Lazarettschiff D (Wilhelm Gustloff)

History

May 5, 1937 Launched.

Mar 15, 1938 Commissioned.

Apr 2, 1938 Maiden voyage, cruising in the North Sea as aKdF (Strenght through Joy) ship owned by the DAF,but managed by the Hamburg-South America ship line.

Apr 3, 1938 The Wilhelm Gustloff received a distress call from thePegaway, a sinking British cargo ship in need of help offTerschelling.

Apr 4, 1938 In heavy sea and stormy weather, the Gustloff reachedthe Pegaway and rescued all 19 of its crew.

Apr 10, 1938 Used as a polling station for those Germans in GreatBritian who wished to vote on the Austrian annexation question.The polling was done outside of the 3-mile limit of British waters, andvoters were taken from and returned to the harbor at Tilbury.

May, 1939 The Gustloff sailed with the KdF ships Robert Ley, DerDeutsche, Stuttgart, and Sierra Cordoba, and the non-KdF ship Oceana.They were taking part in the transport of the Legion Condor from Spainback to Germany after the successful defeat of the Republican forces byFranco’s Nationalist’s.

May 24, 1939 The ships of the transport fleet arrived in Vigo,Spain, and unloaded large amounts of medical supplies and othermaterials that were given to the Spanish Social Help organization.

May 26, 1939 The Legion Condor loaded on the ships of thetransport fleet in Vigo harbor. The Gustloff took on 1,405 men.

May 30, 1939 The ships, including the Gustloff, arrived in Germanwaters and were escorted into Hamburg harbor by a number of Germanvessels, including the yacht Hamburg and the armoured ships Admiral GrafSpee and Admiral Scheer.

Sept 22, 1939 Commissioned into the Kriegsmarine as Lazarettschiffe”D”.

Sept, 1939 The first wounded to be taken on board the Gustloffwhile in its role as a Hospital Ship – wounded from the defeated PolishArmy – were taken on in this month.

Apr – June, 1940 Served in Norwegian waters, docking in the portof Oslo to take on wounded and sick from the victorious campaign inNorway.

June 18, 1940 Set sail for Germany from Oslo, Norway, leavingNorwegian waters transporting wounded and sick onboard.

Nov 20, 1940 Served as an accomodation ship for the2.Unterseeboote-Lehr-Division in Gotenhafen.

Nov, 1940 – Jan, 1945 The Gustloff was anchored in Gotenhafen anddid not leave the harbor for 4 years, serving in various barrack shipand accomodation ship postions within the harbor.

May, 1943 Served as a barracks ship in Gotenhafen.

Jan 30, 1945 The Wilhelm Gustloff left Gotenhafen with between6-8,000 passengers, the majority being refugees. According to the shipsown records, the list of passengers on the 30th included 918 Navalofficers and men, 173 crew, 373 members of the Woman’s Naval Auxiliaryunits, 162 wounded, and 4,424 refugees, for an official total of 6,050people. This is according to the official list though, and doesn’ttake into account the many hundreds of other people that one wayor another, were able to make their way onto the seemingly safe decks ofthe Gustloff. During the night, in blustery icy-cold weather, theGustloff was sunk (at 2108 01.30.45) in what is and had remained the worstnaval disaster in all of history. The Soviet sub S-13 hit the Gustloffwith a spread of 3 torpedos,sinking it within 50 minutes, with the loss of 9,343 lives.

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