Naval disaster

Maybe you Navy guys, or perhaps Commissioner Wretched, could tell us what the worst naval disaster in history was?  I’m going to set a body count standard – if you try to classify by cargo worth, etc. you can rabbit-hole for hours (The “White Ship” which sank in 1120, taking with it the legitimate heir to the English crown, started a war which ran until 1154 While about 300 were lost in the wreck, it caused thousands more deaths.)Britaannica – Disasters

Let’s stick with direct body count, then. And, although we have been brainwashed by Hollywood to think the Titanic may be the *worst*of*all*time – no, not really. About 1,500 died that 1912 night  – a tragedy indeed, but later ships surpassed its grisly total. Britannica – Titanic

Of course we know of the Lusitania – sunk by a German sub off the coast of Ireland, its 1198 casualties helped propel us into The Great War. It should be mentioned, by the way, that although it was characterized for years as a peaceful passenger ship, she was carrying 170 tons of artillery shells and explosives. I suspect that may have contributed to her sinking in a mere 18 minutes.

Nope, the biggie was a German liner sunk at the end of WWII.  Anyone have the SS Wilhelm Gustloff on their square? If so… you’re a winner. January 30, 1945:

Formerly a cruise liner for Hitler’s “Strength Through Joy” program in the 1930’s, and then a hospital ship during wartime, Wilhelm Gustloff was pulling different duty that long-ago night in the Baltic Sea. It was part of Operation Hannibal, the evacuation of German military personnel and civilian refugees from the ports of East Prussia, now cut off from Germany by the advance of Soviet armies deep into the province of East Prussia.

You should know that as Russian troops advanced toward Germany, the roads were crowded with refugees hoping to escape the Russians (who had a bad reputation – rape, murder, looting – not much was off their menu.)

They were making for the coast, for the safety of the ports Pillau or Gotenhafen. Here, rumor had it, they would be evacuated to the west. The trek was a harrowing one, replete with sub-zero temperatures, blizzards, and Soviet air attacks.

A gruesome form of “turn-about is fair play” – those are the same conditions many Russians suffered when the Germans rolled East.

When they arrived in Pillau, these refugees found not salvation, but chaos. The last months of the Third Reich featured scenes of unimaginable confusion, and this was no exception. Nazi Party officials haggled with the Navy over who was in charge of Hannibal, about the precise start date, even about who was to be rescued first. The local “Reichs Defense Commissar,” Gauleiter Eric Koch, was an ardent Nazi who didn’t want to appear weak in the eyes of the Führer. He wanted the evacuation postponed as long as possible.

Seems Koch was locking horns with a well known admiral named Doenitz. Then a train with about 500 families of high-ranking Reich officials arrived, and Koch wanted them to jump the line and go first. As everyone argued, refugees kept pouring in until there were over 100,000 in Pillau. Finally, the ship set sail on the 30th – with no exact count of refugees on board, but somewhere in the vicinity of 9-10,000. The fly in the ointment? Soviet Captain Alexander Marinesko of the submarine S-13.

As Wilhelm Gustloff steamed slowly to the west, Marinesko shadowed it, then, at 9 pm, fired a spread of four torpedoes. Three of them hit home, striking Wilhelm Gustloff on the bow, stern, and amidships. The jam-packed ship was soon a scene of horror, with explosions, fires, children blown overboard, passengers slipping and sliding on the icy deck, and tumbling into the sea. No help was at hand. Indeed, most of the ship’s actual crew was trapped in the forecastle, behind watertight doors that had locked automatically upon impact.

Fine piece of design work, that.

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. The dead numbered between 6,000-9,000. Once again, the figure depends on the initial figure for those on board. Choose either number, in fact, and the result is the same: even with 1,200 survivors picked up by rescue vessels, the sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff was the worst disaster in maritime history, at least four times bigger, in terms of human life, than the sinking of the Titanic.

The big question is whether it was a war crime?

Charges that Marinesko had violated the laws of war have arisen from time to time, but they’ve been difficult to sustain. He didn’t know he was looking at a refugee ship, and at any rate the presence on board of some 1,000 naval personnel, along with a couple of quad anti-aircraft guns, made Wilhelm Gustloff a legitimate target.  National WWII Museum

(A cautionary tale for those who would arm merchant ships to ward off Somali or Arab pirates – if you are armed and willing to fight, you become fair game.)

Category: Russia, War Stories, WWII