KdF Ship Wilhelm Gustloff
Wilhelm Gustloff as a hospital ship. Danzig, 23 September 1939
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| History | |
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 Nazi Germany
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| Name: | Wilhelm Gustloff |
| Namesake: | Wilhelm Gustloff |
| Owner: | Deutsche Arbeitsfront |
| Operator: | Hamburg-South America Line |
| Port of registry: | Hamburg, Germany |
| Builder: | Blohm & Voss |
| Cost: | 25 million Reichsmark |
| Yard number: | 511 |
| Laid down: | 1 August 1936 |
| Launched: | 5 May 1937 |
| Acquired: | 15 March 1938 |
| Identification: | Radio ID (DJVZ) |
| Fate: | Requisitioned into the Kriegsmarine on 1 September 1939 |
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| Name: | Lazarettschiff D (Hospital Ship D) |
| Operator: | Kriegsmarine (German navy) |
| Acquired: | 1 September 1939 |
| In service: | 22 September 1939 – 20 November 1940 |
| Status: | Converted to floating barracks beginning 20 November 1940, including repainting from hospital ship colours to standard navy grey. |
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| Name: | Wilhelm Gustloff |
| Operator: | Kriegsmarine |
| Acquired: | 20 November 1940 |
| Out of service: | November 1940 – January 1945 |
| Fate: | Torpedoed and sunk 30 January 1945 - War grave |
| Notes: | Used as floating barracks for the Second Submarine Training Division until the vessel returned to active service ferrying civilians and military personnel as part of Operation Hannibal |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Cruise ship |
| Tonnage: | 25,484 GRT |
| Length: | 208.5 m (684 ft 1 in) |
| Beam: | 23.59 m (77 ft 5 in) |
| Height: | 56 m (183 ft 9 in) |
| Draught: | 6.5 m (21 ft 4 in) |
| Decks: | 5 |
| Installed power: | 9,500 hp (7,100 kW) |
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| Speed: | 15.5 kn (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph) |
| Range: | 12,000 nmi (22,000 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
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MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German military transport ship which was sunk on 30 January 1945 by Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea while evacuating German civilians, Nazi officials and military personnel from Gdynia (Gotenhafen) as the Red Army advanced. By one estimate, 9,400 people died, which makes it the largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history.
Constructed as a cruise ship for the Nazi Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy) organisation in 1937, she had been requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine (German navy) in 1939. She served as a hospital ship in 1939 and 1940. She was then assigned as a floating barracks for naval personnel in Gdynia before being put into service to transport evacuees in 1945.
Wilhelm Gustloff was constructed by the Blohm & Voss shipyards. Measuring 208.5 m (684 ft 1 in) long by 23.59 m (77 ft 5 in) wide with a capacity of 25,484 gross register tons (GRT), she was launched on 5 May 1937.
The ship was originally intended to be named Adolf Hitler but was named after Wilhelm Gustloff, a leader of the National Socialist Party's Swiss branch, who had been assassinated in 1936. Hitler decided on the name change after sitting next to Gustloff’s widow during his memorial service.
Wilhelm Gustloff was the first purpose-built cruise liner for the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF) and used by subsidiary organisation Kraft durch Freude (KdF) (Strength Through Joy). Her purposes were to provide recreational and cultural activities for German functionaries and workers, including concerts, cruises, and other holiday trips, and as a public relations tool, to present "a more acceptable image of the Third Reich." She was the flagship of the KdF cruise fleet, her last civilian role, until the spring of 1939.
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