Sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff

30 January 1945, Baltic Sea, off Leba, Pomerania

Soviet success; Wilhelm Gustloff sunk with about 9,400 people

In January 1945 the Red Army reached the Baltic coast and cut off East Prussia, and the Kriegsmarine began Operation Hannibal, the evacuation by sea of soldiers and civilians. The former cruise liner Wilhelm Gustloff left Gotenhafen at midday on 30 January crammed with refugees, wounded soldiers, women naval auxiliaries and U-boat men, more than 10,000 people in all, with a single torpedo boat, Löwe, as escort. To avoid mines she kept to deep water and, fearing a collision, turned on her navigation lights. That evening the submarine S-13 under Alexander Marinesko hit her with three torpedoes. She sank in under an hour in the freezing sea. German ships rescued 1,252 people; about 9,400 died, thousands of them children. It remains the greatest loss of life in the sinking of a single ship.