General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
RE: Wilhelm Gustloff Revisited
Posted by:
Rainer Bruns
()
Date: April 20, 2001 03:18PM
<HTML>Hi Guys,
as usual, our friend Yuri is giving us the straight old propaganda line of the now extinct SU. Please note in his examples Uboats were \"killing\" civilians and Marinesco was \"destroying\" a 1000 Uboat men. (Never mind the other 7 to 8000). The WG never flew the Naval Ensign, but the Reichsdienst flag during daylight, not at 9PM.
It might surprise you, that I am convinced that the WG was indeed a ligitimate target for S13 for the following reasons:
1) marked as a hospital ship, she was carrying relatively few wounded.
2) She sailed without navlights
3) She carried troops (Gotenhafen U-School Flott.)
4) Thus Red Cross markings were contrary to Geneva Convention, which actually irrelevant since SU not signatory.
5) Unescorted at time of torpedoing, she was escorted part of the way.
As tragic as the heavy loss of life was (only exceeded by the horrendeous losses of the CAP ARCONA a few months later), I must conclude her to be a legit target and refuse to demonize the sub\'s Cdr for sinking her. BTW my mother, sister and I had tickets on the WG. My mother returned them a day before departure, preferring to accompany the furniture lorries with our apartment contents westbound. I do not remember too much of it, but she assured me later that it was a hell of a ride. We made it with the bedroom and dining room furniture, the van with the kitchen and livingroom got blown off the road by a Russian fighter-bomber. We were very lucky. The luck ran out for most of the poor souls on the WG.
Rgds, RB</HTML>
as usual, our friend Yuri is giving us the straight old propaganda line of the now extinct SU. Please note in his examples Uboats were \"killing\" civilians and Marinesco was \"destroying\" a 1000 Uboat men. (Never mind the other 7 to 8000). The WG never flew the Naval Ensign, but the Reichsdienst flag during daylight, not at 9PM.
It might surprise you, that I am convinced that the WG was indeed a ligitimate target for S13 for the following reasons:
1) marked as a hospital ship, she was carrying relatively few wounded.
2) She sailed without navlights
3) She carried troops (Gotenhafen U-School Flott.)
4) Thus Red Cross markings were contrary to Geneva Convention, which actually irrelevant since SU not signatory.
5) Unescorted at time of torpedoing, she was escorted part of the way.
As tragic as the heavy loss of life was (only exceeded by the horrendeous losses of the CAP ARCONA a few months later), I must conclude her to be a legit target and refuse to demonize the sub\'s Cdr for sinking her. BTW my mother, sister and I had tickets on the WG. My mother returned them a day before departure, preferring to accompany the furniture lorries with our apartment contents westbound. I do not remember too much of it, but she assured me later that it was a hell of a ride. We made it with the bedroom and dining room furniture, the van with the kitchen and livingroom got blown off the road by a Russian fighter-bomber. We were very lucky. The luck ran out for most of the poor souls on the WG.
Rgds, RB</HTML>
