RE: Wilhelm Gustloff Revisited
Posted by:
John Griffiths
()
Date: April 22, 2001 04:08PM
<HTML>Rainer,
>>Beg to disagree with you on the point of propaganda. I don\\\'t think the S13 Skipper saw anything but a fat target coming over the horizon and was not even aware of the purpose of WG\\\'s trip.<<
Hmm, considering the amount of spying going on at that time I find it hard to believe the Soviets did not know what she was up to! Though we will never really know the truth, my theory is that her value as a propoganda target was exploited fully. The skipper of the S13 would have been informed about her movememts - he didn\'t operate by chance! - and her \'value\' plus the likely escort number. Ergo sum, he knew what she was when he fired his spread.
>>The success of the SU Army in \\\'44 and early \\\'45 was by no means shared by their Navy and this skipper was a notable exception, even without the ridiculously exaggerated sunken tonnage claimed by Yuri in one of his earlier posts.<<
I cannot find any references to \'significant\' SU Naval battles during the war! Yes, plenty of the Red Army\'s victories and a lot about the Air Force - but naval details are, at best, sparse. I would be wrong to suggest that the Soviet Navy never engaged in a surface action against elements of the Kriegsmarine?
>>Am sure the flak was aboard GW for at least a year.<<
I think someone else pointed out that this was as a defence measure against the Soviet Air Force - which brings me neatly to another point. As a big target -and she was - in a port area, why didn\'t the Soviet Airforce hit her? She would have been constrained in her movements and literally a \'sitting duck\'. I know that the German Flak units were good - but a determined airborne press would have at least scored some damage.
>>One thing I still remember as if it was yesterday - We were on a secondary road - some distance west of Berlin, when one of those huge (I mean Huuuge) American bomber formations overflew us east to west. It seemed like never ending stream of little ....<<
I once saw a B-17 flying at an air display and that was some experience - and just one! It seemed to fill the sky with the noise of its engines and dominated the display. To see so many must be an unique experience.
Regards,
Aye,
John</HTML>
>>Beg to disagree with you on the point of propaganda. I don\\\'t think the S13 Skipper saw anything but a fat target coming over the horizon and was not even aware of the purpose of WG\\\'s trip.<<
Hmm, considering the amount of spying going on at that time I find it hard to believe the Soviets did not know what she was up to! Though we will never really know the truth, my theory is that her value as a propoganda target was exploited fully. The skipper of the S13 would have been informed about her movememts - he didn\'t operate by chance! - and her \'value\' plus the likely escort number. Ergo sum, he knew what she was when he fired his spread.
>>The success of the SU Army in \\\'44 and early \\\'45 was by no means shared by their Navy and this skipper was a notable exception, even without the ridiculously exaggerated sunken tonnage claimed by Yuri in one of his earlier posts.<<
I cannot find any references to \'significant\' SU Naval battles during the war! Yes, plenty of the Red Army\'s victories and a lot about the Air Force - but naval details are, at best, sparse. I would be wrong to suggest that the Soviet Navy never engaged in a surface action against elements of the Kriegsmarine?
>>Am sure the flak was aboard GW for at least a year.<<
I think someone else pointed out that this was as a defence measure against the Soviet Air Force - which brings me neatly to another point. As a big target -and she was - in a port area, why didn\'t the Soviet Airforce hit her? She would have been constrained in her movements and literally a \'sitting duck\'. I know that the German Flak units were good - but a determined airborne press would have at least scored some damage.
>>One thing I still remember as if it was yesterday - We were on a secondary road - some distance west of Berlin, when one of those huge (I mean Huuuge) American bomber formations overflew us east to west. It seemed like never ending stream of little ....<<
I once saw a B-17 flying at an air display and that was some experience - and just one! It seemed to fill the sky with the noise of its engines and dominated the display. To see so many must be an unique experience.
Regards,
Aye,
John</HTML>
