World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe Wilhelm Guftloff was the first purpose-built cruiser liner of the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF), used to provide recreation for German workers. In the summer of 1939, she was conscripted into the German Navy. Her first role was to bring German servicemen of the Condor Legion back from Spain. On 1 Sep 1939, she was requisitioned by the German Navy. In the first year of the European War, she served as a hospital ship off Poland and Norway with the designation Lazarettschiff D, or Hospital Ship D. On 20 Nov 1940, she had her medical equipment removed and was repainted the standard naval gray of the German Navy, and she was launched as an accommodations ship for about 1,000 men of the 2nd Submarine Training Squadron, stationed at Gotenhafen, Germany (now Gdynia, Poland), near Danzig. She remained at Gotenhafen for the following four years. During Operation Hannibal, as Russian troops approached Gotenhafen , she took on somewhere between 6,000 to 10,000 civilians and servicemen and disembarked for Kiel, Germany on 30 Jan 1945. She sailed with passenger liner Hansa, escorted by two torpedo boats. En route, Hansa and one of the torpedo boats developed mechanical trouble, thus Wilhelm Gustloff and torpedo boat Löwe sailed on ahead. Against the advise of the military captain Lieutenant Commander Wilhelm Zahn, senior civilian captain Friedrich Petersen kept the ship in deep water. When Petersen was informed that a German minesweeping convoy was near by, he turned on the ship's red and green navigation lights to avoid a potential collision. Shortly after the navigation lights were turned on, at about 2100 hours, she was spotted by Russian submarine S-13, commanded by Captain Third Class Alexander Marinesko. S-13 launched three torpedoes at Wilhelm Gustloff, with the first hitting near the port bow, the second hitting just ahead of midships, and the third hitting the engine room. Aboard the ship, panicked passengers trampled each other toward the rescue equipment (which was inadequate for the overcrowded ship) as the ship settled by the bow and listed to starboard and then to port. Many began to jump into the water, which was at about freezing point. The ship sank bow first less than 45 minutes after the torpedo hits. 1,200 survivors were rescued; somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 lives were lost, making it possibly the greatest loss of life in a maritime disaster in history. After the sinking, although all four captains survived, only the military captain, Lieutenant Commander Wilhelm Zahn, was questioned; the inquiry was never completed before the German surrender. After the war, many called the sinking a war crime as thousands of civilians died as the result of the Russian submarine attack, although the counter-arguments were made that she made no attempt to display that she was carrying civilians, plus she was indeed carrying about 1,000 active military personnel.

Wilhelm Gustloff Interactive Map

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Wilhelm Gustloff Operational Timeline

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