Alexander Marinesko, spotted the ship at around 7 pm and started tracking its route.
At exactly 9:16 pm, the submarine fired three torpedoes towards the Wilhelm Gustloff. The first torpedo hit the bow, killing almost all the crew members. The second torpedo struck the swimming pool area. The third and final torpedo struck the engine room, shutting down the ship’s power supply. There was panic and chaos everywhere on the ship. The lifeboats were frozen to the deck, and with the crew killed, no one knew how to use them. Passengers started jumping into the freezing Baltic Sea as the great Wilhelm Gustloff sank in less than an hour! One survivor recalls a horrifying but tragic moment when a father shot dead his family members to give them a peaceful death rather than drowning, then slid into the sea himself!
Lost Lives, Lost Legacy
9,343 lives were lost on that fateful day, making this the deadliest maritime disaster in history. However, just like you and me, nobody knows about it to this date! Films were made on the Titanic, but nobody even spoke about this disaster, neither the Germans nor the Russians!
Nazi Germany didn’t want to spread information about this disaster to keep the spirits high of a country that was already on the verge of losing the war. The Soviets, on the other hand, did not acknowledge the civilian casualties since the ship also carried military personnel and anti-aircraft weapons, which kind of made it a military operation.
The Wilhelm Gustloff received no memorials, no museums, and no Hollywood dramatisation. Besides, nobody was ready to listen to the survivors as their stories got ignored. The wreck of the ship remains inside the sea to this date, but no one talks about it or visits it. Historians have tried to slowly bring up the disaster, but it remains overshadowed by more politically convenient narratives.
Conclusion
Operation Hannibal and the sailing of Wilhelm Gustloff were a desperate attempt to move the Germans to safety. The sinking of the ship is seen as an intersection of war, politics, and propaganda. The ship was sunk just because the Soviets didn’t see a distinction between wounded soldiers and refugees, and instead of being criticised, the event got buried due to immoral politics on both sides. The world moved on, choosing to remember the Titanic, a peacetime disaster, while forgetting the Wilhelm Gustloff, whose victims were politically inconvenient! It is so fascinating to see how big game players of the world tend to bend things in a way that favours them. This bloody journey of the Wilhelm Gustloff deserves a mention in history, and this article tries to do so and remember the thousands of people who died!