The Forgotten Maritime Tragedy That Was 6 Times Deadlier Than the Titanic

[imp]

9,000 + Dead! Horrible. Never heard of this before today. History "buried" it?? imp

"The sinking of the Titanic may be the most infamous naval disaster in history, and the torpedoing of the Lusitania the most infamous in wartime. But with death counts of about 1,500 and 1,200 respectively, both are dwarfed by what befell the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German ocean liner that was taken down by a Soviet sub on Jan. 30, 1945, killing 9,343 people—most of them war refugees, about 5,000 of them children.
The victims of the worst maritime tragedy in history were not only Germans, but also Prussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Poles, Estonians and Croatians. World War II was drawing to an end, and the Soviet army was advancing. Though it would be months before the final fall of the Nazi regime, it was clear the end was coming—and they were desperate to escape before things came to a head. As a result, 10,582 people were packed onto a cruise ship that was meant to accommodate only about 1,900."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/forgotten-maritime-tragedy-6-times-210000757.html

Edit: Glomar Explorer displaced just over 50,000 tons, making it identical in size to the RMS Titanic!

 

[SifuPhil]

I had heard of this tragedy before, but scant little information about it seems to exist.

 

[chic]

Too little is known about this tragedy. Thanks for reminding us Imp.

 

[Laurie]

I don't think it's been forgotten, not over here anyway.

Like Lidice, Dresden, the Holocaust itself, r even your own Slapton Sands, it's another fact of recorded history, there fir anyone to see.

 

[WhatInThe]

They discharged the Russian submarine captain yet honor him for his valor. Torpedoing a ocean liner that wasn't engaged in battle isn't exactly honor. I get that it was an enemy vessel but should it have been a target. But after the German invasion I'm sure there was no love lost between the two countries wether it be civilians or military.

Note there was a diving expedition to the ship in the 60s under Soviet supervision after which parts of the ship were exploded to remove a 'hazard', uh huh...

 

[imp]

They discharged the Russian submarine captain yet honor him for his valor. Torpedoing a ocean liner that wasn't engaged in battle isn't exactly honor. I get that it was an enemy vessel but should it have been a target. But after the German invasion I'm sure there was no love lost between the two countries wether it be civilians or military.

Note there was a diving expedition to the ship in the 60s under Soviet supervision after which parts of the ship were exploded to remove a 'hazard', uh huh...

Did you ever hear of the Hughes Glomar Explorer? It was built ostensibly for salvage operations, but later was found to have been specifically aimed at U.S. recovery of a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine, I think it was. There is a write-up here, which I have not yet perused:

"GSF Explorer, formerly USNS Hughes Glomar Explorer (T-AG-193), was a deep-sea drillship platform initially built for the United States Central Intelligence Agency Special Activities Division secret operation Project Azorian to recover the sunken Soviet submarine K-129, lost in April 1968.[SUP][3][/SUP][SUP][4]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSF_Explorer[/SUP]