Editing SS General von Steuben (section)

===Operation Hannibal===
Along with the {{MV|Wilhelm Gustloff||2}} and numerous other vessels, ''Steuben'' was part of the largest evacuation by sea in modern times. The [[Operation Hannibal]] evacuations surpassed the [[Dunkirk evacuation|British evacuation]] at [[Dunkirk]] in both size of the operation and number of people evacuated.

By early January 1945, Grossadmiral [[Karl Dönitz]] realized that Germany was soon to be defeated. Wishing to save his submariners, he radioed a coded message on 23 January 1945 to the [[Baltic Sea]] port of Gotenhafen (the Polish city and port of [[Gdynia]] under German occupation) to evacuate to the West, under the code name ''Operation Hannibal''.

Submariners at that point were schooled and housed in ships floating in the Baltic ports, most of them at Gotenhafen. Among the ships were {{SS|Deutschland|1923|2}}, {{SS|Hamburg|1925|2}}, ''Hansa'', and ''Wilhelm Gustloff''.

Notwithstanding the losses suffered during the operation, over two million people were evacuated ahead of the [[Red Army]]'s advance into East Prussia and [[Danzig]] (now Gdańsk, [[Poland]]).

In the winter of 1945, [[East Prussia]]n refugees headed west, away from the city of [[Königsberg]] and ahead of the Soviet advance into the Baltic States and East Prussia. Thousands fled to the Baltic seaport at Pillau (now [[Baltiysk]], Russia), hoping to board ships that would carry them to the relative safety of Western Germany. ''Steuben'' was part of the fleet sent for the purpose.