Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Il était manœuvré par 417 hommes d’équipage et était prévu pour transporter 1943 passagers. En utilisant notre site web, nous considérons que vous acceptez notre politique d'utilisation de cookies. 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. Adolf Hitler décide de baptiser de son nom un paquebot en cours de finition dans les chantiers navals de Hambourg. [18] The ship had four captains (Wilhelm Gustloff's captain, two merchant marine captains, and the captain of the U-boat complement housed on the vessel) on board, and they disagreed on the best course of action to guard against submarine attacks. Marinesko was posthumously named a Hero of the Soviet Union by Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. Lestage du plongeur : calculer la flottabilité idéale, Mixité des palanquées circuit ouvert / recycleur : pour ou contre…, Plongée sur épaves : la technique vue par les Tekkies, Visite guidée : BUCAM, le musée de l’image sous-marine, L’invention qui a révolutionné le monde de la plongée, Humminbird, le sondeur de recherche des chasseurs d’épaves, En plongée à Lyon avec Coralie, « SAL 1 » sapeur-pompier, Les plongeurs de combat du 1er REG à l’entraînement, Devenez scaphandrier avec l’Ecole Nationale des Scaphandriers, “Opération Lima” : test de matériel pour les nageurs de combat…. Le Wilhelm Gustloff coule en moins de 40 minutes. Adolf Hitler decided on the name change after sitting next to Gustloff's widow during his memorial service. The first was nicknamed "for the Motherland", the second "for Leningrad", the third "for the Soviet people", and the fourth, which got jammed in the torpedo tubes and had to be dismantled, "for Stalin". Wilhelm Gustloff was repurposed to serve as a military ship and was named after a Nazi commander who served in Switzerland. Comment un... © Plongée Infos, 2018 - Tous droits réservés France et étranger. Included among them were potential U-boat crews that had been training in the Bay of Danzig, wounded soldiers from the Eastern Front, Nazi officials, military families, and other civilians. 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 German civilians, Nazi officials and military personnel from Gdynia (Gotenhafen) as the Red Army advanced. En janvier 1945, le naufrage du paquebot Wilhelm Gustloff en mer Baltique cause la mort de plus de 9 000 personnes, annonçant la plus grande catastrophe maritime de tous les temps. "Wilhelm Gustloff: World's Deadliest Sea Disasters". As a consequence of the Allied blockade of the German coastline, she was used as a barracks ship for approximately 1,000 U-boat trainees of the 2nd Submarine Training Division (2. German forces were able to rescue 1,252 of the survivors from the attack: the torpedo boat T36 rescued 564 people; the torpedo boat Löwe (ex-Gyller), 472; the minesweeper M387, 98; the minesweeper M375, 43; the minesweeper M341, 37; the steamer Göttingen, 28; the torpedo recovery boat (Torpedofangboot) TF19, 7; the freighter Gotenland, two; and the patrol boat (Vorpostenboot) V1703, one baby. Reportedly, only nine lifeboats were able to be lowered; the rest had frozen in their davits and had to be broken free. Puis à la fin de la nuit, le silence finit par retomber sur la mer. The Wilhelm Gustloff, like the Titanic, was a big passenger liner and was reasonably new and luxurious. They said the tragedy of Wilhelm Gustloff was a war crime. From 14 March 1938 until 26 August 1939, the ship took over 80,000 passengers on a total of sixty voyages, all around Europe.[7]. By one estimate,[4][5] 9,400 people died, which makes it the largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history. S’il était possible d’établir un classement dans l’horreur, on serait avec le Wilhelm Gustloff et ses 10 000 morts, très loin devant les 1500 morts du Titanic. An Unsolved History episode that aired in March 2003,[4] on the Discovery Channel, undertook a computer analysis of her sinking. #SOMOSLOSCENOTES (*), les réseaux sociaux au secours de la conservation des…, Croisière en Papouasie, un hommage au temps (qui passe), Île de Bréhat : Plongée dans les charmes de la Bretagne. They claimed they were diving at the Terra tanker, located seven kilometres from Gustloff. Designed to have only 1.800 passengers and crew, she was carrying over 4.000 people. When he was informed by a mysterious radio message of an oncoming German minesweeper convoy, Petersen decided to activate his ship's red and green navigation lights so as to avoid a collision in the dark, making Wilhelm Gustloff easy to spot in the night. During the years, he kept it stowed away and when he died of cancer, it was inherited by his son. May be one of the worth maritime tragedy with nearly 9 … Frontal view of the ship. Wilhelm Gustloff sat in dock there for over four years. The Wilhelm Gustloff wreck was a an attractive site for divers up to 1994, when the Polish authorities declared it a war grave and forbid any further expeditions in respect of the thousands of victims left there. It was packed with nearly 8,000 Germans, most of them women and children escaping from the advancing Soviet Army. On the second day of her voyage, the 58-year-old Captain Lübbe died on the bridge from a heart attack. Même si l’épave de ce jour est difficilement accessible, nous ne pouvons pas passer à côté de l’anniversaire de la plus grande tragédie maritime de tous les temps avec le naufrage du paquebot Wilhelm Gustloff, le 30 janvier 1945, qui fit près de 10 000 morts en quelques instants. Her purposes were to provide recreational and cultural activities for German functionaries and workers, including concerts, cruises, and other holiday trips, and to serve as a public relations tool that would present "a more acceptable image of the Third Reich". Les trois torpilles de l’URSS et les températures glaciales des eaux causent la mort de près de 10 000 personnes. The submarine sensor on board the escorting torpedo boat had frozen, rendering it inoperable, as had her anti-aircraft guns, leaving the vessels defenseless. The MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German armed military transport ship which was sunk on 30 January 1945 by Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea while evacuating German civilian refugees from East Prussia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Estonia and military personnel from Gotenhafen (Gdynia) as the Red Army advanced. 6, with a crew of ten under the command of Second Officer Schürmann, was then lowered. [15][16] The ship was overcrowded, and due to the temperature and humidity inside, many passengers defied orders not to remove their life jackets.[17]. Marinesko followed the ships to their starboard (seaward) side for two hours before making a daring move to surface his submarine and steer it around Wilhelm Gustloff's stern, to attack it from the port side closer to shore, from whence the attack would be less expected. Bienvenue ! Un mot de passe vous sera envoyé par courriel. On ne connaît pas le nombre exact de victime car le paquebot, dans la débâcle, avait embarqué autant de réfugiés qu’il pouvait en contenir, si l’on en juge par les photos montrant les différents ponts du paquebot couverts d’une véritable marée humaine. It was sunk in the Baltic Sea on the night of January 30, 1945, by a Soviet submarine. Plonger au Nitrox, est-ce vraiment si compliqué ? [14], The ship's complement and passenger lists cited 6,050 people on board, but these did not include many civilians who boarded the ship without being recorded in the official embarkation records. After undertaking a further voyage on 14 to 19 April 1938, the ship went on an Osterfahrt (Easter Voyage) before her actual official maiden voyage, which was undertaken between 21 April to 6 May 1938, when she joined Der Deutsche, Oceania and Sierra Cordoba on a group cruise to the Madeira Islands. A l'origine, Wilhelm Gustloff figurait parmi les premiers dirigeants du parti nazi. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. The Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed on Jan. 30, 1945, killing thousands of people—many of them refugees Côté soviétique, le capitaine de corvette Marinesko, commandant le sous-marin S-13, reçut bien des années plus tard, à titre posthume, le titre de Héros de l’Union soviétique pour ces deux actions qui firent au total près de 14000 victimes, sans avoir jamais coulé un bateau militaire…. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. The ship left Danzig at 12:30 pm on 30 January 1945, accompanied by the passenger liner Hansa, also filled with civilians and military personnel, and two torpedo boats. Participez à une mission d’étude des poissons du lac Tanganyika ! Trois torpilles vinrent exploser contre le flanc bâbord du Wilhelm Gustloff : la première au niveau du compartiment équipage à l’avant, la seconde au niveau de la piscine qui pour l’occasion, était vide et abritait une compagnie d’infirmières et la troisième au niveau de la salle des machines, déchirant une partie considérable de la coque. Chaque jour, découvrez dans www.plongee-infos.com l’histoire d’une épave, coulée à la même date par le passé, quelque part près des côtes françaises ou ailleurs dans le monde, déjà explorée… ou pas ! Cargo and machinery were washed from Pegaway's decks and the ship lost maneuverability as the storm increased in intensity. The Soviet army has surrounded East Prussia. Filmed in Gotenhafen, the 2nd Submarine Training Division acted as extras in the movie. [27] There were, however, 373 female naval auxiliaries amongst the passengers, only three of whom survived. The ship was named after Wilhelm Gustloff, a leader of the National Socialist Party's Swiss branch, who had been assassinated in 1936. [9] The closest of the ships that answered the distress call was Wilhelm Gustloff, which reached Pegaway at 6 am. It is one of the largest shipwrecks on the Baltic Sea floor and has been attracting much interest from treasure hunters searching for the lost Amber Room. Vous retrouverez ainsi quotidiennement un nouveau site, pour vous confectionner une collection passionnante pour vos futures plongées ou simplement pour explorer… l’Histoire! These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. After first assisting their shipmates in Lifeboat No. This allowed her to act as a floating polling station for German and Austrian citizens living in England who wished to vote on the approaching plebiscite on Germany's annexation of Austria. Toute reproduction, même partielle, des textes ou illustrations est interdite sauf accord écrit de la rédaction. [9] A storm developed on 3 April with winds up to 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) that forced the four ships apart. Ces catastrophes (parmi d’autres) se sont produites sur des navires allemands pendant la guerre, ce qui explique qu’elles sont rapidement tombées dans l’oubli du côté occidental et encore aujourd’hui, elles ne sont que très rarement évoquées. [24], Many ships carrying civilians were sunk during the war by the Allies and by the Axis Powers. Certains ont péri dès le début dans les explosions, d’autres ont été piétinés dans la panique qui s’en est suivie, d’autres encore ont préféré se suicider avec leur arme pour s’éviter la souffrance d’une noyade dans l’eau glacée… Les autres navires du convoi ne purent recueillir que 1252 survivants. Meanwhile, the 1,836 gross ton coal freighter Pegaway, which had departed Tyne on 2 April for Hamburg, was also caught up in the storm. [12] We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Les Russes avaient tellement souffert durant toute la durée du front de l’est qu’ils ne se gênaient pas pour massacrer à leur tour les populations, comme l’avaient été auparavant les populations russes. "Wilhelm Gustloff: World's Deadliest Sea Disaster", This page was last edited on 23 March 2021, at 20:03. Ce site utilise Akismet pour réduire les indésirables. Formerly a cruise liner for Hitler's "Strength Through Joy" program in the 1930's, and then a hospital ship during wartime, Wilhelm Gustloff was … Harbored in the Bay of Danzig are ships carrying military equipment, soldiers and civilians. He was rescued from the water by the T-36 commanded by Capt. Visitez un musée militaire sous-marin à Aqaba ! [10] Once the voting was complete, Wilhelm Gustloff departed, reaching Hamburg on 12 April. For her third voyage Wilhelm Gustloff left Hamburg on 1 April 1938 under the command of Carl Lübbe to join the KdF ships Der Deutsche, Oceania and Sierra Cordoba on a group cruise of the North Sea. Heinz Schön, a German archivist and Gustloff survivor who extensively researched the sinking during the 1980s and 1990s, concluded that she was carrying a crew of 173 (naval armed forces auxiliaries); 918 officers, NCOs, and men of the 2 Unterseeboot-Lehrdivision; 373 female naval auxiliary helpers; 162 wounded soldiers' and 8,956 civilians, for a total of 10,582 passengers and crew. Pourtant celui-ci fut la catastrophe la plus médiatisée de l’histoire maritime, alors que le Wilhelm Gustloff, parce qu’il était dans le mauvais camp, fut rapidement oublié…. Tous les réfugiés, qui venaient de vivre l’épreuve la plus dure de leur existence en traversant par millions la campagne gelée en direction de Gotenhafen (aujourd’hui Gdynia en Pologne), perdant sur le chemin de nombreuses personnes à bout de forces qui se laissaient mourir dans la neige, n’étaient pas encore au bout de leur peine. 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. At around 9 pm (CET), Marinesko ordered his crew to launch four torpedoes at Wilhelm Gustloff's port side, about 30 km (16 nmi; 19 mi) offshore, between Großendorf and Leba. L’épave est considérée comme un cimetière de guerre. As Wilhelm Gustloff had been fitted with anti-aircraft guns, and the Germans did not mark her as a hospital ship, no notification of her operating in a hospital capacity had been given and, as she was transporting military personnel, she did not have any protection as a hospital ship under international accords.[19]. PAP/EPA. 6, with both them and the crew of the lifeboat back at Wilhelm Gustloff by 7:45 am. She served as a hospital ship in 1939 and 1940. 5e Festival d’image sous-marine d’Ile-de-France : une belle cuvée ! She launched her Lifeboat No. A Wilhelm Gustloff's porthole window Salvaged in 1988 by Philip Sayers on behalf of Rudi Lange (the radio operator on board at the time of sinking) and donated to the Museum ship Albatross in … The Wilhelm Gustloff was constructed by the Blohm & Voss shipyards. [8] She was the flagship of the KdF cruise fleet, her last civilian role, until the spring of 1939. Others were crushed in the initial stampede caused by panicked passengers on the stairs and decks. Using maritime EXODUS software,[23] it was estimated 9,600 people died out of more than 10,600 on board. Le lancement du navire a lieu en présence d'Hitler et d'Hedwig Gustloff, veuve de Gustloff. [14] The three torpedoes which were fired successfully all struck Wilhelm Gustloff on her port side. It wasn't. Le lendemain, dans la brume du petit matin, on comptait d’innombrables cadavres flottant dans leur gilet de sauvetage parmi les débris du naufrage. L’exode déborda bien vite les autorités du Reich qui avaient à ce moment-là une autre préoccupation : se sauver les premières et les civils n’auraient qu’à se débrouiller s’il restait de la place. He was downgraded in rank to lieutenant and dishonorably discharged from the Soviet Navy in October 1945. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Originally, however, she was to be named Adolf Hitler. From September 1939 to November 1940, Wilhelm Gustloff served as a hospital ship, officially designated Lazarettschiff D. Beginning on 20 November 1940, medical equipment was removed from the ship and she was repainted from the hospital ship colors of white with a green stripe to standard naval grey. [17] Thirteen survivors died later. Et en … Lifeboat No. Many had worked at advanced weapon bases in the Baltic[13] from Gotenhafen to Kiel. She was then assigned as a floating barracks for naval personnel in Gotenhafen before being armed and put into service to transport evacuees in 1945. Fire Safety Engineering Group, University of Greenwich. Against the advice of the military commander, Lieutenant Commander Wilhelm Zahn (a submariner who argued for a course in shallow waters close to shore and without lights), Wilhelm Gustloff's captain, Friedrich Petersen, decided to head for deep water which was known to have been cleared of mines. [14] The passengers, besides civilians, included Gestapo personnel, members of the Organisation Todt, and Nazi officials with their families. About 1,000 German naval officers and men were aboard during, and died in, the sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff. L’épave est désormais classée tombe de guerre. [9] This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Aujourd’hui, le navire allemand gît au large de la Pologne. [6] After completing sea trials in the North Sea from 15 to 16 March 1938 she was handed over to her owners. The Wilhelm Gustloff in 1939. At 4 am, Captain G. W. Ward of Pegaway issued an SOS when the ship was twenty miles northwest of the island of Terschelling, off the coast of the Netherlands. In order to protect the property on board the war grave, as well as the wreck itself and the surrounding environment, the Polish Maritime Office in Gdynia has forbidden diving within a 500 m (1,600 ft) radius of the wreck. The MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German armed military transport ship which was sunk on 30 January 1945 by Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea while evacuating German civilian refugees from East Prussia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Estonia[3] and military personnel from Gotenhafen (Gdynia) as the Red Army advanced. 23 févr. But it was a German passenger liner. La rédaction n’est pas responsable des textes et illustrations publiés, qui engagent leurs seuls auteurs. A Ship Named Gustloff When Adolf Hitler launched the Wilhelm Gustloff from the seaside city of Hamburg on May 5, 1937, hundreds of German workers and Nazi party officials gathered to witness the spectacle.. Flags and swastika banners festooned the quay and arms raised in the notorious Heil Hitler salute as the ship sailed forth showing an uneasy world the … Retrouvez le dossier complet téléchargeable gratuitement sur notre page de téléchargement : https://www.plongee-infos.com/?p=234, Même si l’épave de ce jour est difficilement accessible, nous ne pouvons pas passer à côté de l’anniversaire de la plus grande tragédie maritime de tous les temps avec le naufrage du paquebot Wilhelm Gustloff, le 30 janvier 1945, qui fit près de 10 000 morts en quelques instants.