Editing MV Wilhelm Gustloff (section)

==Operation Hannibal – evacuation==
{{Main|Operation Hannibal}}
Operation Hannibal was the naval evacuation of German troops and civilians from [[East Prussia]] and the [[German occupation of the Baltic states during World War II|German-occupied Baltic states]] as the [[Red Army]] advanced from the east. ''Wilhelm Gustloff''{{'}}s final voyage was to evacuate civilians, German military personnel, and technicians from [[Courland]], [[East Prussia]], and [[Danzig-West Prussia]]. Many had worked at advanced weapon bases in the Baltic<ref>''Submarines of the Russian and Soviet navies, 1718–1990'', Von Norman Polmar, Jurrien Noot, page 190, Naval Institute Press (1991)</ref> from Gotenhafen to [[Kiel]].<ref name="JP">Pipes, Jason. ''[https://www.feldgrau.com/WW2-Germany-Wilhelm-Gustloff-Cruise-Liner/ A Memorial to the Wilhelm Gustloff]''</ref>

The ship's complement and passenger lists cited 6,050 people on board, but these did not include the many individuals who boarded the ship without being listed in the official embarkation records. Heinz Schön, a German [[archivist]] and ''Gustloff'' survivor, researched the sinking during the 1980s and 1990s. He concluded that the ship was carrying a crew of 173 (naval armed forces auxiliaries); 918 officers, [[Non-commissioned officer|NCOs]], and men of the 2 ''Unterseeboot-Lehrdivision''; 373 female naval auxiliary helpers; 162 wounded soldiers; and 8,956 civilians, for a total of 10,582 passengers and crew.<ref name=JP/> The passengers, besides civilians, included [[Gestapo]] personnel, members of the [[Organisation Todt]], and Nazi officials with their families.<ref>{{cite book|author= Prince, Cathryn J. |title=Death in the Baltic: The World War II Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff|location= New York|publisher= Palgrave Macmillan|date= 2012|page =119}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Kosiarz |first= E. |title= Druga Wojna Światowa na Bałtyku| page =614}}</ref> The ship was overcrowded, and due to the high temperature and humidity inside, many passengers defied orders not to remove their [[life jacket]]s.<ref name="Gustloff">{{cite web|title=Sinking |url=http://www.wilhelmgustloff.com/sinking.htm|website=wilhelmgustloff.com|access-date=12 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150330021945/http://www.wilhelmgustloff.com/sinking.htm |archive-date=30 March 2015 |url-status=usurped}}</ref> Besides ethnic Germans, the people on board included Lithuanians, Latvians, Poles, Estonians, and Croatians, some of whom had been victims of Nazi aggression.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/4198914/wilhelm-gustloff-salt-to-the-sea/|title=The Forgotten Maritime Tragedy Deadlier Than the Titanic|magazine=Time|language=en|access-date=2018-11-21}}</ref>

The ship left [[Gotenhafen]] at 12:30 pm on 30 January 1945, accompanied by two [[torpedo boat]]s and another evacuation transport, [[SS Albert Ballin|''Hansa'']]. ''Hansa'' and one torpedo boat were soon disabled by mechanical problems, leaving ''Wilhelm Gustloff'' with just one torpedo boat escort, ''[[HNoMS Gyller (1938)|Löwe]]'' (ex-{{ship|HNoMS|Gyller|1938|2}}).<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/captured/torpedoboats/lowe/index.html| title = Löwe Torpedoboot 1940–1959 Sleipner Class}}</ref> The ship had four captains on board (the ''Wilhelm Gustloff''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s captain, two [[merchant marine]] captains, and the captain of the U-boat complement housed on the vessel); this resulted in heated arguments about how to guard the ship against Soviet submarines. Against the advice of the U-boat commander, [[Lieutenant commander|Lieutenant Commander]] [[Wilhelm Zahn]] (an experienced submariner who argued for a course in shallow waters close to shore and without lights), ''Wilhelm Gustloff''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s captain, Friedrich Petersen, turned the ship into deep waters. Upon being informed by radio of an oncoming German [[minesweeper (ship)|minesweeper]] convoy, Petersen ordered that the ship's red and green [[navigation light]]s should be turned on so as to avoid a collision in the dark, making ''Wilhelm Gustloff'' easy to spot.

As ''Wilhelm Gustloff'' had been fitted with [[Anti-aircraft warfare|anti-aircraft gun]]s, and the Germans did not mark her as a hospital ship, no notification of her operating in a hospital capacity had been given.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Der Untergang der Wilhelm Gustloff – die größte Schiffskatastrophe der Geschichte |url=https://heimatkurier.at/gedenken/der-untergang-der-wilhelm-gustloff-die-groesste-schiffskatastrophe-der-geschichte/ |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=heimatkurier.com|language=German}}</ref> Since she was transporting military personnel, she did not have any protection as a hospital ship under international accords.<ref name="ThePast">{{cite web |last1=Selcer |first1=Richard |title=The worst maritime disaster ever’: the Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff |url=https://the-past.com/feature/the-worst-maritime-disaster-ever-the-sinking-of-the-wilhelm-gustloff/ |website=The Past |access-date=9 March 2025}}</ref><ref>[http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/lawofwar/hague10.htm The Avalon Project – Laws of War: Adaptation to Maritime War of the Principles of the Geneva Convention (Hague X); 18 October 1907] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512052803/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/lawofwar/hague10.htm |date=12 May 2008 }}</ref>

===Sinking===
''Wilhelm Gustloff'' was soon sighted by the {{Ship|Soviet submarine|S-13}}, under the command of Captain [[Alexander Marinesko]]. The submarine sensor on board the escorting torpedo boat had frozen, rendering it inoperable, as had her anti-aircraft guns, leaving the vessels defenseless. Marinesko followed the ships to their [[Port and starboard|starboard]] (seaward) side for two hours before making a daring move, surfacing his submarine and steering it around ''Wilhelm Gustloff''{{'}}s stern, to attack it from the port side closer to shore, from where the attack would be less expected. At around 9:00 pm ([[Central European Time|CET]]), Marinesko ordered his crew to launch four torpedoes at ''Wilhelm Gustloff''{{'}}s port side, about {{convert|30|km|nmi mi|abbr=on}} offshore, between [[Władysławowo|Großendorf]] and [[Łeba|Leba]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-01-30 |title=The Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff |url=https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/sinking-wilhelm-gustloff |access-date=2024-12-18 |website=The National WWII Museum {{!}} New Orleans |language=en}}</ref>

The three torpedoes that were fired successfully all struck ''Wilhelm Gustloff'' on her port side. The first struck the ship's [[Bow (watercraft)|bow]]; this caused the ship's watertight doors to lock before the sleeping off-duty crew could escape. The second hit the accommodations for the women's naval auxiliary, located in the ship's drained swimming pool. It dislodged the pool tiles at high velocity, which caused high casualties; only three of the 373 women quartered there survived. The third torpedo scored a direct hit on the [[engine room]] located {{nautical term|amidships}}, disabling all power and communications.

Reportedly, only nine lifeboats could be lowered; the rest had frozen in their [[davit]]s and had to be freed with tools. About twenty minutes after the torpedoes' impact, ''Wilhelm Gustloff'' suddenly [[Angle of list|listed]] so dramatically to port that the lifeboats lowered on the high starboard side crashed into the ship's tilting side, sending their occupants into the sea.<ref name="Gustloff" />

Many deaths were caused either directly by the torpedoes or by drowning in the onrushing water. Some fatalities were due to the initial stampede caused by panicked passengers on the stairs and decks, while others were caused by passengers jumping overboard into freezing waters. The water temperature in the Baltic Sea in late January is usually around {{convert|4|°C|°F}}; however, this was a particularly cold night, with an air temperature of {{convert|−10|to|−18|°C|°F}} and [[ice floe]]s covering the surface. The majority of those who died were victims of [[hypothermia]].<ref>Roger Moorhouse (19 June 2013): [http://www.historytoday.com/blog/2013/06/death-baltic Death in the Baltic] ''[[History Today]]'', retrieved 19 June 2013</ref>

Less than forty minutes after being struck, ''Wilhelm Gustloff'' was lying on her side. She sank bow-first ten minutes later, in {{convert|44|m|ft|abbr=on}} of water.

German forces were able to rescue 1,252 people: the torpedo boat {{ship|German torpedo boat|T36||2}} rescued 564; the torpedo boat ''Löwe'', 472; the minesweeper ''M387'', 98; the minesweeper ''M375'', 43; the minesweeper ''M341'', 37; the steamer ''Göttingen'', 28; the torpedo recovery boat (''Torpedofangboot'') ''TF19'', 7; the freighter ''[[MS Gotenland|Gotenland]]'', two; and the patrol boat (''[[Vorpostenboot]]'') ''V1703'', one baby.<ref name="Gustloff"/> Thirteen of the survivors died later. All four captains on ''Wilhelm Gustloff'' survived her sinking; an official naval inquiry was initiated only against Lieutenant Commander Zahn. His degree of responsibility was never resolved, however, because of Nazi Germany's collapse in 1945.<ref>{{cite web|title=Zahn |url=http://www.wilhelmgustloff.com/facts_keyplayers_ind.htm |website=wilhelmgustloff.com |access-date=12 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312195042/http://wilhelmgustloff.com/facts_keyplayers_ind.htm|archive-date=12 March 2016 |url-status=usurped}}</ref>

===Losses===
The figures from Heinz Schön's research make the loss in the ''Wilhelm Gustloff'' sinking to be "9,343 men, women and children".<ref name="JP-Schön">Pipes, Jason. In ''[https://www.feldgrau.com/WW2-Germany-Wilhelm-Gustloff-Cruise-Liner/ A Memorial to the Wilhelm Gustloff]'' Pipes cites Schön as reporting in ''Die Gustloff Katastrophe'' that the loss of life was 9,343.</ref> His more recent research is backed up by estimates arrived at by a different method. An ''[[Unsolved History]]'' episode that aired in March 2003,<ref name="DiscoveryChannel"/> on the [[Discovery Channel]], undertook a computer analysis of the sinking. Using ''Maritime Exodus'' software,<ref>Fire Safety Engineering Group, University of Greenwich. ''maritime EXODUS'' software. [http://fseg.gre.ac.uk/exodus/air.html Current exodus products]. Specifically: [http://fseg.gre.ac.uk/leaflets/maritimeEXODUS_fseg_flyer_030912.pdf maritimeEXODUS The Evacuation Model for the Marine Environment]</ref> it estimated that 9,600 people died of the more than 10,600 on board, by taking into account passenger density based on witness reports, and a simulation of escape routes and survivability with the timeline of the sinking.<ref name="Leja">Michael Leja, [[#References|References]] (a source in German)</ref>