"Titanics" of the Second World War
Probably the most famous catastrophe at sea for many is considered the death of the British ocean liner Titanic, which sank in the icy waters of the Atlantic in April 1912. Numerous works of art were written about this tragedy, numerous studies were carried out, several Hollywood disaster films were released, and moreover, bathyscaph slopes were made to the remains of the “Titanic” in the depths of many kilometers.
Attention to this catastrophe of the beginning of the century somehow eclipsed all other catastrophes that occurred on the seas and oceans, but much later, catastrophes that occurred in the 40 of the twentieth century, during the Second World War.
But these disasters, apparently, were much bigger in terms of the number of human victims than the victims associated with the death of "Titanic", however, unlike the 1912 disaster of the year, where the cause of death was a purely natural phenomenon, during World War II mass death on the seas was the result of the direct activity of humanity itself, which directed all its technical progress towards the destruction of its own kind.
The first in the list of World War II Titanists is Lancaster. Ocean liner with a displacement of 16 tons - one of the best in the British sea navy. It was built in 1922 and at first was called the “Tyrenny”. In February 1924 it was renamed, because, according to a widespread belief among English sailors, is a bad omen. Served the transatlantic line, made cruises on the Mediterranean Sea. After the outbreak of World War II, it was used as a military transport. He participated in the evacuation of British troops, first from Norway, and then from France. At the time of the fascist bombers raid in the Saint-Nazaire region (France), a total of about nine thousand people were aboard the Lancaster, mainly military personnel, but also a large number of civilians, including women and children. (http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/vs/article/4225/)
The exact death toll on that day will probably never be known. At the memorial plaque in Saint-Nazaire, it says: “more than 4000”. Survivors believe that over 7000. In any case, it was one of the largest maritime disasters in the world. storiesas evidenced by the mention of it in the latest editions of the Guinness Book of Records.
Vehicles attacked 17 on June. 1940 several German Ju-88 bombers, shortly after leaving the ship from the French port of Saint-Nazaire (Saint-Nazaire). As a result of a twenty-minute attack by German airplanes, transport quickly went to the bottom, eventually killing about four thousand passengers — all those who drowned, died from bomb explosions, shelling, and suffocated in water polluted with oil. 2477 managed to save people, these people are really lucky, they remained alive. In other disasters, it was possible to save a much smaller number of passengers and crew members.
Next in the tragic list is our Soviet transport "Armenia". It was a passenger-cargo ship. The ship was not so large. It was launched in Leningrad in the 1928 year and is designed to carry 980 passengers and 1000 tons of cargo. On that fatal flight to “Armenia” there were mainly wounded Red Army soldiers, medical personnel from 23 military hospitals, as well as evacuated residents of Sevastopol and Yalta. As a result of the death of the ship, only 8 people managed to escape. According to others, a little over 80 people survived.
In Soviet times, it was believed that all in "Armenia" killed about five thousand people. Later, some historians increased this number to 7-9 thousand. And this number of people was placed on the ship, the project of which allowed no more than one thousand passengers to be taken on board. According to the stories of a few survivors, people stood on decks shoulder to shoulder, as if in a tram at rush hour.
It was not clear why the captain of transport violated the order and went to sea in the daytime. Thus, in his diaries, the then commander Admiral Oktyabrsky wrote that the commander of “Armenia” had violated his order to wait for YNT on 8 November nights in order to protect the ship from an air strike. However, an experienced captain Plaushevsky was not a suicide. Even without the orders of the commander, he knew perfectly well what threatened the day’s transition, therefore, probably, only the most serious and extraordinary circumstances could make him go out to sea in the morning.
(http://divemir.com/2011/05/gibel-teplohoda-armeniya-kak-eto-bylo/)
It is also not clear how transport died. According to official data, in 11 hours 25 minutes the ship was attacked by a single German torpedo bomber Non-111, belonging to the 1 squadron of the I / KG28 air group. The plane came from the coast and from a distance of 600 meters dropped two torpedoes. One passed, and the second hit the bow of the ship. After 4 minutes in 11 hours 29 minutes, the stern to the top of the transport went to the bottom. According to other sources, mainly from the words of the survivors, “Armenia” was attacked by several pairs of enemy bombers at once.
This is, perhaps, still the most mysterious maritime disaster; the main thing is unknown - this is the place where the remains of “Armenia” are still at the bottom.
At the other end of the world, on the Pacific Ocean, the maritime expanses of cargo transports of the Japanese merchant fleet were in full swing, which got the ominous nickname Ships of Hell. These transports, which were not prepared at all, transported prisoners (American, British, Australian and other military countries) and workers taken forcibly from among the inhabitants of the countries occupied by Japan.
Japanese prisoners and workers stuffed in the holds, like sardines in a tin can, the very stay on such a transport was just torture. A large number of prisoners and workers were on the upper deck, suffering during the day from the scorching equatorial sun (and those places are among the hottest and most humid in the world, and at night from heavy rain and wind. Well, those who were in the holds were even harder, terrible heat and stuffiness, lack of toilet, lack of water and food, terrible crowding, some of the prisoners of the conditions of such traffic just went crazy.
And since it was often impossible to determine that there were hundreds and thousands of innocent people on board the ships, the American and British submariners drowned them on a general basis, along with their unfortunate compatriots. As a result, the world received several disasters with a huge number of victims, far surpassing the "Titanic".
18 September 1944, one of the largest casualties in the Pacific, occurred, and the largest of the series of the ships of Hell, the sinking of the Japanese transport Toyama Maru with prisoners and workers on board, killed about 5600 people. The Largest Disasters of Hellships: Tango Maru– sunk 25 February 1944 of the year, around 3000 dead; Ryusei Maru - sunk 29 June 1944 of the year, 4998 dead; Toyama Maru - sunk 29 June 1944 of the year, about 5600 dead; Koshu Maru 3 - sunk August 1944 of the year, about 1540 dead; Junyo Maru– drowned 18 September 1944 of the year, 5620 dead ... A series of drowning "Ships of Hell" became the largest series of catastrophes in history in terms of the number of victims, but just a few months later it was surpassed by a series of Baltic drowning /disaster/disaster6.asp).
This fatal Baltic series was opened by Wilhelm Gustloff, a German passenger airliner, named after a murdered Nazi party leader. The ship was launched in 1937 year and belonged to the organization "Strength through joy", which was actually the largest tour operator of the Third Reich.
It was a ship - a symbol of the Third Reich; about 65 thousands of people visited cruise flights on the “Wilhelm Gustloff”. In addition, he transported volunteers from the Condor Legion to participate in the Spanish Civil War.
Summer 1940g. The German Navy leadership attributed the ship to a submariner school in Gotenhafen. The ship was repainted in camouflage color and red crosses were removed from its sides. As a floating barracks for the school of submariners, it was used for about four years. Thus, it was the most auxiliary ship of the German Navy.
22 January 1945. began loading aboard the "Wilhelm Gustloff" soldiers and refugees. The first placed dozens of submarine officers, then several hundred women who served in the naval auxiliary division, several hundred wounded soldiers, and then began to let refugees, giving priority to women and children. By January 30, over 9 thousands of people took on board the ship. Around 12.30 the ship went on its last journey. Moving at night, ostensibly in anticipation of a meeting with a convoy of minesweepers, the captain gave a clearly destructive order to turn on all the lights. As a result, a brightly lit airliner was spotted by a Soviet C-13 submarine, commanded by third-rank captain Alexander Marinesko. For two hours the boat went behind the ship, choosing a position convenient for the attack. When the captain of the "William Gustloff" Peterson, having lost hope of waiting for the convoy of minesweepers, in 19.30 gave the command to turn out the lights, it was already too late.
In 21.04, from a distance of less than one kilometer, C - 13 launched the first torpedo, and then two more. The fourth torpedo was stuck in the torpedo tube, almost drowning the boat itself, but, fortunately, it did not explode. Soon, in 21.16, the first torpedo split the nose of the liner, the second landed in the pool, and the third - in the engine room.
Part of the passengers died from the explosions, part drowned in the cabins of the lower decks, and the survivors rushed to the lifeboats. Because of the created panic and crush killed another part of the passengers. Most women and children. Having ordered to block the watertight compartments, Captain Peterson also blocked part of the crew that was supposed to lower the boats, and the passengers could not do it.
The ship from the escort of the destroyer "Lion" began to rescue. Total ship managed to save 472 passengers. Near the place of the tragedy, the cruiser "Admiral Hipper", which had on board one and a half thousand passengers, passed. Passed without stopping, as he feared a torpedo attack. The only ship of his convoy - the destroyer T - 38 - managed to get 179 people out of the water. Vessels arrived in an hour or so with no survivors. In the icy water, only corpses and debris floated. At maximum estimates, the losses were estimated at 8-9 by thousands of people. Survived about 2 000 people. (http://www.repin.info/xfiles/gibel_teplohoda_vilgelm_gustloff)
In various sources, the composition of the passengers "Gustlova" varies greatly. By the number of dead - from 4 to 8 thousands. The composition of the passengers is also not clear: either “refugees and military”, then “refugees, military, wounded and imprisoned”.
One of the sources gives the following composition of Gustlov's passengers:
at the time of his death, there were 918 military sailors, 373 from the female auxiliary of the fleet, 162 wounded soldiers, 173 crew member (civilian sailors) and 4424 refugee. Total 6050. In addition to these, listed, on board the "Gustlov" managed to get even 2 thousands of refugees. A total of 876 people were saved. 16 officers of the submarine training division were killed, 390 cadets, 250 women military personnel, 90 crew members, and wounded military personnel (http://topwar.ru/1737-marinesko-geroj-ili-prestupnik.html).
It took less than 10 days, and now - a new meeting of the Germans with the Soviet Submariner number 1. A. Marinesko, who, like evil rock, pursued the German transport fleet. According to the newspaper Hamburger Abendblat, off the Baltic coast, near the Polish town of Stolp, were found the remains of the German military transport "Steuben", sunk by the crew of the C-13 10 submarine in February 1945. The 14.600 ton displacement liner was struck at night as a result of a master attack by two torpedoes from the feeding apparatus and sank in 15 minutes, carrying a 3608 man to the bottom of the sea. Only 659 people were saved.
“General Steuben” is a German ocean liner. It was launched in 1922 under the name “Munich.” It was one of the most luxurious ocean cruise liners in the world, having 168 meters in length, 19,8 meters in width and increased 14.660 tonnes in displacement. It was equipped with a dance hall, two luxurious dining rooms. The cabins were mostly equipped with baths or showers. The ventilation system allowed the air to be completely renewed in the cabins in six minutes, and in the dining halls in four minutes. There was a swimming pool on the upper deck. Since the beginning of the Second World War, the Steuben was re-equipped as a hotel for the top commanders of the German Navy. In August 1944, when the German admirals had no time for rest, it was turned into a transport vehicle for the wounded. This type of ship was not a hospital ship full sense of the word, and was not under the protection of the Geneva Convention. Transportation for the delivery of the wounded, including the "Steuben" were repainted in a gray protective color. The Red Cross was removed from them, but armament was installed: four anti-aircraft guns of 37 caliber of millimeters and four quad anti-aircraft machine guns. The cannon maid consisted of 65 soldiers.
Rear Admiral Engelhardt, who was responsible for shipping, learned about the death of "Steuben" in the early morning hours of February 10. The next day he already had a clear picture of the size of the disaster and the human toll. According to updated reports submitted to him, there were a total of 4.267 people on board the ship, including the crew of the merchant fleet, as well as military and medical personnel of the Navy.
According to the TF10 torpedo report, 512 people were rescued by them, and the T196 guard ship - 147 people. Thus, all managed to save 659 people. 3608 people are missing in the Baltic Sea.
(http://www.mediasprut.ru/info/c13/marinesko7.shtml).
But, as it turned out, it was not yet the most recent catastrophe of the German fleet, almost at the very end of the 17 war of April 1945, the Third Reich suffered another, the largest and therefore most terrible catastrophe, and again in the Baltic.
The Soviet submarine L-3, under the command of the 3rd-rank captain V.K. Konovalov, attacked the enemy convoy on 17 April 1945 and sank the Goya transport with a displacement of 5230 tons. The vessel was confiscated by the Germans after Germany occupied Norway. On board the Goya, according to F. Ruge, there were more than 7 thousand people (according to M. Morozov, 1500 4th soldiers tank divisions of the Wehrmacht, 385 wounded military personnel, as well as at least 3500 refugees - civilians).
According to other sources, there were a total of 5385 people aboard the Goya, including about 1300 submariners - officers, cadets and sailors (about 30 submarine crews).
The ship sank, taking with it, according to various estimates, 6-7 thousands of people. Managed to save from 128 to 134 in distress (http://www.bgudkov.ru/?page_id=753).
The ship sank very quickly - in just seven minutes, since the ship was cargo and, unlike the passenger one, did not have watertight bulkheads.
Studying the tragic stories of the Second World War, you understand how close the feat and tragedy are, the fatal circumstances and their fateful consequences. At the same time, this is another warning about the inadmissibility of war, especially when its tools are the highest-class professionals, such as the captains A. Marinesko and V. Konovalov, as well as the crews of their submarines.
Attention to this catastrophe of the beginning of the century somehow eclipsed all other catastrophes that occurred on the seas and oceans, but much later, catastrophes that occurred in the 40 of the twentieth century, during the Second World War.
But these disasters, apparently, were much bigger in terms of the number of human victims than the victims associated with the death of "Titanic", however, unlike the 1912 disaster of the year, where the cause of death was a purely natural phenomenon, during World War II mass death on the seas was the result of the direct activity of humanity itself, which directed all its technical progress towards the destruction of its own kind.
The first in the list of World War II Titanists is Lancaster. Ocean liner with a displacement of 16 tons - one of the best in the British sea navy. It was built in 1922 and at first was called the “Tyrenny”. In February 1924 it was renamed, because, according to a widespread belief among English sailors, is a bad omen. Served the transatlantic line, made cruises on the Mediterranean Sea. After the outbreak of World War II, it was used as a military transport. He participated in the evacuation of British troops, first from Norway, and then from France. At the time of the fascist bombers raid in the Saint-Nazaire region (France), a total of about nine thousand people were aboard the Lancaster, mainly military personnel, but also a large number of civilians, including women and children. (http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/vs/article/4225/)
The exact death toll on that day will probably never be known. At the memorial plaque in Saint-Nazaire, it says: “more than 4000”. Survivors believe that over 7000. In any case, it was one of the largest maritime disasters in the world. storiesas evidenced by the mention of it in the latest editions of the Guinness Book of Records.
Vehicles attacked 17 on June. 1940 several German Ju-88 bombers, shortly after leaving the ship from the French port of Saint-Nazaire (Saint-Nazaire). As a result of a twenty-minute attack by German airplanes, transport quickly went to the bottom, eventually killing about four thousand passengers — all those who drowned, died from bomb explosions, shelling, and suffocated in water polluted with oil. 2477 managed to save people, these people are really lucky, they remained alive. In other disasters, it was possible to save a much smaller number of passengers and crew members.
Next in the tragic list is our Soviet transport "Armenia". It was a passenger-cargo ship. The ship was not so large. It was launched in Leningrad in the 1928 year and is designed to carry 980 passengers and 1000 tons of cargo. On that fatal flight to “Armenia” there were mainly wounded Red Army soldiers, medical personnel from 23 military hospitals, as well as evacuated residents of Sevastopol and Yalta. As a result of the death of the ship, only 8 people managed to escape. According to others, a little over 80 people survived.
In Soviet times, it was believed that all in "Armenia" killed about five thousand people. Later, some historians increased this number to 7-9 thousand. And this number of people was placed on the ship, the project of which allowed no more than one thousand passengers to be taken on board. According to the stories of a few survivors, people stood on decks shoulder to shoulder, as if in a tram at rush hour.
It was not clear why the captain of transport violated the order and went to sea in the daytime. Thus, in his diaries, the then commander Admiral Oktyabrsky wrote that the commander of “Armenia” had violated his order to wait for YNT on 8 November nights in order to protect the ship from an air strike. However, an experienced captain Plaushevsky was not a suicide. Even without the orders of the commander, he knew perfectly well what threatened the day’s transition, therefore, probably, only the most serious and extraordinary circumstances could make him go out to sea in the morning.
(http://divemir.com/2011/05/gibel-teplohoda-armeniya-kak-eto-bylo/)
It is also not clear how transport died. According to official data, in 11 hours 25 minutes the ship was attacked by a single German torpedo bomber Non-111, belonging to the 1 squadron of the I / KG28 air group. The plane came from the coast and from a distance of 600 meters dropped two torpedoes. One passed, and the second hit the bow of the ship. After 4 minutes in 11 hours 29 minutes, the stern to the top of the transport went to the bottom. According to other sources, mainly from the words of the survivors, “Armenia” was attacked by several pairs of enemy bombers at once.
This is, perhaps, still the most mysterious maritime disaster; the main thing is unknown - this is the place where the remains of “Armenia” are still at the bottom.
At the other end of the world, on the Pacific Ocean, the maritime expanses of cargo transports of the Japanese merchant fleet were in full swing, which got the ominous nickname Ships of Hell. These transports, which were not prepared at all, transported prisoners (American, British, Australian and other military countries) and workers taken forcibly from among the inhabitants of the countries occupied by Japan.
Japanese prisoners and workers stuffed in the holds, like sardines in a tin can, the very stay on such a transport was just torture. A large number of prisoners and workers were on the upper deck, suffering during the day from the scorching equatorial sun (and those places are among the hottest and most humid in the world, and at night from heavy rain and wind. Well, those who were in the holds were even harder, terrible heat and stuffiness, lack of toilet, lack of water and food, terrible crowding, some of the prisoners of the conditions of such traffic just went crazy.
And since it was often impossible to determine that there were hundreds and thousands of innocent people on board the ships, the American and British submariners drowned them on a general basis, along with their unfortunate compatriots. As a result, the world received several disasters with a huge number of victims, far surpassing the "Titanic".
18 September 1944, one of the largest casualties in the Pacific, occurred, and the largest of the series of the ships of Hell, the sinking of the Japanese transport Toyama Maru with prisoners and workers on board, killed about 5600 people. The Largest Disasters of Hellships: Tango Maru– sunk 25 February 1944 of the year, around 3000 dead; Ryusei Maru - sunk 29 June 1944 of the year, 4998 dead; Toyama Maru - sunk 29 June 1944 of the year, about 5600 dead; Koshu Maru 3 - sunk August 1944 of the year, about 1540 dead; Junyo Maru– drowned 18 September 1944 of the year, 5620 dead ... A series of drowning "Ships of Hell" became the largest series of catastrophes in history in terms of the number of victims, but just a few months later it was surpassed by a series of Baltic drowning /disaster/disaster6.asp).
This fatal Baltic series was opened by Wilhelm Gustloff, a German passenger airliner, named after a murdered Nazi party leader. The ship was launched in 1937 year and belonged to the organization "Strength through joy", which was actually the largest tour operator of the Third Reich.
It was a ship - a symbol of the Third Reich; about 65 thousands of people visited cruise flights on the “Wilhelm Gustloff”. In addition, he transported volunteers from the Condor Legion to participate in the Spanish Civil War.
Summer 1940g. The German Navy leadership attributed the ship to a submariner school in Gotenhafen. The ship was repainted in camouflage color and red crosses were removed from its sides. As a floating barracks for the school of submariners, it was used for about four years. Thus, it was the most auxiliary ship of the German Navy.
22 January 1945. began loading aboard the "Wilhelm Gustloff" soldiers and refugees. The first placed dozens of submarine officers, then several hundred women who served in the naval auxiliary division, several hundred wounded soldiers, and then began to let refugees, giving priority to women and children. By January 30, over 9 thousands of people took on board the ship. Around 12.30 the ship went on its last journey. Moving at night, ostensibly in anticipation of a meeting with a convoy of minesweepers, the captain gave a clearly destructive order to turn on all the lights. As a result, a brightly lit airliner was spotted by a Soviet C-13 submarine, commanded by third-rank captain Alexander Marinesko. For two hours the boat went behind the ship, choosing a position convenient for the attack. When the captain of the "William Gustloff" Peterson, having lost hope of waiting for the convoy of minesweepers, in 19.30 gave the command to turn out the lights, it was already too late.
In 21.04, from a distance of less than one kilometer, C - 13 launched the first torpedo, and then two more. The fourth torpedo was stuck in the torpedo tube, almost drowning the boat itself, but, fortunately, it did not explode. Soon, in 21.16, the first torpedo split the nose of the liner, the second landed in the pool, and the third - in the engine room.
Part of the passengers died from the explosions, part drowned in the cabins of the lower decks, and the survivors rushed to the lifeboats. Because of the created panic and crush killed another part of the passengers. Most women and children. Having ordered to block the watertight compartments, Captain Peterson also blocked part of the crew that was supposed to lower the boats, and the passengers could not do it.
The ship from the escort of the destroyer "Lion" began to rescue. Total ship managed to save 472 passengers. Near the place of the tragedy, the cruiser "Admiral Hipper", which had on board one and a half thousand passengers, passed. Passed without stopping, as he feared a torpedo attack. The only ship of his convoy - the destroyer T - 38 - managed to get 179 people out of the water. Vessels arrived in an hour or so with no survivors. In the icy water, only corpses and debris floated. At maximum estimates, the losses were estimated at 8-9 by thousands of people. Survived about 2 000 people. (http://www.repin.info/xfiles/gibel_teplohoda_vilgelm_gustloff)
In various sources, the composition of the passengers "Gustlova" varies greatly. By the number of dead - from 4 to 8 thousands. The composition of the passengers is also not clear: either “refugees and military”, then “refugees, military, wounded and imprisoned”.
One of the sources gives the following composition of Gustlov's passengers:
at the time of his death, there were 918 military sailors, 373 from the female auxiliary of the fleet, 162 wounded soldiers, 173 crew member (civilian sailors) and 4424 refugee. Total 6050. In addition to these, listed, on board the "Gustlov" managed to get even 2 thousands of refugees. A total of 876 people were saved. 16 officers of the submarine training division were killed, 390 cadets, 250 women military personnel, 90 crew members, and wounded military personnel (http://topwar.ru/1737-marinesko-geroj-ili-prestupnik.html).
It took less than 10 days, and now - a new meeting of the Germans with the Soviet Submariner number 1. A. Marinesko, who, like evil rock, pursued the German transport fleet. According to the newspaper Hamburger Abendblat, off the Baltic coast, near the Polish town of Stolp, were found the remains of the German military transport "Steuben", sunk by the crew of the C-13 10 submarine in February 1945. The 14.600 ton displacement liner was struck at night as a result of a master attack by two torpedoes from the feeding apparatus and sank in 15 minutes, carrying a 3608 man to the bottom of the sea. Only 659 people were saved.
“General Steuben” is a German ocean liner. It was launched in 1922 under the name “Munich.” It was one of the most luxurious ocean cruise liners in the world, having 168 meters in length, 19,8 meters in width and increased 14.660 tonnes in displacement. It was equipped with a dance hall, two luxurious dining rooms. The cabins were mostly equipped with baths or showers. The ventilation system allowed the air to be completely renewed in the cabins in six minutes, and in the dining halls in four minutes. There was a swimming pool on the upper deck. Since the beginning of the Second World War, the Steuben was re-equipped as a hotel for the top commanders of the German Navy. In August 1944, when the German admirals had no time for rest, it was turned into a transport vehicle for the wounded. This type of ship was not a hospital ship full sense of the word, and was not under the protection of the Geneva Convention. Transportation for the delivery of the wounded, including the "Steuben" were repainted in a gray protective color. The Red Cross was removed from them, but armament was installed: four anti-aircraft guns of 37 caliber of millimeters and four quad anti-aircraft machine guns. The cannon maid consisted of 65 soldiers.
Rear Admiral Engelhardt, who was responsible for shipping, learned about the death of "Steuben" in the early morning hours of February 10. The next day he already had a clear picture of the size of the disaster and the human toll. According to updated reports submitted to him, there were a total of 4.267 people on board the ship, including the crew of the merchant fleet, as well as military and medical personnel of the Navy.
According to the TF10 torpedo report, 512 people were rescued by them, and the T196 guard ship - 147 people. Thus, all managed to save 659 people. 3608 people are missing in the Baltic Sea.
(http://www.mediasprut.ru/info/c13/marinesko7.shtml).
But, as it turned out, it was not yet the most recent catastrophe of the German fleet, almost at the very end of the 17 war of April 1945, the Third Reich suffered another, the largest and therefore most terrible catastrophe, and again in the Baltic.
The Soviet submarine L-3, under the command of the 3rd-rank captain V.K. Konovalov, attacked the enemy convoy on 17 April 1945 and sank the Goya transport with a displacement of 5230 tons. The vessel was confiscated by the Germans after Germany occupied Norway. On board the Goya, according to F. Ruge, there were more than 7 thousand people (according to M. Morozov, 1500 4th soldiers tank divisions of the Wehrmacht, 385 wounded military personnel, as well as at least 3500 refugees - civilians).
According to other sources, there were a total of 5385 people aboard the Goya, including about 1300 submariners - officers, cadets and sailors (about 30 submarine crews).
The ship sank, taking with it, according to various estimates, 6-7 thousands of people. Managed to save from 128 to 134 in distress (http://www.bgudkov.ru/?page_id=753).
The ship sank very quickly - in just seven minutes, since the ship was cargo and, unlike the passenger one, did not have watertight bulkheads.
Studying the tragic stories of the Second World War, you understand how close the feat and tragedy are, the fatal circumstances and their fateful consequences. At the same time, this is another warning about the inadmissibility of war, especially when its tools are the highest-class professionals, such as the captains A. Marinesko and V. Konovalov, as well as the crews of their submarines.
Information