Wilhelm Gustloff

Sunk

Type	Transport
War	Second World War
Main guns	3 × 105 mm (4.1 in) anti-aircraft guns

Cruise liner of the Nazi Strength through Joy movement, then a hospital ship and a U-boat accommodation ship at Gotenhafen. Sunk by S-13 on 30 January 1945 carrying more than 10,000 refugees, wounded and sailors; about 9,400 died, the greatest loss of life in a single ship's sinking.

For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Scherl Bilderdienst: II. Weltkrieg 1939 - 1945, Überfall auf Polen am 1. September 1939. Das KdF - Schiff "Wilhelm Gustloff" wird als Lazar Photo: Sönnke, Hans, CC BY-SA 3.0 de · Wikimedia Commons

Armament and specifications

Armament

3 × 105 mm (4.1 in) anti-aircraft guns
8 × 20 mm (0.79 in) anti-aircraft cannons

Builder	Blohm & Voss
Laid down	1 August 1936
Launched	5 May 1937
Length	208.5 m (684 ft 1 in)
Speed	15.5 kn (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph)

As built, from the ship's Wikipedia article. Figures there may cover later refits too.

Career

Launched

5 May 1937

Sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff

Sunk

30 January 1945

About 9,400 killed; 1,252 rescued