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Originally Posted by Catfish

Really?

Originally Posted by Razoleg

Yep, really. Care to contest - write in my private messages. I eat Nazi apologists for breakfast.

Originally Posted by Catfish

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Wilhelm_Gustloff.

Close enough to "really" for a sig! , The vessel was armed with '2 hastily mounted' antiaircraft guns; Herr Shön's research backs it all up, http://www.feldgrau.com/WW2-Germany-Wilhelm-Gustloff-Cruise-Liner Propaganda notwithstanding. This being essentially a WWII U-boat forum ( with apologies to Cold Water buffs) Of some interest was the role of unlucky Korvettankapitän Wilhelm Zahn and his formal hearing after the fact.

Although Zahn had the highest rank on the ship, Petersen, as a merchant marine captain, had formal command of the vessel, a fact that ran counter to the sensibilities of Zahn, who was unwilling to accept Petersen's authority. At the same time, Zahn had military priorities which differed from those of civilian captain Petersen but since he did not have the legal authority to impose his decisions on the civilian captain, eventually the two men ran into conflict concerning the details of how to plot the path that Wilhelm Gustloff would take. Problems also arose between the two officers regarding the ship's speed and the taking of safety precautions related to avoiding attacks by submarines which could be present in the area at the time Zahn was drawing from his U-boat experience and was aware of British anti-submarine tactics in the Atlantic which included a minimum cruising speed limit of 15 knots for British commercial vessels, necessary to safely outrun the U-boats, and proposed this to Petersen. Petersen however was mindful of the damage the ship had sustained in an aerial bombardment the year before and did not believe that subsequent repairs to the hull were completely effective and had doubts that the ship's hull had the structural integrity to withstand the stresses imposed by the speed proposed by Zahn. He therefore insisted that the ship's speed not exceed 12 knots

Clearly not entirely a Russian submarine problem but a clear violation of chain-of- command issues which contributed mightily: at sea there can/should B only one captain. The Croation crew was of little use too. Both captains survived the sinking..... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Zahn Now we can get back on thread!