Wilhelm Gustloff: Deadliest Shipwreck

As the Gustloff left Gotenhafen shortly after noon on January 30, tugboats pulled the overcrowded ship from her berth and into the Bay of Danzig. She would travel west to Stettin.

The weather was not favorable. Karl Hoffman, a surviving crew member, describes the situation:

The weather was bad: Wind strength of 7, snow, ten degrees below zero, ice flows on the water’s surface.

Once into the open Baltic, the Gustloff’s decks were slick with ice. Hoffman continues:

It was freezing cold as layers of ice began to form on the deck. In order to be ready for any emergency we crewmen had to constantly work to remove ice from the guns. A small mine sweeper patrolled in front of the Gustloff in search of mines. Night fell and it became even colder. Below decks, the high spirits of the refugees began to wane as many became seasick. But most were lulled into a false sense of security, believing that in a few days the would reach Stettin or the coast of Denmark.

A Soviet sub, S-13, was lurking in the Baltic’s frigid waters. Her captain, Alexander Marinesko, could see the Gustloff was about 20 miles offshore. Not knowing which ship he had sighted, he presumed her crew was trying to avoid submerged attack ships - like his - which required deep water.

Marinesko faced a tough decision. He was in water fairly shallow for a submarine (about 170 feet). If he fired torpedoes at the unsuspecting Gustloff, and if the Gustloff returned fire, he would have trouble diving his boat.

Risking counter measures from the German ship, Marinesko’s crew used their night sight and fired four torpedoes. The Gustloff took a direct hit from three. Hoffman describes the scene of panic aboard the stricken ship:

Thousands of people immediately broke into a terrible panic. Many plunged overboard into the icy waves of the Baltic Sea. At first the ship leaned to starboard under the force of the explosion, but then righted herself, only to suffer another hit by the forecastle. We were off the coast of Stolpmunde, Pommerania. We immediately began to broadcast an SOS and fire signal flares...The desperate crowd of thousands had only one thought: to reach the upper decks, away from the massive flood of water.

The ship sank in about an hour, not far from the Danish island of Bornholm.