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Old 5th November 2020, 21:46
FaithWright United States FaithWright is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2020
Location: Lucerne County
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The worst maritime disaster in history the sinking of the MV Wilhelm gustloff

The MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German ship and u boat training school. When World War 2 broke out she was turned into a hospital ship. After that she remained idol for 4 years. Then she was recruited to Operation Hannibal and set sail to another country. On Jan 30 1945 with 10,000 people on board 5 times her capacity a few minutes later her crew needed to choose a shipping lane. The 1st lane was too deep for submarines to lurk but there could be sea mines. The 2nd lane had no mines but was deep enough for submarines to lurk. They chose the 2nd lane Wilhelm Gustloff had her light off to avoid detection. Her captain turned on her navigation lights.It did not take long for Wilhelm Gustloff to be spotted by Soviet submarine S 13 or known as the killer submarine. She launched 3 torpedoes at Wehelm Gustloff, all 3 torpedoes struck Wehelm Gusloff. Only five of Wilhelm Gustloff's Life boats got away. And the commander of S 13 watched as Wihelm Gustloff's stern rose out out of the water. And made her final plunge at 8:18 more than 9,000 people were killed in the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff.
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