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Kai an excellent site of images. The front page on the W.G. is worth reading too. Interesting that for many years the Soviets would not allow anyone from the "outside" to investigate the Wilhelm G. do wonder as the question is posed on the site if their was a real amber room and the Soviets were able to profiteer from 'their'
plunder ?

The best or one of the top two books on the subject is survivor Heinz Schön's work "Die Gustloff Katastrophe"; 516 pages, 350 pics. From the immense Schön libraty...........would love to have a copy...

E ~

The images are interesting, though as a war grave I would've prefered them to leave it alone.
As for the front page I though it rather florid and biased, and the same old myths were trotted out( ie, 1200 wounded soldiers. There were that many soldiers on board, but only approx 200 were wounded)

A far better article on the sinking can be found here http://www.feldgrau.com/articles.php?ID=64

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if in doubt....Panic!!!!

From Feldgrau site:

Newly published research by Heinz Schon has set the number of people on the Gustloff as follows: 8,956 refugees, 918 officers NCOs and men of the 2.Unterseeboot-Lehrdivision, 373 female naval auxiliary helpers, 173 naval armed forces auxiliaries, and 162 heavily wounded soldiers, for a total of 10,582 people on board on January 30th.

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And...

http://www.helikon.dk/frame.cfm/cms/.../grp=6/menu=1/

In the Russian sources the following figures are quoted: on board the "Wilhelm Gustloff" were approximately 5,000 soldiers and officers from the Wehrmacht, among these about 1,500 specially trained U-boat soldiers and more than 100 U-boat commanders and picked officers in the U-boat Service, who had been working as instructors at the training centres.


Viewed in the light of these facts, it is understandable why the Germans were only able to send into action two of the approximately 120 type 21 U-boats that they, according to Cajus Bekker, were in possession of in May, 1945. The type 21 U-boat crews had gone down with the "Wilhelm Gustloff".


In May, 1945, Churchill stated in the House of Commons: "We now know that the Germans were about to resume the submarine warfare with completely new U-boats. I believe that, in spite of our outstanding means of defence, we would have had a very hard battle, which, as to severity and losses, could bear comparison with the battle of 1942".

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Welll....???!!! I find it a bit hard to believe..

[img]graemlins/no.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/no.gif[/img]

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Wasn't the Soviet commander of the submarine court-martialed latter? I remember reading this some years ago here…

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

From the book "Gotterdammerung 1945".

About 5,000 died on the Gustloff with 950 survivers.
Sinking of the Goya; nearly 7,000 went down and 170 survivers. The Goya carried some of the survivers of 7th Panzer.

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That's an interesting question.

A very brief search of the internet for information regarding Alexander Marinesko, the commander of the Red Navy's submarine S-13, suggests Soviet authorities viewed his off-duty behavior as suspicious.

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