Fleet Ledger

Naval wars from the age of sail to the present day

Second World War
/
Battles
/

Sinking of General von Steuben

Sinking of General von Steuben

10 February 1945, Baltic Sea, off Stolpmünde

Soviet success; General von Steuben sunk with about 4,000 people

Eleven days after sinking Wilhelm Gustloff, Marinesko's S-13 found the liner General von Steuben, sailing from Pillau for Swinemünde with wounded soldiers and refugees, perhaps 5,200 people. Just before midnight on 9 February two torpedoes hit her, and she sank in about twenty minutes. The torpedo boat T196 took some 300 people off her decks; in all about 650 were saved and around 4,000 died. Marinesko thought he had sunk the cruiser Emden.

Read more on Wikipedia

For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Polarfahrt mit dem Dampfer "München".- Die "München" im Hafen der Advent-Bay 17. Juli - 12. August 1925 Image: Fleischhut, Richard, CC BY-SA 3.0 de · Wikimedia Commons

Kriegsmarine (Germany)

3 ships, 1 lost

ShipTypeOutcome
General von Steuben

About 4,000 killed; 650 saved

Transport

Sunk
T196

Took about 300 people off her decks

Torpedo boat

S-138 class

Survived
Flotillas and other craftNumberLost

Other escort

10

Soviet Navy

1 ship, none lost

ShipTypeOutcome
S-13

Alexander Marinesko

Submarine

S (Srednyaya) class

Survived

Map

  • General von Steuben's last voyage 9–10 February 1945