MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German military transport ship, which was taking part in Operation Hannibal, when it was sunk by Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea on 30 January 1945. At the time, it was evacuating civilians and German military personnel from East Prussia and the occupied Baltic states, and German military personnel from Gotenhafen (Gdynia). By one estimate, 9,343 people died, making its sinking the deadliest maritime disaster in modern history.
Originally constructed as a cruise ship for the Nazi Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude) organization in 1937, Wilhelm Gustloff was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine (German navy) in 1939. She served as a hospital ship from 1939 to 1940, and then as a floating barracks for naval personnel in Gotenhafen until 1945, when she was fitted with anti-aircraft guns and used to transport evacuees.
Wilhelm Gustloff was the first purpose-built cruise ship for the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF) and used by subsidiary organisation Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude, KdF). She was designed to provide recreational and cultural activities for German functionaries and workers, including concerts, cruises, and other holiday trips, and to serve as a public relations tool that would present "a more acceptable image of the Reich".
The ship was constructed by the Blohm & Voss shipyards. Measuring 208.5 m (684 ft 1 in) long by 23.59 m (77 ft 5 in) wide, with a capacity of 25,484 gross register tons (GRT), she was launched on 5 May 1937.
Originally intended to be named Adolf Hitler, the ship was instead named after Wilhelm Gustloff, leader of the Nazi Party's Swiss branch, who had been assassinated by a Jewish medical student in 1936. Hitler himself decided on the name change after sitting next to Gustloff's widow during his memorial service. After completing sea trials in the North Sea from 15 to 16 March 1938, she was handed over to the Strength Through Joy organisation.
The ship made her unofficial maiden voyage between 24 and 27 March 1938 carrying Austrians in an attempt to convince them to vote for the annexation of Austria by Germany. On 29 March she departed on her second voyage carrying workers and their families from the Blohm & Voss shipyard on a three-day cruise.
For her third voyage, Wilhelm Gustloff left Hamburg on 1 April 1938 under the command of Carl Lübbe to join the KdF ships Der Deutsche, Oceania and Sierra Cordoba on a group cruise of the North Sea. A storm developed on 3 April with winds up to 100 kilometres per hour (55 knots) that forced the four ships apart. Meanwhile, the 1,836 gross ton British coal freighter Pegaway, which had departed Tyne on 2 April for Hamburg, was also caught up in the storm. Cargo and machinery were washed from Pegaway's decks and the ship soon lost maneuverability. By 4 April, it was taking on water and slowly sinking.
At 4 am, Captain G. W. Ward of Pegaway issued an SOS when the ship was 20 nautical miles (37 km) northwest of the island of Terschelling, off the coast of the Netherlands. The closest of the ships that answered the distress call was Wilhelm Gustloff, which reached Pegaway at 6 am. She launched her Lifeboat No. 1, with a crew of twelve under the command of Second Officer Meyer. The oar-powered lifeboat was unable to come aside Pegaway in the heavy seas and looked in danger of needing to be rescued itself. Lifeboat No. 6, with a crew of ten under the command of Third Officer Schürmann, was then lowered. As it was motor-powered, it was better able to handle the waves.
After first assisting their shipmates in Lifeboat No. 1 to head back towards Wilhelm Gustloff, Schürmann was able to reach Pegaway. One by one, the 19 men on Pegaway jumped into the sea and were hauled onto Lifeboat No. 6, with both them and the crew of the lifeboat back at Wilhelm Gustloff by 7:45 am. A Dutch tugboat soon arrived but was unable to save Pegaway, which soon rolled to port and sank. Lifeboat No. 1 had been so badly damaged by the waves that after its crew had climbed up via ladders to the safety of their ship that it was set adrift, to later be washed up on the shores of Terschelling on 2 May.
Anschluss and further civilian usage
On 8 April 1938 Wilhelm Gustloff departed Hamburg for England, where she anchored over 5.6 kilometres (3 nmi) offshore from Tilbury so as to remain in international waters. This allowed her to act as a floating polling station for German and Austrian citizens living in England who wished to vote on the approaching plebiscite on Germany's unification with Austria. During 10 April, 1,172 Germans and 806 Austrians were carried from the docks at Tilbury to the ship where 1,968 votes were cast in favour of the union and ten against. Once the voting was complete, Wilhelm Gustloff left Tilbury, reaching Hamburg on 12 April.
After undertaking a further voyage on 14 to 19 April 1938, the ship went on an Osterfahrt (Easter Voyage) before her actual official maiden voyage, which was undertaken from 21 April to 6 May 1938, when she joined Der Deutsche, Oceania and Sierra Cordoba on a group cruise to the Madeira Islands. On the second day of her voyage, the 58-year-old Captain Lübbe died on the bridge from a heart attack. He was replaced by First Officer Friedrich Petersen, who commanded Wilhelm Gustloff for the remainder of the cruise. Petersen relinquished his command; he would later serve as captain on the ship's final voyage.
Wilhelm Gustloff remained as flagship of the KdF cruise fleet, her last civilian role, until the spring of 1939, when all large ships were requisitioned for wartime use. From 14 March 1938 until 26 August 1939, the ship had carried over 80,000 passengers on a total of 60 voyages.
Between 20 May and 2 June 1939, Wilhelm Gustloff was temporarily repurposed by the German navy. Along with seven other ships in the KdF fleet, she transported the Condor Legion back to Germany from Spain following the victory of the Nationalist forces under General Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
From September 1939 to November 1940, Wilhelm Gustloff served as a hospital ship, officially designated Lazarettschiff D.
On 20 November 1940, medical equipment was removed from the ship, and she was repainted from the hospital ship colors of white with a green stripe to standard naval grey.
As a consequence of the Allied blockade of the German coastline, she was used as a barracks ship for approximately 1,000 U-boat trainees of the 2nd Submarine Training Division (2. Unterseeboot-Lehrdivision) in the port of Gdynia, which had been occupied by Germany and renamed Gotenhafen, located near Danzig (Gdańsk). Wilhelm Gustloff sat in dock there for over four years.
In 1942, SS Cap Arcona was used as a stand-in for RMS Titanic in the German film version of the disaster. Filmed in Gotenhafen, the 2nd Submarine Training Division acted as extras in the movie. Wilhelm Gustloff continued to serve as a barracks until 1945, when she was hastily repurposed for Operation Hannibal.