The coming of war naturally freed up many German ships that had previously been used for leisure cruises, while the Navy found itself in need of accommodation for its sailors as the service expanded. The passenger ships had their bright civilian livery painted over with drab camouflage colours and were given a new career as accommodation ships, often for the crews of U-boat flotillas. Others were used as hospital ships. The two most important ships in this category were undoubtedly the ocean liners Wilhelm Gustloff and Robert Ley, which are often referred to as the world’s first purpose-built cruise liners. Built for the Kraft durch Freude (‘Strength through Joy’) movement run by the Nazi DAF (German Labour Front – the Party organization that replaced free trade unions), these ships carried the movement’s members on holiday cruises until 1939, when Germany’s military needs saw both ships pressed into service with the Kriegsmarine.
| Specifications for the class: | |||
| Length | 208.5m | Powerplant | 6x 6-cylinder MAN diesels |
| Beam | 23.6m | Top speed | 15.5 knots |
| Displacement | 25,484 tons | Endurance | 12,000 nautical miles |
| Armament | 3x 10.5cm flak, 8x 2cm flak | ||
Built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, and launched in May 1927, the Wilhelm Gustloff first served in a military role at the end of May 1939 when she transported members of the Condor Legion, who had been serving in the Spanish Civil War, from Vigo back to Hamburg. On the outbreak of war she was for some time pressed into service as a hospital ship. Latterly, the Gustloff was employed as an accommodation ship for men of the 2. Unterseeboots-Lehrdivision in Gotenhafen. As the Red Army approached East Prussia in January 1945, it was decided that she would be one of the vessels used to evacuate a mixture of Kriegsmarine personnel, wounded soldiers and civilian refugees from the Samland peninsula north of Königsberg west down the Baltic to safety at Kiel. Her normal capacity was 1,465 passengers; although exact numbers can never be known, it is thought that when she departed on 30 January 1945 she was crammed with around 10,580, of whom about 8,950 were civilians.
Escorted by the torpedo boat Möwe, the Wilhelm Gustloff was running with her navigation lights illuminated, trying to avoid a collision with a minesweeper flotilla thought to be operating in the vicinity. Just east of Leba the lights attracted the attention of the Soviet submarine S-13, which fired three torpedoes; all of them hit the liner, which sank within 45 minutes. The most recent estimates suggest that despite the rescue efforts of naval vessels that rushed to the site, around 9,400 souls were lost in the freezing Baltic waters that night, making the Gustloff tragedy the worst single sea disaster in recorded history.
Launched in March 1938, the Robert Ley had a wartime career very similar to that of her sister ship. She was used to bring members of the Condor Legion back to Germany in May 1939, and on the outbreak of hostilities was converted for use as a hospital ship. Subsequently she served as an accommodation ship at Neustadt, with 1. Unterseeboots- Lehrdivision and 21. U-flottille. In the closing stages of the war Robert Ley was also used for the evacuation of wounded soldiers and civilian refugees from the Baltic coast. She was seriously damaged during a bombing raid while berthed in Hamburg on 9 March 1945. After the war she was taken to Britain and scrapped.