Feldgrau.net

Exactly 68 years ago to the minute (running on Eastern time) the Wilhelm Gustloff sank beneath the waves in the Baltic Sea nearly killing 10,000 people. A horrible tragedy everyone should hear of and no one should forget.

Amen to that.

And the submarine commander was awarded "Hero of the Soviet Union" for this deed. Makes the word "hero" rather meaningless, doesn't it?

Ronald Lameck wrote:And the submarine commander was awarded "Hero of the Soviet Union" for this deed. Makes the word "hero" rather meaningless, doesn't it?

It's the "of the Soviet Union" that puts it in perspective...

While the sub captain couldn't know that there were that many civilians on board, there were enough legit military targets in the Baltic for any would-be Hero of the Soviet Union.

Cunard-WhiteStarLine wrote:Exactly 68 years ago to the minute (running on Eastern time) the Wilhelm Gustloff sank beneath the waves in the Baltic Sea nearly killing 10,000 people. A horrible tragedy everyone should hear of and no one should forget.

My brother in law Piet Muller was among the few suvivors; He was being evacuated with frozen feet from the withdrawing Eastern front. Ironically a friend in the kriegsmarine, was on one of the the PT? boats that were combing the sea for them, while being under attack by the soviets during their SOS mission temselves. "Hero of the soviet union" indeed.
Both survived the war. The friend, I don't know how long, but my B.i.L. till the 1990's. Just a memory.
Haen

Ronald Lameck wrote:And the submarine commander was awarded "Hero of the Soviet Union" for this deed. Makes the word "hero" rather meaningless, doesn't it?

His actions were no worse than those of a U-Boat commander, and a lot of them got medals.