HC Historys Mysteries - Killer Submarine (1999)

This program is part of the popular series from the History Channel that investigates some of civilization's unsolved mysteries and controversies. Cover up or accident? Explore the evidence surrounding the death of 13,000 people at the close of World War II. This time History's Mysteries recounts the deadly patrol of a Soviet S-13 submarine through the Baltic Sea. Towards the end of World War 2, two German ships full of refugees fleeing the advance of Soviet forces were pursued and sunk by Alexander Marinesco's S-13 Russian submarine, sending 13,000 soldiers and civilians, including women and children to their deaths. Historians have debated the tactical and moral decision of the submarine's captain. In January 1945, as the Soviet army advanced on East Prussia, the Germans launched Operation Hannibal, a mass naval evacuation of German military personnel and civilians from the region. On January 30, as part of Operation Hannibal, the cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff left the East Prussian port of Gotenhafen (which today is the Polish city of Gdynia) bound for Kiel, Germany. The Soviet submarine S-13 soon spotted the Gustloff and blasted it with three torpedoes. The German liner sank within 90 minutes, about 12 nautical miles off Stolpe Bank near present-day Poland. Historians now estimate that only about 700 of the approximately 10,000 people aboard the Gustloff survived, making it the deadliest maritime disaster in history. A week later, the S-13 sank a German hospital ship–4,000 perished. In the aftermath, the world learned little about the disaster for a variety of reasons. In this episode of HISTORY'S MYSTERIES survivors of the sub and sunken ships offer firsthand accounts. Archival film clips, photographs, journals, and personal accounts tell the story of the 13,000 people who perished from the torpedoes of the killer submarine.

Snippet from Wikipedia: MV Wilhelm Gustloff

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 civilians and military personnel from East Prussia and the German-occupied Baltic states, and German military personnel from Gotenhafen (Gdynia), as the Red Army advanced. By one estimate, 9,400 people died, making it the largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history.

Originally constructed as a cruise ship for the Nazi Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude) organization in 1937, Wilhelm Gustloff 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 Gotenhafen before being fitted with anti-aircraft guns and put into service to transport evacuees in 1945.

Construction and naming

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 instead was christened after Wilhelm Gustloff, leader of the Nazi Party's Swiss branch, who had been assassinated by a Jewish medical student in 1936. Adolf Hitler decided on the name change after sitting next to Gustloff's widow during his memorial service. After completing sea trials in the North Sea from 15 to 16 March 1938 she was handed over to her owners.

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