Torpedo attack on the Gustlov liner. Sinking of 'Wilhelm Gustloff'

“When people and stacks fell from the upper decks into the raging sea life rafts, everything that could no longer hold on, at that second when, as if by an order from somewhere unknown, in the darkness that reigned around after the torpedo hits, full lighting suddenly flashed on, including the deck light, as happened in peacetime and during cruises SCHR (“Strength through Joy” - Nazi organization), when all the solemn illumination appeared before the eyes of every sighted person, when the end of everything came, my completely normal birth took place on the narrow bed of an officer-mechanic of the destroyer "Loewe".

The mother, being on the ship's bunk, did not see all this. No solemn illumination on the tilting and sinking liner, no clusters of human bodies falling from the raised stern. But my mother remembered that my first scream was drowned out by that thousand-voiced scream that came from afar, that final scream that came from everywhere: from the bowels of the sinking liner, from the cracked glazed promenade deck, from the sun deck overwhelmed by the waves, from the bow quickly sinking under the water, the scream spread over a stormy sea, where thousands of living people floundered or drifted limp in life jackets, dead people" (Excerpt from the book “The Trajectory of the Crab”, Günter Grass, 2002).

Expedition 2006. The idea of ​​​​conducting an expedition to the sunken liner was born as a result of negotiations between the State Maritime Administration - Marine Office in Gdynia (Government Marine Administration - Marine Office) and the Baltic Wrecks Association (“Association for the Study and Protection of Baltic Wrecks”), during which issues of protection were discussed and preserving World War II wrecks and giving them the status of mass graves. It was a unique opportunity to dive, take videos and photos on one of the wrecks closed for diving. After much discussion and preparation, the expedition was eventually scheduled for the second week of May 2006.

The main objectives of this expedition were the maximum possible hydroacoustic survey of the wreck; collection of sediment samples; maximum possible documentation of the remains of the liner on video and photos, as well as collection general information about the current state of the wreck.

Unlike the lengthy search for the Titanic, finding the remains of the Wilhelm Gustloff liner was quite easy. Its coordinates at the time of the sinking (55°07’00’’N 17°41’00’’E) turned out to be surprisingly accurate; Moreover, the wreck is located at a relatively shallow depth - up to 50 meters. On Polish navigation charts the place is indicated as “Obstacle No. 73".

After the war, Soviet specialists visited the remains of the ship - there is a version that they were looking for the legendary Amber Room among the wreckage. During these visits, the middle part of the sunken ship was destroyed, leaving only the stern and bow. During the post-war years, some items from the ship ended up in private collections as souvenirs. The Polish government legally declared this place mass grave and banned private visits to the wreck.

Our dive team consisted of 3 underwater photographers and 5 underwater videographers. All diving participants were divided into four teams of three divers. Each team was assigned a specific task that had to be completed during a specific dive. Objectives were determined on the surface during morning and afternoon briefings. Each day, one team remained on the surface to belay the diving teams, which allowed all participants to avoid physical strain.

During the first day, a representative of the Marine Department examined the wreck using gas equipment and laid three launching ends that led to the bow, stern and middle parts of the wreck. After the morning briefing, the first two teams go into the water along the bow and stern passages. The task is to lay passages along the sunken ship. An additional task is to collect sediment samples. Unfortunately, low water temperatures and high waves limit the dive to 35 minutes at the bottom. The goal of the third diving team - two underwater operators and one support diver - is to film the stern part. The afternoon weather on the first day did not allow us to dive a second time. And the weather forecast for the next twenty-four hours is also not promising.

Second day, early morning. Calm sea and sunny. This time, all three teams entered the water at almost the same time. Finally we were able to send zodiacs with groups of divers at 15 minute intervals. According to the plan, on this day it was necessary to carry out photo and video shooting between the launching ends (between the bow and stern sections). The most accurate plan allowed the divers to be transported safely - without deviating more than 3 minutes from the schedule. On this day, all teams made two dives, working along the entire wreck and removing it meter by meter from bow to stern. The water temperature on the surface is +12°C, at the bottom – +6°C. Visibility can be said to be very good – 15-20 meters. It is worth adding that all dives were carried out with bottom gas Trimix 21/35; Nitrox 50 and oxygen were used for decompression.

The liner Wilhelm Gustloff rests on a sandy bottom at a depth of 48 meters with a list to the left side, which is badly damaged. The uppermost part of the sunken ship is located at 32-36 meters. The bow lies on the left side, rotated 90°. On the bow you can still see huge capstans with the remains of chains. The middle part of the ship is very badly damaged. In the early 50s of the twentieth century, Soviet military divers explored the wreck, but they did it in a very strange way. We found the remains of chains welded to the side, which were probably pulled by a tugboat. Despite this, we can still imagine how huge and beautiful Gustloff was in its early days. best years. We were able to find small machine parts (4-6 meters high) and a warehouse for ship equipment. The stern part of the vessel is in the best condition. This part, 15-20 meters long, lies with a slight list to the left side. Since our first expedition several years ago, the condition of the ship's remains has deteriorated significantly. The upper deck collapsed and some parts of the ship were destroyed by storms. And still feed - best part wreck. The waters of the Baltic Sea have well preserved the wooden structures - the decks and rails are in excellent condition. If you go inside, you can see the spare steering wheels. In the aft part you can go four decks deep into the wreck along a small ladder for sailors. At the bottom of the left side of the sunken ship there are still human bones that remind of the tragedy.

The final day again showed how unpredictable the Baltic can be! After two windy days and a poor weather forecast, on day three we were rewarded with 2 knot winds and calm seas. A day earlier, a representative of the Maritime Department installed the fourth trigger on an unknown underwater object, previously found using HBO. The divers who had the pleasure of diving on a 12-meter sunken motor boat seem to have been the first to see it in 60 years since that fatal day for the Gustloff... The last dive of this expedition was also the best. Visibility of more than 20 meters, temperature +8°C - all this significantly increased the comfort of the dive and brought a lot of pleasure to the participants.

After the anchor was raised, we honored the memory of the victims of the disaster with a horn...

In total, over three days, the vessel was examined both externally and internally. However, due to the fact that the wreck was so badly destroyed, penetrations inside were at very short distances. The collected materials (photos, videos and soil samples) will become the basis for further impact studies environment on the remains of the ship, as well as its condition as a whole. As a result of the expedition, more than 200 photographs and a 210-minute film were transferred to the Gdynia Maritime Administration.

This was a very important expedition for me - the first official diving expedition in the last 30 years! Our photographs and film showed people the Wilhelm Gustloff liner in its current state. But more important was the answer to the question whether the Gustloff is an underwater mass grave or not... Many divers from all over the world want to conquer their own diving Everest and dive on the Wilhelm Gusloff. For what? Log entry? Or an enthusiastic story for friends? This is the site of the greatest disaster that claimed the lives of more than 6,000 people! Yes, this is a grave... Think about how serious your motives are for diving here...

P.S. The following took part in the WG’2006 expedition: Sebastian Popek – expedition leader; videographers Wojciech Jechna, Mirek Lukas, Silvo Peknik, Pawel Riedl, photographers – Piotr Pielak, Radek Husak, Peter Vaverka, as well as support divers Lukasz Piоrewicz, Tomasz Stachura, Karol Lebowski.

During this expedition, the interaction within the dive teams and among divers in general was brilliant! Thanks to the Zodiac team (s/v Zodiak) for their help. Agreement, experience and cooperation allowed us to complete this project successfully!

Text: Sebastian Popek
Translation: Yulia Golosiy
Photo: Petr Vaverka, Radek Husak

Archived article from No. 5 (53) for 2007.

S-13 was lucky again: the only escort ship was busy rescuing people, and when it began to throw depth charges, the “For Stalin” torpedo was already neutralized, and the boat was able to leave.

One of the survivors, 18-year-old administrative trainee Heinz Schön, spent more than half a century collecting materials related to the history of the liner and became a chronicler of the greatest ship disaster of all time. According to his calculations, on January 30 there were 10,582 people on board Gustlov, 9,343 died. For comparison: the disaster of the Titanic, which ran into an underwater iceberg in 1912, cost the lives of 1,517 passengers and crew members.

All four captains escaped. The youngest of them, by the name of Kohler, committed suicide shortly after the end of the war - he was broken by the fate of Gustloff.

The destroyer "Lion" (a former ship of the Dutch Navy) was the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy and began rescuing the surviving passengers. Since the temperature in January was already −18 °C, there were only a few minutes left before irreversible hypothermia set in. Despite this, the ship managed to rescue 472 passengers from the lifeboats and from the water.
The guard ships of another convoy, the cruiser Admiral Hipper, also came to the rescue, which, in addition to the crew, also had about 1,500 refugees on board.
Due to fear of attack from submarines, he did not stop and continued to retire to safe waters. Other ships (by “other ships” we mean the only destroyer T-38 - the sonar system did not work on the Loew, the Hipper left) managed to save another 179 people. A little more than an hour later, new ships that came to the rescue could only fish dead bodies from the icy water. Later, a small messenger ship that arrived at the scene of the tragedy unexpectedly found, seven hours after the sinking of the liner, among hundreds of dead bodies, an unnoticed boat and in it a living baby, wrapped in blankets, the last rescued passenger of the Wilhelm Gustloff.

As a result, according to various estimates, from 1200 to 2500 people out of a little less than 11 thousand on board managed to survive. Maximum estimates place losses at 9,985 lives.

Gustlov's chronicler Heinz Schön in 1991 found the last survivor of the 47 people of the S-13 team, 77-year-old former torpedo operator V. Kurochkin, and visited him twice in a village near Leningrad. Two old sailors told each other (with the help of a translator) what happened on the memorable day of January 30 on the submarine and on Gustloff.
During his second visit, Kurochkin admitted to his German guest that after their first meeting, almost every night he dreamed of women and children drowning in icy water, screaming for help. When parting, he said: “War is a bad thing. Shooting at each other, killing women and children - what could be worse! People should learn to live without shedding blood...”

Part previous. On the day of the official start of World War II, i.e. September 1, 1939 WILHELM GUSTLOFF was included in the German Navy. On September 2, of the 417 people on the ship’s crew, most were dismissed, the captains were retained Bertram and senior officers, and the ship itself received tattoos auxiliary. Gradually it became clear that GUSTLOFF will be used as a hospital ship, which was officially confirmed on September 22: WILHELM GUSTLOFF, like many other cruise ships " KdF ", became part of the hospital fleet calledLazarettschiffD. Many then wondered if the ship had not been built precisely for this purpose?

In accordance with international laws defining the identifying characteristics of hospital ships, GUSTLOFF received a wide green ribbon horizontally encircling the entire hull of the ship, and logos were replaced with images of the Red CrossKdF. Soon doctors and other medical personnel appeared on the ship, and they also loaded everything necessary for the deployment of 500 hospital beds.

September 27 refurbished GUSTLOFF headed east, into the Baltic Sea and near the site of the battles inDanzigNeufahrwassertook on board 650 wounded Polish soldiers and officers, as well as 10 casualties from a German minesweeper M -85, which was blown up by a Polish mine on October 1. It is not entirely clear why the ratio between German and Polish soldiers turned out to be this way; It seems that GUSTLOFF continued to act as a means of Nazi propaganda. In fact, although the losses of the Poles were significant, the German army also lost 10 thousand killed and 30 thousand wounded - this is the opportunity to use the converted ship for its intended purpose, and what German soldier Would you refuse to be treated for wounds on Hitler’s “ship of dreams”?
And there were only a few days left before the end of the Polish campaign...

Until mid-April 1940 GUSTLOFF was in the Bay of Danzig, or rather in Gotenhafen(now Gdynia), serving as a floating hospital serving Germans, including those recently displaced from the Soviet zone of occupation of Poland.

Parking in Oslo

In days of peace, when GUSTLOFF cruised off the coast of Norway with vacationers, the ship did not touch Norwegian soil, but this time, GUSTLOFF from Gotenhafen via Sassnitz(on the island of Rügen) headed for Norway, the ship moored on May 10, 1940 in the port of Oslo, since Norway was in the war zone and capitulated on June 10.

While stationed in Oslo, this hospital ship worked as intended, and on July 2, 1940, the ship left Oslo and headed to Kiel and Swinemünde, having on board

750 wounded.

It was assumed that the floating hospital would return to Oslo, but on orders from above, the ship headed to Stettin, where it awaited further orders from July 10 to August 25.

In early July, Hitler ordered preparations for the operationSea lionpreparations began for the invasion of British Isles. Many ships of the German naval forces were to take part in the operation, and among them hospital and LazarettschiffD.

It was obvious that the operation would lead to many losses. For example, the Germans did not have specially trained landing units and were poorly prepared for landing ships).

And the already deployed air Battle of Britain showed that the British Royal Air Force(RAF - Royal Air Force ) are quite strong and effective.

September 5, 1940 Lazarettschiff D arrived in Bremerhaven, which is located at the mouth of the Weser; the plan provided that this hospital ship would later move to Rotterdam.

However, with the implementation of the operation Sea lion difficulties began: it was necessary to ensure German air superiority, head Luftwaffe Goering was unable to cope with this task, so the operation was postponed until the middle September.

Meanwhile, the Fuhrer's attention was increasingly switched to the eastern campaign, i.e. war with the USSR. In the end it turned out that GUSTLOFF will never appear in the English Channel again.

The last days of "Hospital Ship D"

Since the operation Sea lion did not take place and the need for a significant number of floating hospitals temporarily disappeared, then - after the trip to Oslo, from where GUSTLOFF returned on November 12 to Swinemünde with 414 wounded on board - on November 17 the order was received to relocate to Danzig.

Conversion into a floating base for submarine crews

WILHELM GUSTLOFFarrived at Gotenhafen on November 20, 1940, and over the next few weeks underwent another transformation, this time from a hospital ship to a floating training base for the submarine fleet, capable of accommodating about 1,000 people. The medical staff and hospital equipment were gone, leaving only a few mechanics from the crew to keep the engines running, Captain Bertram was also on board. The outside of the ship was repainted in the gray color characteristic of naval ships, the wide green stripe along the hull disappeared, and the Red Crosses, under which almost colorless emblems appearedKdF-Now the task was to camouflage the ship, since international laws no longer protected GUSTLOFF as a hospital ship; on the contrary, the ship in its new role became a legitimate military target.Interesting photo from 1941: GUSTLOFF in the background in the process of being repainted , and in the foreground is the torpedo destroyer LOWE, it will be next to the liner on its last night, January 30, 1945

In this role - the training base for submariners - GUSTLOFF performed for more than four years. During the first years of the war, qualified and skilled personnel for German submarines were trained at this base. Back in 1942, Lieutenant Commander, who took command of this base Wilhelm Zahn maintained strict discipline and withstood the implementation of an extensive training program for mobilized boys, but later

The war began to require more and more new personnel, so the training course was shortened, and the newly mobilized youths were afraid to serve on submarines, since out of every ten German submariners only one survived in the second half of the war.

Beginning of the End Located far from the front line and well covered from the Baltic, Gotenhafen and the ships in it were practically inaccessible to enemy attacks during the first years of the war, but the military situation was gradually changing and by the time of the inspection visit (March 1943) to this naval base grand admiral Dönitz Alarming symptoms had already appeared, and on October 9, 1943, everything changed dramatically. On this day the bombers of the American Eighth air fleet carried out a massive raid on Gotenhafen. In that day GUSTLOFF barely escaped big trouble when a heavy bomb exploded in the water on the starboard side: a one and a half meter long hole appeared in the hull. Other ships were not so lucky, many of them sank in the harbor or at the pier, including a hospital ship STUTTGART from the cruise fleet KdF. In February 1944, the captain, who had long been asking to join a floating ship, GUSTLOFF Bertram left for Hamburg, and his place was taken by Captain Friedrich Petersen, whose fate in this war was difficult: he was captured by the Allies, but later - due to his age, he was already 66 years old - he was repatriated to Germany under an undertaking that that he will not take part in the war on any ship. In this regard, the command GUSTLOFF It seemed like it allowed me not to break the word given by the captain.

By this time, the military affairs of Nazi Germany were not looking good: fewer and fewer submarines were returning to base, the front was falling apart in places, it was necessary to leave North Africa, it was not possible to hold positions in Italy, D-Day was approaching - the day the Allies landed in Europe and the opening of a second front . Although Danzig was still far to the rear, the mood of the population and troops was alarming, as the Soviets were inexorably advancing from the east along the Baltic coast, and the city was becoming increasingly full of refugees fleeing the Red Army. In October 1944, Red Army units under the command of General Galitsky crossed the eastern border of the Reich and captured the city of Nemmersdorf in East Prussia - the first German city to fall into Soviet hands. Fear hangs over the Danzig Bay.

As the front advanced westward, panic broke out among the population of East Prussia in January 1945, with hundreds of thousands of refugees rushing to Danzig, from where they could flee further west. Rumors of the brutality of the Red Army spread like wildfire. The German media "added fuel to the fire" of rumors by widely reporting Bolshevik "atrocities" in Nemmersdorf, which was captured by the Red Army in October and temporarily recaptured by units of the German Fourth Army. Hitler hysterically called on the entire male German population to take up arms, the authorities formed a people's militia - Volkssturm, which included both fifteen-year-old teenagers and older men who had passed the mobilization age. And these formations were thrown into the blazing fire of war.

The denouement was approaching, every day the artillery cannonade from the decks of the Gustloff became more and more audible. Despite all efforts to hold the front, the territory of the Reich was shrinking more and more. The powerful offensive launched by the Red Army in mid-January hastened the exodus of the population from East Prussia. Many ethnic Germans tried to reach Danzig on the fragile ice of a freshwater lagoon (its German name Frisches Haff, Polish name - Zalew Wiślany, separated from the Bay of Danzig by a long spit. Soviet aircraft They bombed the Germans running on the ice, the ice crumbled, and people ended up in the water. Hitler's brutal "war of extermination", launched in June 1941 and bringing untold suffering and death, has now been turned against the Germans.

Operation Hannibal

The hope for salvation was seen in the implementation Operation Hannibal, according to which, at the height of hostilities and in their zone, it was necessary to evacuate 2 million civilians to the west. Although Hitler gave orders not to give up an inch of ground, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz launched the operation on January 21. Upon receipt of this code word "Hannibal" all submarines headed west and all ships were mobilized for evacuation. January 22 GUSTLOFF They began to prepare to receive thousands of passengers. And a lot had to be done, because the ship’s engines had not been operational for more than four years. Together with GUSTLOFF the evacuation had to be carried out by many other ships, including Hansa, Hamburg, Germany And Cap Arcona.

Soviet submarine S-13

January 28, 1945 GUSTLOFF received orders to be fully ready to sail in 48 hours.And in the harbor of Gotenhafen, especially on the piers, thousands and thousands of people huddled together, mostly women and children, tired of long journeys, many sick, cold, hungry, exhausted. There were almost no men who could hold weapons in their hands; they were immediately caught by patrols SS. Despite the huge crowds trying to get onto the ships' ramps, armed guards, at least in the first days, maintained relative order. Only those who had priority in the form of passes were allowed onto the ships, namely officers and crews of the submarine fleet, several hundred women of the fleet auxiliary services (they were placed in a drained swimming pool), and the wounded arriving by train. Of the refugees, the first to receive passes were those who had relatives and acquaintances in the port or on ships, simply influential people.On GUSTLOFF out of 22 large lifeboats, 10 were missing. 18 small lifeboats were hastily placed on the upper deck, and life rafts were placed in strategic positions. Finally, anti-aircraft guns were placed at the very top, since the days of Luftwaffe air supremacy were long gone.

Officially GUSTLOFF by the morning of January 30, took on board 3,000 refugees; since it was known that the ship would sail on the same day, a stampede began at the gangway, mothers lost their children, some in that situation fell overboard and drowned, the ship was surrounded by dozens of small boats and vessels containing those who were trying to get on board .It is impossible to say how many people were on the ship on this chilly and windy day; it is believed that the number of refugees by the time the ship departed exceeded 10 000.

A cold, damp day with a temperature of -18° stood over Hotenhafen (now Gdynia) on January 30, 1945, when WILHELM GUSTLOFF, normally accommodating 1,880 passengers and crew, along with more than ten thousand refugees (women and more than 4,000 children and teenagers), submarine personnel and wounded soldiers, started its engines (for the first time in four years!), pulled away from the pier Oxhöft. Icebreakers worked ahead, clearing a path through the ice of the Bay of Danzig into the harsh and cold winter Baltic Sea. The ship headed for Kiel. Meanwhile, not everything went smoothly in the captain's cabin, where the ship's captain was Friedrich Petersen, Lieutenant Commander Wilhelm Zahn, commander of a submarine unit and two merchant navy captains - Köhler And Weller, who had difficulty finding a common language when charting a course.

Around 12:30 p.m. GUSTLOFF left the port. Of course, in terms of mood, these were far from going to sea during cruise times: instead of the joyful mood of vacationers, the fluttering of flags, and cheerful music, there were anxious hopes for those who got on board and despair for those remaining on the pier.

And on all the decks of the liner there were thousands and thousands of adults and children in incredible crowding, there was no free space anywhere, there was no question of lying down or even sitting somewhere. The on-board broadcast announced that everyone should put on life jackets and not take them off under any circumstances. When the ship went out to sea, it met them with an icy wind, loads of snow, and huge waves. Many people started getting seasick, the toilets couldn’t accommodate everyone rushing into them, there was no way to get to the sides (and it was impossible to be there in such weather), so you can imagine the situation on the ship.

In the control room, the captains argued about the speed of the ship, about the direction of the course, whether it was necessary to go in an anti-submarine zigzag; the only thing they agreed on, or rather were not satisfied with, was the composition of the accompanying ships. It was planned that GUSTLOFF And HANZA(another liner with refugees) will be accompanied by two destroyers, but it didn’t work out that way, and GUSTLOFF He found himself practically alone, accompanied by only one torpedo boat. About an hour and a half after leaving Gotenhafen GUSTLOFF took a more seaward direction and moved along shipping lane 58.

Meanwhile, the Soviet submarine S-13, under the command of Alexander Marinesko, entered the Bay of Danzig, voluntarily leaving its assigned patrol area near Memel. You can understand the captain who was at fault (he spent New Year's Eve on the shore and his boat did not go to sea on schedule), he needed to do something grandiose, and the submarine headed west, where it was easier to find a suitable target.

Shortly after 6 p.m. GUSTLOFF received a message that minesweepers were heading in the opposite direction. And again in the captain's cabin there were arguments: whether it is necessary to turn on the running lights, how great the risk of collision is... As a result, a fatal decision was made - to turn on the green and red running lights. Meanwhile, the decks, davits, lifeboats and anti-aircraft guns began to ice up. If the sea was raging outside, it was cold and windy, then inside the ship, on the contrary, it was stuffy and hot. Many took off their life jackets, which had been so uncomfortable; those who were not seasick ate a snack, some even slept, although sleep was unlikely to be helped by the incessant cries of babies and younger children.

Closer to 8 o'clock in the evening the submarine watchman S-13 I discovered someone's lights in the sea. Marinesko immediately rose to the conning tower. Through the snow he saw the shadow of a huge liner. For more than two hours, Marinesko followed the liner, choosing a convenient position for attack.

On board GUSTLOFF no one noticed the danger, and how could this be done in the darkness of the night and in a raging sea? In addition, the submarine detection equipment available on the destroyer accompanying the liner Lowe, became frozen and did not work. In such conditions, the crews of both ships cannot rely solely on the watchmen; the situation is almost extreme. The light music in the ship's loudspeakers stopped after 20 o'clock, as Hitler's speech on the occasion of the twelfth anniversary of the Nazis' rise to power began to be broadcast to the people. His voice echoed throughout all rooms of the ship, bringing satisfaction to some and leaving a stamp of irony on the faces of many others.

With all his desire, Marinesko could not have chosen a more successful and dramatic moment to strike. At about 9 pm and literally a couple of minutes after the end of the Fuhrer’s speech, Marinesko gave the command to launch all four torpedoes at the target, each of which had an inscription.

For the Motherland!

For Stalin! For the Soviet people!

For Leningrad!

Three torpedoes rushed towards the target, the name of which Marinesko did not know, but it was a “huge target.” However, one torpedo "For Stalin!" stuck in the exhaust pipe, threatening to explode and destroy the submarine; only the quick and competent actions of the team made it possible to avoid this, otherwise history would never have known who exactly destroyed GUSTLOFF.

The ship resumed broadcasting light music, and in the captain's cabin there was a feeling of relief as the ship reached the shallows Stolpe Bank(now Ławica-Slupska), i.e. the most dangerous part of their route was behind them. The captains went down, but Captain Weller remained in the control room. And then…

At 9:16 pm the first torpedo exploded in the bow of the ship, making a huge hole in the hull on the port side. Seconds later, a second torpedo exploded closer to the stern, right in the swimming pool.

Finally, the third torpedo destroyed the engine room, hitting it directly under the base of the smokestack. All the people on board were knocked off their feet by the shock wave, and those who were in the areas of the explosions literally evaporated. After the torpedoes exploded, watertight bulkheads isolated the bow of the ship. Unfortunately, it was here that the crew’s quarters were located, including those who were responsible for lowering the boats and other measures to save the ship and people. And it was here that they found their grave. The torpedo explosion led to the fact that metal fragments of water supply fittings and facing tiles, like shrapnel, dismembered the bodies and killed almost everyone at the scene of the explosion, two or three girls remained alive.

The explosion of the third torpedo sealed the fate WILHELM GUSTLOFF. A direct hit in the engine room deprived the ship not only of its engines and lighting, but also “knocked out” all mechanisms and communications. In complete darkness, desperate screams were heard, the sounds of falling and breaking objects and the ominous noise of streams of water rushing inside; many felt that the ship seemed to begin to list to the left side. After some time, emergency lighting appeared...

Ship's radio operator Rudi Lange was able to start transmitting SOS distress signals through a backup radio transmitter, but these signals with a frequency of 2000 meters in the long-wave range could only be received by Lowe, immediately going to the scene of the disaster, simultaneously relaying a distress signal. Many people died in the explosions. The calls heard over the broadcast to maintain order and let women and children go forward to the lifeboats in the atmosphere of panic that arose were not successful. The stairs leading up and the exits to the decks were practically blocked by the masses of those eager to get out, only a few lucky ones ended up on the decks. Some, foreseeing imminent and terrible death, shot themselves, having first shot their family members. The officers, trying to maintain some kind of order, also shot.

The situation outside was terrible. All decks became icy, people slipped and fell into the water, the ship's roll increased every minute. Lifeboats and boats were frozen to their racks, only one boat and several boats managed to be launched into the water, several lifeboats became entangled in slings, one anti-aircraft gun rolled overboard and sank a boat full of people. Seventy minutes after the explosion of the first torpedo, the pride of the German cruise fleet disappeared into the waters of the Baltic Sea under the howling sirens, taking with it thousands and thousands of souls.

The fate of most of those who found themselves in the cold stormy sea was also sad. Many tried to cling to rafts and boats, but they were pushed away or thrown off by those who had occupied these life-saving means earlier. Huge waves tossed the bodies of victims, supported on the surface by life jackets. The bodies of children turned upside down in the water in life jackets - because they choked because the life jackets were not designed for them, but for adults. When GUSTLOFF sank, rescue actions Lowe, who was the first to arrive at the scene of the disaster, continued, people were removed from life-saving equipment and caught in nets from the raging sea, Lowe took 472 people on board. Another escort vessel T-36 564 passengers were saved. Later at the scene of death GUSTLOFF turned out to be a cruiser overcrowded with refugees ADMIRAL HIPPER, but due to the danger of being also orphaned, he did not take part in the rescue work. Later, three minesweepers arrived, taking on board another 179 people. Even later, cargo ships Göttingen And Gotenland and several other smaller ships also came to the scene of the disaster, but their share was mainly to catch the frozen and drowned.

With every tragedy there are miracles. Seven hours after the disaster, the patrol boat VP-1703, which was picking up bodies at sea, discovered a lifeboat. When foreman Werner Fick jumped into the boat, among the corpses he found a living (!) baby in a woolen blanket. This was the last one saved WILHELM GUSTLOFF Wilhelm Gustloff museum R.S. Many thanks to Ernst Galimovich for his help in translation .

"Wilhelm Gustloff"

In the second half of the 1930s. The German organization “Kraft Dürch Freude” (“Strength through joy”), designed to provide adequate rest for workers and employees, decided to take up sea ​​cruises. For this purpose, ships of various German companies were first chartered, and in 1935 Kraft Durtsch Freude ordered two first-class cruise ships for itself - Wilhelm Gustloff and Robert Ley. The first of them was laid down in May 1937 at the Blom und Voss shipyard in Hamburg. The new ship was named after the Nazi party leader, founder and head of the Swiss branch of the NSDAP. He was killed by Jewish student David Frankfurter in 1936, after which he was declared a “martyr” by the Third Reich.

"Wilhelm Gustloff"

The basic data of the two formally similar courts were somewhat different. The gross tonnage of the Wilhelm was 25,484 brt, length - 208.5 m, width - 23.5 m, draft - 7 m, the power plant consisted of four eight-cylinder Sulzer diesel engines with a total power of 9500 hp, speed - 15.5 knots, crew – 417 people. During the cruise voyage, the ship could carry 1,463 passengers.

In terms of accommodating tourists, the liners were very democratic: they had only one class, and the level of comfort was considered quite high. Both ships were equipped, for example, with indoor swimming pools. "Wilhelm" and "Ley" can be considered the prototypes of modern cruise ships: they had a shallow draft, allowing them to enter most European ports. The economical power plant made it possible to do without bunkering for a long time. True, the new liners could not boast of high speed, which, however, was not a significant drawback. In addition, diesel engines had a fairly high level of vibration.

In March 1938, the Wilhelm Gustloff set off on its maiden voyage. The ship was relocated to the Mediterranean Sea and began making week-long cruises around Italy, where vacationers from the Reich were transported by train. Already on the very first voyage, “Wilhelm”, its captain and crew had a chance to deservedly become famous - in the most severe storm conditions, an operation was carried out to rescue the crew of the sinking English steamer “Pegaway”.

On August 26, 1939, Wilhelm was recalled from her cruise to Hamburg. As a medical evacuation transport, it was involved in the Norwegian campaign. Until the end of November 1940, the ship made four voyages to Norway and one to the Baltic, transporting more than 7,000 wounded. When there was no longer a need for active use of the Wilhelm, the ship was transferred to Gotenhafen (Gdynia) and turned into a dormitory for cadets of the 2nd training division of submarines. Several classrooms were also equipped on board the liner, and practical classes - for example, in diving - were held in the ship's swimming pool. After training, school graduates were sent to newly formed submarine crews. During its stationary service, Wilhelm was bombed twice by Allied aircraft on October 9, 1943 and December 18, 1944, but was able to avoid damage.

In January 1945, after the successes of the Soviet army in Poland and East Prussia, the Hannibal plan came into effect. It provided for the transfer of training units of the German submarine stationed in the Eastern Baltic regions to the ports of Kiel Bay.

On January 21, the captain of the Wilhelm Gustloff, Friedrich Petersen, received orders to prepare to go to sea. Four days later, after checking all the systems of the ship that had been idle for a long time, the liner was ready to sail. On board were 173 crew members, 918 officers and sailors of the submarine school under the command of Corvette Captain Wilhelm Zahn and 373 female Kriegsmarine auxiliary servicemen. By January 30, the day of sailing, the Wilhelm had received more than 4,000 refugees from East Prussia, resulting in a population of approximately 6,600 people, including approximately 2,000 women and 3,000 children, at the time of sailing.

On the evening of the same day, at 23:08, the Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of captain third rank A.I. Marinesko. Three torpedoes hit the left side of the ship: one in the bow, the second in the captain's bridge area, and the third in the midship area. Despite the fact that all the watertight doors of the ship were immediately closed, it immediately became clear that it would soon sink. The third torpedo disabled power plant the liner, which resulted in its complete loss of power. The distress signal was sent from the torpedo boat Löwe, which accompanied the Wilhelm on this voyage. "Wilhelm Gustloff" began to plunge nose-first, with an increasing list to the left side. In the very first seconds after the explosions, refugees from the lower decks began to rush upstairs to the lifeboats and rafts. As a result of the crush that occurred on the stairs and in the passages of the overloaded ship, as it turned out later, about a thousand people died. Many, desperate to get to life-saving means, committed suicide or asked to be shot.

Many members of the liner's crew assigned to the boats died in the explosions, and submariners took over the leadership of the rescue operation. They allowed only women and children to board the launch boats. Naturally, there was no talk of any rowing in the watercraft equipped in this way; the boats began to drift across the cold winter sea. Only a few lucky ones were taken from the decks of the Wilhelm and picked up from the Loewe boats and the large destroyer T-36 that approached the site of the disaster.

Around midnight, when the liner's list reached 22°, Captain Petersen gave the order to abandon the ship and save himself. A huge number of refugees crowded onto the glass-enclosed promenade deck, waiting to be loaded into lifeboats. When water appeared in the bow of the deck, a crush began again in the passages to the boat deck. Attempts to knock out the thick triplex glazing led nowhere. Only one of the armored glasses, already below the water level, eventually burst, and through the resulting gap several people were thrown to the surface of the sea. Before the liner completely sank, about 2,500 more people died on board. The Wilhelm Gustloff sank with a list of about 90° shortly after midnight. The agony of the liner lasted only about an hour. At an air temperature of minus 18°, the people in the boats had little chance of survival. Many died from hypothermia. It is estimated that about 1,800 people died after boarding the rescue craft. The exact number of victims of the disaster has not been fully clarified - according to researchers, depending on the assessment of the information at their disposal, it ranges from 5,340 to 9,343 people, including about 3,000 children. "Wilhelm Gustloff" still lies in the place of its destruction near Gdynia.

In the USSR, and in modern Russia propaganda declared the S-13 attack “the attack of the century.” A number of legends were associated with the sinking of the Wilhelm: supposedly on board there were formed and trained crews for the new German submarines (although there were only “training” cadets there) and Nazi bosses; in Germany, after the sinking of the ship, three days of mourning were declared, and Hitler called A.I. Marinesko as his “personal enemy”. But throughout the entire war, three-day mourning was declared only for the Wehrmacht’s 6th Army destroyed in Stalingrad, and Soviet publications confuse the mourning declared in 1936 after the death of the Swiss Nazi W. Gustloff with the one allegedly declared after the sinking of the ship. Hitler did not declare Marinesco his personal enemy. The myth about bonzes is explained by the fact that the evacuation documents of most passengers were certified by the local party leadership (a similar practice existed in the USSR when moving the population from front-line areas to the rear). However, the other extreme – accusing Marinesko of committing a war crime – is also untenable. By attacking the Wilhelm, the C-13 commander was fulfilling his duty. The transport was not officially declared a hospital ship, and besides, it was accompanied by a warship. Therefore, it is simply impossible to accuse Marinesko of excessive cruelty.

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Background

History of the name

Characteristics

Launching the liner "Wilhelm Gustloff". Photo, 1937

From a technological point of view Wilhelm Gustloff was not an exceptional vessel. The liner was designed for 1,500 people and had ten decks. Its engines were of medium power and it was not built for fast travel, but rather for slow, comfortable cruising. And from the point of view of amenities, equipment and recreational facilities, this liner was truly one of the best in the world. One of the newest technologies used on it was the principle of an open deck with cabins that had direct access to it and a clear view of the scenery. At their service were provided a luxuriously decorated swimming pool, a winter garden, large spacious halls, music salons, and several bars. Unlike other ships of this class, Wilhelm Gustloff, in a testament to the "classless character" of the Nazi regime, had cabins of the same size and the same excellent amenities for all passengers.

In addition to purely technical innovations and the best equipment for an unforgettable trip, Wilhelm Gustloff, which cost 25 million Reichsmarks, was a unique symbol and means of propaganda for the authorities of the Third Reich. According to Robert Ley, who led the German Labor Front, liners like this could " ...to provide the opportunity, by the will of the Fuehrer, to the mechanics of Bavaria, the postmen of Cologne, the housewives of Bremen, at least once a year, to carry out affordable cruise to Madeira, along the Mediterranean coast, to the shores of Norway and Africa.»

For German citizens, travel by ship Wilhelm Gustloff it had to be not only unforgettable, but also affordable, regardless of social status. For example, a five-day cruise along the coast of Italy cost only 150 Reichsmarks, while the average monthly salary of an ordinary German was 150-250 Reichsmarks (for comparison, the cost of a ticket on this liner was only a third of the cost of similar cruises in Europe, where only representatives of the wealthy strata of the population and the nobility). Thus, Wilhelm Gustloff with its amenities, level of comfort and accessibility, it not only cemented the disposition of the German people towards the Nazi regime, but also had to demonstrate to the whole world the advantages of National Socialism.

The flagship of the cruise fleet

After the ceremonial launching of the ship, 10 months passed before Wilhelm Gustloff passed sea trials in May 1938. During this time, the finishing and arrangement of the interior of the liner was completed. As a thank you to the builders, the ship was taken on a two-day cruise in the North Sea, which qualified as a test cruise. The first official cruise took place on May 24, 1938, and almost two-thirds of its passengers were citizens of Austria, which Hitler intended to soon annex to Germany. Unforgettable journey was intended to stun the Austrians on the cruise with the level of service and amenities and convince others of the benefits of an alliance with Germany. The cruise was a real triumph, evidence of the achievements of the new German government. The world press enthusiastically described the impressions of the cruise participants and the unprecedented luxury on board the ship. Even Hitler himself arrived on the liner, which symbolized all the best achievements of the country under his leadership. When the excitement around this symbol of the Hitler regime subsided somewhat, the liner began to fulfill the task for which it was built - to provide affordable, comfortable cruises to the workers of Germany.

Propaganda tool

Passenger airliner "Wilhelm Gustloff". Photo, ok. 1938

Although Wilhelm Gustloff offered truly unforgettable and cheap travel and cruises; it also remained in history as a prominent means of propaganda for the Nazi regime. The first successful, although unplanned, incident occurred during the rescue of the sailors of the English ship Peguey, which was in distress on April 2, 1938 in the North Sea. The courage and determination of the captain, who left a procession of three ships to save the British, was noted not only by the world press, but also by the English government - the captain was awarded, and a memorial plaque was later installed on the ship. Thanks to this occasion, when April 10 Wilhelm Gustloff used as a floating polling station for the Germans and Austrians of Great Britain participating in the plebiscite on the annexation of Austria, not only the British but also the world press have already written favorably about it. To participate in the plebiscite, almost 2,000 citizens of both countries and a large number of correspondents sailed to neutral waters off the coast of Great Britain. Only four of the participants in this event abstained. The Western and even the British communist press were delighted with the liner and Germany's achievements. The use of such a sophisticated vessel in the plebiscite symbolized the new things that the Nazi regime was introducing in Germany.

Cruises and troop transport

Like the flagship of a cruise fleet Wilhelm Gustloff spent only a year and a half at sea and completed 50 cruises as part of the Strength Through Joy (STF) program. About 65,000 vacationers visited it. Typically, during the warm season, the liner offered travel around the North Sea, the coast of Germany, and the Norwegian fjords. In winter, the liner went on cruises along the Mediterranean Sea, the coasts of Italy, Spain and Portugal. For many, despite such minor inconveniences as being prohibited from going ashore in countries that did not support the Nazi regime, these cruises remained an unforgettable and the best time of the entire period of Nazi rule in Germany. Many ordinary Germans took advantage of the Strength Through Joy program and were sincerely grateful to the new regime for providing recreational opportunities incomparable to other European countries.

In addition to cruise activities, Wilhelm Gustloff remained a state-owned ship and was involved in various activities carried out by the German government. So May 20, 1939 Wilhelm Gustloff for the first time transported troops - German volunteers of the Condor Legion, who took part in the Spanish Civil War on the side of Franco. The arrival of the ship in Hamburg with “war heroes” on board caused a great stir throughout Germany, and a special welcoming ceremony was held in the port with the participation of state leaders.

Military service

floating hospital, July 1940

The liner's last cruise took place on August 25, 1939. Unexpectedly during a scheduled flight in the middle North Sea the captain received an encrypted order to urgently return to port. The time for cruises was over - less than a week later, Germany attacked Poland and World War II began.

Military hospital

As the war spread to most of Europe Wilhelm Gustloff first received wounded during the Norwegian campaign in the summer of 1940 ( on illus.), and then prepared to transport troops in the event of an invasion of Great Britain. However, the invasion did not take place and the ship was sent to Danzig, where the last 414 wounded were treated, and the ship awaited assignment to subsequent service. However, the ship's service as a military hospital ended - by decision of the Navy leadership, it was assigned to the submariner school in Gotenhafen. The liner was again repainted in gray camouflage, and it lost the protection of the Hague Convention that it had previously had.

Floating barracks

The ship served as a floating barracks for the Kriegsmarine submarine school for almost four years. most this time, being far from the front line. As the end of the war approached, the situation began to change not in Germany's favor - many cities suffered from Allied air raids. On October 9, 1943, Gotenhafen was bombed, as a result of which another ship of the former KDF was sunk, and itself Wilhelm Gustloff received damage [ ] .

Evacuation of the population

According to modern estimates, there should have been 10,582 people on board: 918 junior cadets of the 2nd training submarine division (2. U-Boot-Lehrdivision), 173 crew members, 373 women from the auxiliary naval corps, 162 seriously wounded military personnel, and 8,956 refugees, mostly old people, women and children. When at 12:30 Wilhelm Gustloff accompanied by two guard ships, finally departed; disputes arose on the captain's bridge between the four senior officers. In addition to the commander of the ship, Captain Friedrich Petersen (German) Friedrich Petersen), called up from retirement, the commander of the 2nd Submarine Training Division and two merchant marine captains were on board, and there was no agreement between them as to which channel to navigate the ship and what precautions to take regarding enemy submarines and aircraft. The outer fairway (German designation Zwangsweg 58) was chosen. Contrary to recommendations to go in a zigzag to complicate the attack by submarines, it was decided to go straight at a speed of 12 knots, since the corridor in the minefields was not wide enough and the captains hoped to get out into safe waters faster this way; In addition, the ship lacked fuel. The liner could not reach full speed due to damage received during the bombing. In addition, the TF-19 torpedo boat returned to port, having received damage to its hull when it collided with a reef, and only one destroyer remained on guard Lowe. At 18:00, a message was received about a convoy of minesweepers that was supposedly heading towards them, and when it was already dark, it was ordered to turn on the running lights to prevent a collision. In reality, there were no minesweepers, and the circumstances of the appearance of this radiogram have remained unclear to this day. According to other sources, a group of minesweepers was trawling towards the convoy and appeared later than the time specified in the notification.

Sinking

At 21:16, the first torpedo hit the bow of the ship, later the second blew up the empty swimming pool where the women of the naval auxiliary battalion were, and the last hit the engine room, the engines stalled, but the lighting continued to work due to the emergency diesel generator. The passengers' first thought was that they had hit a mine, but Captain Peterson realized it was a submarine, and his first words were: Das war's(That's all). Those passengers who did not die from the three explosions and did not drown in the cabins on the lower decks rushed to the lifeboats in panic. At this moment it turned out that having ordered to close, according to the instructions, the watertight bulkheads in lower decks, the captain blocked part of the team, which was supposed to lower the boats and evacuate passengers. In the panic and stampede, not only many children and women died, but also many of those who climbed to the upper deck. They could not lower the lifeboats because they did not know how to do this, besides, many of the davits were iced over, and the ship was already heavily listing. Through the joint efforts of the crew and passengers, some boats were able to be launched, but many people still found themselves in the icy water. Due to the strong roll of the ship, an anti-aircraft gun fell off the deck and crushed one of the boats, already full of people. About an hour after the attack, the Wilhelm Gustloff sank completely.

Rescue of survivors

Destroyer Lowe(a former ship of the Dutch Navy) was the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy and began rescuing the surviving passengers. Since the temperature in January was already −18 °C, there were only a few minutes left before irreversible hypothermia set in. Despite this, the ship managed to rescue 472 passengers from the lifeboats and from the water. The guard ships of another convoy, the cruiser Admiral Hipper, which also, in addition to the crew, also had about 1,500 refugees on board, also came to the rescue. Due to fear of attack from submarines, he did not stop and continued to retire to safe waters. Other ships (by “other ships” we mean the only destroyer T-38 - the sonar system did not work on the Lion, the Hipper left) managed to save another 179 people. A little more than an hour later, new ships that came to the rescue could only fish dead bodies from the icy water. Later, a small messenger ship that arrived at the scene of the tragedy unexpectedly found, seven hours after the sinking of the liner, among hundreds of dead bodies, an unnoticed boat and in it a living baby wrapped in blankets - the last rescued passenger from the ship Wilhelm Gustloff .

As a result, it was possible to survive, according to various estimates, from 1200