[REL] Barrack ship - Troop transport Wilhelm Gustloff - Robert Ley

[VonDos]

Hi everyone!
I'm glad to release another new unit: ww2 german barrack ship\troop transport "Wilhelm Gustloff" \ "Robert Ley":



This is a reworked version of original "Wilhelm Gustloff" by AOTD_MadMax (2007), reproportioned, with more 3d details, 3d stairs and railings, reworked textures, lifeboats, rafts, new cranes, working searchlights, a\a guns, reworked .zon and .sil files...



This is not a 100% correct Wilhelm Gustloff model. This is intended to act as "Wilhelm Gustloff" or "Robert Ley" (single funnel, 2 masts) converted to troop transport \ barrack ship during ww2.



d\l link: http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=...73690405362346

Thanks to Stefan Thimme for beta tests and advices!
Thanks to gap who gave me the idea for this mod!
Thanks to author of the original model: AOTD_MadMax. After all those years, his work still inspire mine =)

Best regards,
Vd

[Anvar1061]

[glaude]

Thank you very much

Yves

[YellowFin]

Very nice work!

[Anvar1061]

The original NPKDF has 3 skins: NPKDF_T01.tga NPKDF_T02.tga and NPKDF_T03.tga. When I test him on a solitary mission, he always uses the skin of a hospital ship. I had to add additional T02 and T03 copied from T01 to the mod. So you know.

[Stefan Thimme]

SUPERBLY DONE!
GREAT UNIT!

[VonDos]

Thank you everyone!


Best regards,
Vd

[gap]

Well done VonDos



Since we are at it, I think that the Monte class cruise ships wouldn't be out of place in your personal collection of ocean liners / hospital ships / troopships / barrack ships. They all were built to nearly identical specifications by Blohm & Voss, entering service between 1924 and 1931 for the Hamburg Süd line (the same shipping company that operated the Wilhelm Gustloff).
I have collected some basic information on these ships from Wikipedia ad a few other sources, in case you are interested into modelling them.

CLASS OVERVIEW

During the 1920s, Hamburg Süd believed there would be a lucrative business in carrying German immigrants to South America and the first two ships (MV Monte Sarmiento and MV Monte Olivia) were built for that purpose. Passenger accommodation was single-class, with space for about 1,150 in cabins and 1,350 in dormitories. In the event, the immigrant trade never materialized and the two ships were repurposed as cruise ships, operating in Northern European waters, the Mediterranean and around South America.

This proved to be a great success. Until then, cruise holidays had been the preserve of the rich. But by providing modestly priced cruises, Hamburg Süd was able to profitably cater to a large new clientele. Another ship was commissioned to cater for the demand – the MV Monte Cervantes. However, she struck an uncharted rock and sank after only two years in service. Despite this, Hamburg Süd remained confident in the design and quickly ordered two more ships, the MV Monte Pascoal and the MV Monte Rosa.

The five Monte-class vessels were diesel-powered motor ships, with four 1,436 nhp four-stroke diesel engines driving two propellers. At the time, the use of diesel engines was highly unusual in ships of this size, which would have been typically steam-powered. The first two to be launched, Monte Sarmiento and Monte Olivia, were in fact the first large diesel-powered passenger ships to see service with a German operator. The use of diesel engines reflected the experience Blohm & Voss had gained by building diesel-powered U-boats during World War I. The ships' top speed was 14 knots (26 km/h) (around half the speed of the large trans-Atlantic ocean liners of the era) but this was considered adequate for both the immigrant and cruise business.




SHIPS IN CLASS

• MV Monte Sarmiento (1924-1943)
  
  tonnage: 13,625 grt
  dimensions: 159.7 x 20.1 x 11.6 m
  installed power: 4 x 6-cyl diesel engines, 1,300 nhp each
  propulsion: twin screw propellers
  speed: 14 knots
  crew complement: 280
  passenger capacity: 2,470 (1,800 as a cruise ship)
  
  
  
  When she was commissioned, on 12 November 1924, she was the first German liner with a tonnage in excess of 10,000 grt and the biggest motor ship in the world. During her career as a transatlantic she connected Germany and the eastern coast of South America. Starting from summer 1936 she sailed together with her sister ship Monte Olivia in a series of cruises organized by the KdF to the Norwegian fjords, but she returned to her usual South Atlantic routes after September 1937.
  
  At the outbreak of the war the ship was in her home port in Hamburg. Subsequently she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine and from 21 December 1941 she served as barrack ship in Kiel where she was sunk during an allied bombing on 26 February 1942.
  
  
   

  Useful links (with may pictures):
  http://www.lostliners.de/schiffe/m/m...chte/index.htm
  https://www.hamburger-fotoarchiv.de/...sarmiento.html
  
  
  
• MV Monte Olivia (1924-45)
  
  tonnage: 13,750
  dimensions: 159.7 x 20.1 x 11.6 m
  installed power: 4 x 6-cyl diesel engines, 1,309 nhp each
  propulsion: twin screw propellers
  speed: 14 knots
  crew complement: 369
  passenger capacity: 2,528
  
  
  
  She was commissioned a few weeks after her older sister. Similarly to her, at the beginning of her career she served in the South American route but, due to the drop of German emigration, starting from 1925 she was employed mainly in cruises to Norway and into the Baltic.
  
  At the outbreak of WWII the liner was on a trip to South America; in October 1939 she sailed from Santos, Brazil bound for Hamburg where, in spite of the Allied blockade, she arrived undetected. From January 1940 to January 1945 she served as barrack ship for the Kriegsmarine. Starting from February 1945 she became the hospital ship Lz (II). Shortly after, on 3 April 1945, she was sunk during an Allied air raid while she was anchored in the Scheerhafen, at Kiel.
  
  
   

  
  Additional pictures:
  
  
  
  
  
• MV Monte Cervantes (1928-1930)
  
  tonnage: 13,913
  dimensions: 152.5 x 20.0 x 11.5 m
  installed power: 6,800 hp
  propulsion: twin screw propellers
  speed: 14.5 knots
  crew complement: 325
  passenger capacity: 2,492 (later reduced to 1,750 ca.)
  
  
  
  The ship began her maiden voyage on 7 January 1928. She was scheduled to operate regularly between Hamburg and the South American capitals of Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, but soon her routes were expanded to include entertainment trips to both continents. During her unlucky career she suffered two incidents (one on 24 July 1928, when she collided a small iceberg off the Svalbard islands, Norway; the other on 23 January 1930, when she struck a submerged rock near Ushuaia, Argentina) the latter of whom was fatal.
  
  
  
• MV Monte Pascoal (1930-1946)
  
  tonnage: 13,870
  dimensions: 152.60 x 19.99 x 11.48 m
  installed power: 4 x diesel engines, 1,436 nhp each
  propulsion: twin screw propellers
  speed: 14 knots
  crew complement: 284
  passenger capacity: 2,400
  
  
  
  The ship made her maiden voyage on 26 January 1931, sailing from her port of registry, Hamburg, to ports on the Río de la Plata, South America. Apart from use on the South American route, she also operated cruises off the coast of Norway and in the Mediterranean Sea. In August 1933, she operated a series of cruises between Hamburg and Greenwich.
  
  When war broke out in September 1939, Monte Pascoal was in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Departing on 10 September without passengers, she made a successful run back to Germany, arriving at Hamburg on 14 October 1939. On 11 January 1941, Monte Pascoal was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine. She was used as an accommodation ship at Wilhelmshaven. On 3 February 1944, the United States Eighth Air Force bombed Wilhelmshaven. Monte Pascoal was set afire and was scuttled. She was refloated on 12 May and beached. In May 1945, she was seized as a prize of war by the United Kingdom. On 5 August 1946 she departed from Wilhelmshaven for Hamburg. She was scuttled in the Skaggerak on 31 December 1946 with a cargo of obsolete gas bombs on board.
  
  
  
• MV Monte Rosa
  
  tonnage: 13,882
  dimensions: 152.48 x 19.99 x 11.48 m
  installed power: 6,800 hp
  propulsion: twin screw propellers
  speed: 14.5 knots
  crew complement: 336
  passenger capacity: 2,400
  
  
  
  Monte Rosa was delivered to Hamburg Süd in 1931. During her maiden voyage she sailed to ports on the Río de la Plata, Uruguay, but her subsequent routes included cruises to Norway, the United Kingdom and the Mediterranean as well as transatlantic duties to South America. After the Nazi regime came to power in Germany in 1933, she was operated as part of the state-owned Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy) programme, which provided leisure activities and cheap holidays. She ran aground off Thorshavn, Faroe Islands, on 23 July 1934, but was refloated the next day.
  
  At the start of World War II, Monte Rosa was allocated for military use. She was used as a barracks ship at Stettin, then as a troopship for the invasion of Norway in April 1940. She was later used as an accommodation and recreational ship attached to the battleship Tirpitz, stationed in the north of Norway, from where Tirpitz and her flotilla attacked the Allied convoys en route to Russia. In 1942, she was one of several ships used for the deportation of Norwegian Jewish people.
  On 30 March 1944, Monte Rosa was attacked by British and Canadian Bristol Beaufighters. The attack took place close to the Norwegian island of Utsira. The RCAF and RAF crews claimed two torpedo hits on Monte Rosa; the ship was also struck by eight rockets and by cannon fire but, despite her damage, she was able to reach Aarhus in Denmark on 3 April.
  In June 1944, members of Norwegian Independent Company 1 (a British Army sabotage and resistance unit composed of Norwegians), attached Limpet mines to Monte Rosa's hull while the ship was in Oslo harbour. They had learned the ship was to carry 3,000 German troops back to Germany and their purpose was to sink her during the trip. The mines detonated when the ship was near Øresund, damaging her hull, but she remained afloat and returned to harbour under her own power.
  In January 1945, the ship was converted into a hospital ship but was damaged by a mine explosion in February. She received temporary repairs at the German-occupied Polish port of Gdynia then traveled to Copenhagen, carrying 5,000 German refugees, fleeing from the advancing Red Army. In May 1945, she was captured by British forces at Kiel and taken as a prize of war.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any plan of the ships, but if you have Vehicle Simulator (there is a demo version of the program available from its web page), someone released a mod adding Monte liners to VS, so you can take a glance at the liners in game or, if you prefer, you can have a look at their preview page so to get a closer view of some ship details.

Alternatively, there is a good model of HMT Windrush (that was the name given to Monte Rosa after she was captured by the British) by nottanum, available for download on 3dWarehouse. Using a free version of Sketchup you can convert the model to the obj format and use it as a template for your own model, or you can enjoy a 3D preview of it directly from your browser. From comparison with pre-war pictures, the ship don't seem to have changed much after she passed of hands



Edit: just found a good drawing of Monte Rosa:

[gap]

To complete the list of Kriegsmarine-requisitioned passenger ships built in the 20's by Blohm + Voss for the Hamburg Süd line, we shouldn't omit the ill famed...

SS Cap Arcona (1927-1945)

tonnage: 27,561 grt
dimensions: 205.9 x 25.8 x 12.8 m
installed power: 8 x steam turbines, 2,959 shp each
propulsion: twin screw propellers
speed: 20 knots
crew complement: 475
passenger capacity: 1,315 (reduced to 850 in 1937)



When she entered service, in October 1927, Cap Arcona was the the flagship of Hamburg Süd replacing in that role the older Cap Polonio, and the largest and quickest ship on the South Atlantic route. As a luxury liner, her facilities included a full-size tennis court abaft her third funnel. The ship had modern navigation and communication equipment too. From 1930 she was equipped with submarine signalling and wireless direction finding equipment, and from 1934 she had an echo sounding device and a gyrocompass.

During her peacetime career Cap Arcona connected regularly her home port of Hamburg with Madeira, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, carrying from November 1927 to August 1939 more than 200,000 first and second class passengers in 91 transatlantic trips. She returned to Hamburg for the last time before the war on 25 August 1939. In 1940 the Kriegsmarine requisitioned her, painted her overall grey, and used her in the Baltic Sea as an accommodation ship in Gotenhafen (formerly Gdynia, Poland).
On 31 January 1945, the Kriegsmarine reactivated her for Operation Hannibal, where she was used to transport 25,795 German soldiers and civilians from East Prussia to safer areas in western Germany. By now these trips were made very dangerous by mines and Soviet submarines, German losses including the two ships Wilhelm Gustloff and Steuben. On 30 March 1945, Cap Arcona finished her third and last trip between Gdynia and Copenhagen, carrying 9,000 soldiers and refugees. However, her turbines were completely worn out. They could only be partially repaired and her days of long-distance travel were over. She was decommissioned, returned to her owners Hamburg Süd and ordered out of Copenhagen Harbour to Neustadt Bay.
In May 1945 the ship was requisitioned again as a prison ship; she was heavily laden with about 5,000 prisoners from Nazi concentration camps, when RAF bombers sank her and her accompanying vessels, Deutschland and Thielbek anchored in the Bay of Lübeck. In the incident more than 7,000 people lost their lives. This was one of the biggest single-incident maritime losses of life in the Second World War, the largest being the sinking of the aforementioned German evacuation liner Wilhelm Gustloff, with 9,400 victims estimated.

 

More pictures:

Shipbucket has ha drawing of Cap Arcona:



Wikipedia has fairly detailed (probably original) plans of the ship:



Finally, 3DWarehouse has a decent Cap Arcona model by Lucas Gustaffson. Possibly not 100% accurate, but a good starting point anyway and for sure lesser generic than the Big old style 3 funnels ocean liner by UBOAT234, AOTD_MadMax & VonDos

[VonDos]

Hi Gap!
Got it, thanks!
At moment i'm working on some projects, btw this material is interesting for me (i love Cap Arcona's design, despite her sad end).
Maybe in future...


Best regards,
Vondos

[gap]

Originally Posted by VonDos

Hi Gap!
Got it, thanks!
At moment i'm working on some projects, btw this material is interesting for me (i love Cap Arcona's design, despite her sad end).
Maybe in future...


Best regards,
Vondos

No problem mate, seeing your interest for ocean liners and big to medium-size passenger ships, I thought I would share this information with you, but what you do with this information - and your project priorities - is none of my business

The list of ships that could be added or improved in SHIII is obviously very large. I pointed Cap Arcona and the Monte-class cruise ships to you not because I feel that they are more important than other vessels that at this moment you might be working on, but because I thought they were on topic with the Wilhelm Gustloff that you have recently released, and because they have already been modelled and released publicly. The models published on 3DWarehouse might not be 100% accurate, and indeed can't be imported directly in game, but together with the original drawings they might be a a good template for you or any other SH modder to figure out shapes and proportions of the real thing and to create his own SH model.

Talking about ship designs, I think Cap Arcona's layout is in line with many interwar ocean liners, slender and graceful if you compare them to some modern-day "monsters" that imho can be enumerated as some of the ugliest human artifacts ever made lol

 

Though appreciably smaller, the Monte cruisers don't look too dissimilar from Cap Arcona in their hull design, and if I was to choose between adding them or the Cap Arcona to the game, I would probably give them the priority simply because they were a class.

[VonDos]

Originally Posted by gap

Talking about ship designs, I think Cap Arcona's layout is in line with many interwar ocean liners, slender and graceful if you compare them to some modern-day "monsters" that imho can be enumerated as some of the ugliest human artifacts ever made lol

 

You're so right. Those huge things can be full of amenity and amousement options, but they still look like condos more than ships:

 

Best regards,
Vd

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by GAP

In May 1945 the ship was requisitioned again as a prison ship; she was heavily laden with about 5,000 prisoners from Nazi concentration camps, when RAF bombers sank her and her accompanying vessels, Deutschland and Thielbek anchored in the Bay of Lübeck. In the incident more than 7,000 people lost their lives. This was one of the biggest single-incident maritime losses of life in the Second World War, the largest being the sinking of the aforementioned German evacuation liner Wilhelm Gustloff, with 9,400 victims estimated.

YIPES! THE GORY DETAILS:

On 3 May 1945, three days after Hitler's suicide and only one day before the unconditional surrender of the German troops in northwestern Germany at Lüneburg Heath to Field Marshal Montgomery, Cap Arcona, Thielbek, and the passenger liner Deutschland were attacked as part of general strikes on shipping in the Baltic Sea by Royal Air Force (RAF) Hawker Typhoons of 83 Group of the 2nd Tactical Air Force. Through Ultra Intelligence, the Western Allies had become aware that most of the SS leadership and former concentration camp commandants had gathered with Heinrich Himmler in Flensburg, hoping to contrive an escape to Norway. The western allies had intercepted orders from the rump Dönitz government, also at Flensburg, that the SS leadership were to be facilitated in escaping Allied capture - or otherwise issued with false naval uniforms to conceal their identities- as Dönitz sought, while surrendering, to maintain the fiction that his administration had been free from involvement in the camps, or in Hitler's policies of genocide.
The aircraft were from No. 184 Squadron, No. 193 Squadron, No. 263 Squadron, No. 197 Squadron RAF, and No. 198 Squadron. Besides four 20 mm cannon, these Hawker Typhoon Mark 1B fighter-bombers carried either eight HE High Explosive"60 lb" RP-3 unguided rockets or two 500 lb (230 kg) bombs.
None of the prison flotilla were Red Cross marked (although the Deutschland had previously been intended as a hospital ship, and retained one white painted funnel with a red cross), and all prisoners were concealed below deck, so the pilots in the attacking force were unaware that they were laden with concentration camp survivors. Although Swedish and Swiss Red Cross officials had informed British intelligence on 2 May 1945 of the presence of large numbers of prisoners on ships at anchor in Lübeck Bay, this vital information failed to be passed on. The RAF commanders ordering the strike believed that a flotilla of ships was being prepared in Lübeck Bay, to accommodate leading SS personnel fleeing to German-controlled Norway in accordance with Dönitz's orders."The ships are gathering in the area of Lübeck and Kiel. At SHAEF it is believed that important Nazis who have escaped from Berlin to Flensburg are onboard, and are fleeing to Norway or neutral countries"..
Equipped with lifejackets from locked storage compartments, most of the SS guards managed to jump overboard from Cap Arcona. German trawlers sent to rescue Cap Arcona's crew members and guards managed to save 16 sailors, 400 SS men, and 20 SS women. Only 350 of the 5,000 former concentration camp inmates aboard Cap Arcona survived.. From 2,800 prisoners on board the Thielbek only 50 were saved; whereas all 2,000 prisoners on the Deutschland were safely taken off onto the Athen, before the Deutschland capsized
RAF Pilot Allan Wyse of No. 193 Squadron recalled, "We used our cannon fire at the chaps in the water... we shot them up with 20 mm cannons in the water. Horrible thing, but we were told to do it and we did it. That's war." THE DEFENSE OF ''FOLLOWING ORDERS'' WAS OVERTURNED AT NUREMBURG WAR CRIMES TRIALS.
Severely damaged and set on fire, Cap Arcona eventually capsized. Photos of the burning ships, listed as Deutschland, Thielbek, and Cap Arcona, and of the emaciated survivors swimming in the very cold Baltic Sea, around 7 °C (44.6 °F), were taken on a reconnaissance mission over the Bay of Lübeck by F-6 Mustang (the photo-reconnaissance version of the P-51) of the USAAF's 161st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron around 1700 hrs, shortly after the attack.
On 4 May 1945, a British reconnaissance plane took photos of the two wrecks, Thielbek and Cap Arcona, the Bay of Neustadt being shallow. The capsized hulk of Cap Arcona later drifted ashore, and the beached wreck was finally broken up in 1949. For weeks after the attack, bodies of victims washed ashore, where they were collected and buried in mass graves at Neustadt in Holstein, Scharbeutz and Timmendorfer Strand. Parts of skeletons washed ashore over the next 30 years, with the last find in 1971.
The prisoners aboard the ships were of at least 30 nationalities: American, Belarusian, Belgian, Canadian, Czechoslovakian, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourger, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swiss, Ukrainian, and possibly others .

. I GOTTA REAL PROBLEM WITH THIS CONSIDER THE EXECUTION OF Heinz-Wilhelm Eck AND 2 OTHER OFFICERS, FOR MACHINE GUNNING SUVIVIORS IN THE WATER WHILE IN COMMAND OF U-852

The sinking Peleus left a large debris field, amongst which were several survivors clinging to rafts and wreckage. This debris could betray the presence of U-852 to enemy aircraft and shipping patrolling the area. Eck decided to sink the wreckage with hand grenades and automatic weapons. The question of whether this "dispersal" order explicitly or implicitly encouraged the killing of the sailors in the water, or whether this was an unfortunate example of collateral damage was the subject of a post-war trial. During the trial, Eck acknowledged he realized that by sinking the rafts, he was denying the seamen a chance of survival.
Eck ordered his junior officers to fire into the wreckage in an effort to sink it. Accounts differ greatly as to the number of shots fired and the damage done. The two surviving Greek sailors reported the shooting went on for a long time, and that at least four of their compatriots were killed by it. The German crew's report stated, however, that they had fired several short machine gun bursts into the wreckage and were unable to see their targets in the dark. The men shooting were later proven to be the ship's engineering officer, Hans Lenz (who claimed he had done so under protest to spare an enlisted man from having to do it).https://uboat.net/men/commanders/232.html However, the historian Dwight R. Messimer from the U.S. Naval Institute came to the conclusion, that "regardless of whether or not Heinz Eck and the others were guilty of war crimes, poor judgment, or of just following orders, the outcome of the trial was Siegerjustiz (victor's justice)",

MAKES A CASE FOR REICHSMARSHALL GOERING'S COMPLAINT: "VICTOR'S JUSTICE"....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz-Wilhelm_Eck https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-nuremberg-trials-70-years-later

During his trial, Hermann Goering wrote in the margins of his indictment, “The victor will always be the judge and the vanquished the accused.” While acknowledging the horrific atrocities carried out by Goering and other Nazi officials, some historians have had similar qualms, even going so far as to call the trials “Victor’s Justice.”