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Wilhelm Gustloff (ship)

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27992, Lazarettschiff "Wilhelm Gustloff" in Danzig.jpg
Wilhelm Gustloff as a hospital ship. Danzig, 23 September 1939
History
Nazi Germany
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
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.
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)
Propulsion:
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)
Capacity:
  • 1,465 passengers (as designed) in 489 cabins:
    • 248 two-bed
    • 241 four-bed
Crew:
  • 417 cruise ship
  • 20 officers, 145 enlisted (naval)
Armament:

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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