Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff on TV
 

For those in the UK there is a documentary on the sinking of the liner Gustloff in Jan 45

Already started on Discovery but will start again at 11am on Discovery +1

Hmm how i miss Sky:dead:
The wife's Grandmother just missed being on the Gustloff.
She was born and brought up in Konigsberg.
She was telling me last year how as a 6 year old she was trekking through the snow fleeing the Russians with her family. While the Russian planes staffed the people as they fled.
Fortunately for her they arrived a few hours after the Gustloff had sailed.

Lucky indeed
Biggest maritime disaster that hardly anyone knows about

Yep, even here in Germany there aren't many people who know about it.:-?:roll:

i have seen it on discovery , dident know that it was such a disaster so many dead

I only knew from scripting AOTD_Maxs Gustloff liner and doing some research
I dont think the Germans were too keen on releasing details of the sinking so kept it hush hush

Mind you you cant really blame the Russian uboat Kpt
If she sailed across my bows I would have let some eels go too
Wonder if he stayed long enough to see all the passengers flooding to top deck trying to get off ?

Probably couldnt believe his luck spotting it lit up and un missable
Mind you if he did hang around he would have had a chance at the Hipper - who declined to lend a hand picking up survivors and sent its torpedoboot escort to help while sailing merrily back to Kiel, though it did have another 1500 refugees onboard too

Sad story indeed that one

Some more information about the Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KdF_Ship_Wilhelm_Gustloff

http://www.wilhelmgustloff.com/sinking.htm

I just watched the "Sea Hunters" episode where they dive to the wreck, under 42m of water in the Gulf of Gdansk, Poland. The show gives great insight to the tragedy. The captain of the torpedo boat escort that comes to the rescue, is also interviewed, where he says while helping the survivors the lookouts call two torpedo wakes, which forces him to order leaving the area. So the submarine might've fired again..
After the war the wreck was cut to pieces and blown apart by the Soviet Gov., searching for treasures stolen from Russia. Which were thought to be carried by the Gustloff.

Yeah on the Discovery show they dived the wreck and said pretty much the same thing

Though you would have thought would have been classed as a war grave or something as all off duty crew were sealed in bow when flood doors shut
Though bulk of crew were civilian it was a KM ship

Obviously nothing found by the Soviets or a big deal would have been made over a find

has anyone seen Die Gustloff made by ZDF Channel(german tv) a few months ago? There was no cinema premiere, only a tv one. I'm also looking for any dl sources-dunno if it is legal etc..so maybe a pm to avoid posting it here, but I guess if recording sth from tv may be legal this is also.

check this btw http://gustloff.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/...131083,00.html

Thanx for that
Just watching Hafen der Hoffnung on that site now
:up:

PODZIĘKOWANIE kranz....great link http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...s/thumbsup.gif

Not only "Wilhelm Gustloff" was sunk there at the same time, "Steuben" and "Goya" too. It's not common known part of history, everybody know about "Titanic", but "Gustloff", "Steuben" and "Goya" are uknown for many people, even in Germany (on "Gustloff" died 9600 men, on "Goya" 6800 and on "Steuben" 3350 - on "Titanic" 1500).
"Gustloff" is better known of them because this ship probably transport Amber Room from Konigsberg to Germany.

This time these ships are protected by international and Polish law as war cemetaries, diving there is forbidden.

Great link! :up:

The Amber Room...one of WWII's unsolved mysteries http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...s/thumbsup.gif

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_Room

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doublei...ries/amber.htm

http://www.geo.uw.edu.pl/HOBBY/AMBER/amberroom.htm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5174876/

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaeoXWpwmDQ

I see you are interested in history and mystery of The Amber Room, jimbuna.
What do you think about that? Where is it in your opinion? Do you know theory about castle in Pasłęk (northern Poland, former Preussisch Holland in Ost Preussen), where Amber Room could be hidden?

I take it the Goya and Stueben recived the same treatment from the Soviets after the war as the Gustloff ??
Both those sinkings are in GWX too

As well as the Theilbecks ( sp )

I believe Gustlof and the rest are just part of the game. The 9600 poor souls lost onboard "Gustlof" are of the same value of the 600 souls of "Ceramic". Recently I read about a german merchant sunk after allied air raid in 1944 out of Salamis base (don't remember her name) which transfered 4500 italian prisoners. None of the prisoners survived. These acts are result of the fog of the war, as long as they have not been done deliberately. On the other hand, the "deliberately" or "not deliberately" is part of the "after war" fog! Such a big petty!

I honestly have no idea where it might be or could be hidden.

Unless Indiana Jones found it and it is stored in crates at some secret location underground storage site. ;)

It might even have been burned during some bombing raids. I think, it's lost, gone, never to be found. What would life be without some mysteries.

I've never heard or read something about big-scale salvage-operations on the Gustloff. Mid 2008 the ZDF made a two-part film about the sinking and (who would have guessed) released a documentary book alongside. I stumbled across this book, had a look through it and there was no mention about a salvage ops and this book was quite well researched.

The Steuben was found in the sixties and identified only a few years ago by Polish minehunters. If you google it, you're gonna find at least one high-res sonarimage of this ship. Or go to Wiki and type Steuben ;).

The Wreck of the Cap Arcona was broken up shortly after the war. I wonder what the the RAF-pilots did after they found out what they had done.

The Goya was found and identified 2002.

The sinking of those 4 ships aree the greatest tragedies in shipping history (together and each single for itself).