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Screams of the Drowning: From the Eastern Front to the Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff
This is the true story of how one soldier experienced the horrors and bloodshed of World War II — and lived to tell the tale.
Hans Fackler, like many boys his age, was conscripted into the Wehrmacht at the age of seventeen and sent to the Eastern Front. A pioneer in the infantry, he barely survived the carnage of the front lines and lost comrades to the Russian forces.
Eventually, Hans suffered a grievous injury from a grenade explosion. No longer able to fight, he found himself drugged on morphine and on board the controversial Wilhelm Gustloff, an armed military transport ship for SS, Gestapo and Wehrmacht personnel, which operated under the guise of transporting civilians.
The Gustloff was attacked and sunk by Russian torpedoes, drowning more than 9,000 passengers. Rescued by a German freighter, Hans recuperated in a military hospital near Erfurt in the Harz, which subsequently fell into the Russian zone. He escaped and undertook the arduous task of walking almost 200 miles back home to Bavaria.
The extraordinary first-person account of one of the few soldier-survivors of the sinking of the Gustloff, it also includes Hans’ experiences of taking part in the Kiev and the Vercors mountains massacres in 1941 and 1944 respectively.
Hans Fackler, like many boys his age, was conscripted into the Wehrmacht at the age of seventeen and sent to the Eastern Front. A pioneer in the infantry, he barely survived the carnage of the front lines and lost comrades to the Russian forces.
Eventually, Hans suffered a grievous injury from a grenade explosion. No longer able to fight, he found himself drugged on morphine and on board the controversial Wilhelm Gustloff, an armed military transport ship for SS, Gestapo and Wehrmacht personnel, which operated under the guise of transporting civilians.
The Gustloff was attacked and sunk by Russian torpedoes, drowning more than 9,000 passengers. Rescued by a German freighter, Hans recuperated in a military hospital near Erfurt in the Harz, which subsequently fell into the Russian zone. He escaped and undertook the arduous task of walking almost 200 miles back home to Bavaria.
The extraordinary first-person account of one of the few soldier-survivors of the sinking of the Gustloff, it also includes Hans’ experiences of taking part in the Kiev and the Vercors mountains massacres in 1941 and 1944 respectively.
- GenresNonfictionWorld War II
Kindle Edition
Published April 14, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 8, 2022
To be up front, I bought this book because the cover and the title led me to the Wilhelm Gustloff. While I was wanting to read more books on the Gustloff, this turned out to not be the book that was going to give me that.
What I got instead was an extraordinary biography of a young man who was forced to 'volunteer' for the German army towards the end of WWII.
Told to Klaus Willmann and translated into English by Roger Morehouse, Hans Fackler's war experiences are a must read.
What I got instead was an extraordinary biography of a young man who was forced to 'volunteer' for the German army towards the end of WWII.
Told to Klaus Willmann and translated into English by Roger Morehouse, Hans Fackler's war experiences are a must read.
July 27, 2021
NOTE: I received a free preliminary, and likely unedited copy of this book from Netgalley for the purposes of providing an honest, unbiased review of the material. Thank you to all involved.
The RMS Titanic is known as one of the worst (or perhaps the most popular) maritime disasters in History, resulting in over 1500 deaths. Now, imagine if you will, a wartime sinking that resulted in 9400 deaths that many do not know anything about? That is the story of the MV Wilhelm Gustloff, our topic for today’s review of Screams of The Drowning by Klaus Willmann. For the first time, this book has been translated into English by Pen and Sword Publishing, originally being released in Germany a few years ago. This is a remarkable account of that very disaster, as told by former Wehrmacht soldier Hans Fackler. After being injured in battle, Hans was to be discharged from the Eastern Front in a medical ward en route to Germany. Unfortunately for him, and 10,000 other passengers, Russian Submarines had other ideas.
"This is the true story of how one soldier experienced the horrors and bloodshed of World War II — and lived to tell the tale. Hans Fackler, like many boys his age, was conscripted into the Wehrmacht at the age of seventeen and sent to the Eastern Front. A pioneer in the infantry, he barely survived the carnage of the front lines and lost comrades to the Russian forces. Eventually, Hans suffered a grievous injury from a grenade explosion. No longer able to fight, he found himself drugged on morphine and ob board the controversial Wilhelm Gustloff, an armed military transport ship for SS, Gestapo and Wehrmacht personnel, which operated under the guise of transporting civilians.
The Gustloff was attacked and sunk by Russian torpedoes, drowning more than 9,000 passengers. Rescued by a German freighter, Hans recuperated in a military hospital near Erfurt in the Harz, which subsequently fell into the Russian zone. He escaped and undertook the arduous task of walking almost 200 miles back home to Bavaria. The extraordinary first-person account of one of the few soldier-survivors of the sinking of the Gustloff, it also includes Hans’ experiences of taking part in the Kiev and the Vercors mountains massacres in 1941 and 1944 respectively."
As the introduction states, Hans has the benefit of some 60+ years for introspection and hindsight with his account; who really knows what he may have said or what he was really thinking back then. That isn’t to say that the book really goes into 1940s politics or anything, but it’s something to keep in mind when reading the narrative. That said, his accounts of battles and the eventual sinking, as told from a perspective we rarely get in the US (That of a former German soldier) is rarely told. For me, it’s refreshing to see accounts like this and very important. Learning about how the political climate at the time was was somewhat jarring. He tells of one instance when his mother said something bad about Hitler at a grocery store, and soon had gestapo trying to “scare some sense” into her soon after. I can’t imagine the terror of constantly walking on eggshells in that climate, and accounts like this show why most citizens simply went with the flow no matter what atrocities The Reich was doing.
I enjoyed this book for the unique perspective and the harrowing account of a terrible sea disaster. The book is well-done and you really get a feeling for how a normal everyday soldier must have felt during the war, especially one as young as Hans. Being indoctrinated into believing that the one true way to be a man was to join the military seems like a crazy mindset to have, but war will do that to people. Hopefully this book brings awareness of the events themselves and will help show that bad things happen on every side of a conflict.
The RMS Titanic is known as one of the worst (or perhaps the most popular) maritime disasters in History, resulting in over 1500 deaths. Now, imagine if you will, a wartime sinking that resulted in 9400 deaths that many do not know anything about? That is the story of the MV Wilhelm Gustloff, our topic for today’s review of Screams of The Drowning by Klaus Willmann. For the first time, this book has been translated into English by Pen and Sword Publishing, originally being released in Germany a few years ago. This is a remarkable account of that very disaster, as told by former Wehrmacht soldier Hans Fackler. After being injured in battle, Hans was to be discharged from the Eastern Front in a medical ward en route to Germany. Unfortunately for him, and 10,000 other passengers, Russian Submarines had other ideas.
"This is the true story of how one soldier experienced the horrors and bloodshed of World War II — and lived to tell the tale. Hans Fackler, like many boys his age, was conscripted into the Wehrmacht at the age of seventeen and sent to the Eastern Front. A pioneer in the infantry, he barely survived the carnage of the front lines and lost comrades to the Russian forces. Eventually, Hans suffered a grievous injury from a grenade explosion. No longer able to fight, he found himself drugged on morphine and ob board the controversial Wilhelm Gustloff, an armed military transport ship for SS, Gestapo and Wehrmacht personnel, which operated under the guise of transporting civilians.
The Gustloff was attacked and sunk by Russian torpedoes, drowning more than 9,000 passengers. Rescued by a German freighter, Hans recuperated in a military hospital near Erfurt in the Harz, which subsequently fell into the Russian zone. He escaped and undertook the arduous task of walking almost 200 miles back home to Bavaria. The extraordinary first-person account of one of the few soldier-survivors of the sinking of the Gustloff, it also includes Hans’ experiences of taking part in the Kiev and the Vercors mountains massacres in 1941 and 1944 respectively."
As the introduction states, Hans has the benefit of some 60+ years for introspection and hindsight with his account; who really knows what he may have said or what he was really thinking back then. That isn’t to say that the book really goes into 1940s politics or anything, but it’s something to keep in mind when reading the narrative. That said, his accounts of battles and the eventual sinking, as told from a perspective we rarely get in the US (That of a former German soldier) is rarely told. For me, it’s refreshing to see accounts like this and very important. Learning about how the political climate at the time was was somewhat jarring. He tells of one instance when his mother said something bad about Hitler at a grocery store, and soon had gestapo trying to “scare some sense” into her soon after. I can’t imagine the terror of constantly walking on eggshells in that climate, and accounts like this show why most citizens simply went with the flow no matter what atrocities The Reich was doing.
I enjoyed this book for the unique perspective and the harrowing account of a terrible sea disaster. The book is well-done and you really get a feeling for how a normal everyday soldier must have felt during the war, especially one as young as Hans. Being indoctrinated into believing that the one true way to be a man was to join the military seems like a crazy mindset to have, but war will do that to people. Hopefully this book brings awareness of the events themselves and will help show that bad things happen on every side of a conflict.
August 29, 2023
The entirely predictable and brutal Soviet response to Nazi horrors perpetrated in Eastern Europe was perhaps most keenly felt in East Prussia where, in the final few months of the Second World War, the Red Army stormed into the Reich hungry for revenge and with a license to wreak havoc. Despite East Prussia's odious Gauleiter Eric Koch ordering that fleeing German civilians should be shot, several million ethnic Germans managed to escape (he was one of the first to do so). Many of them -including countless women and children - experienced horror, and deprivations on an unimaginable scale. Huge numbers died in the attempt, many of them meeting their deaths in the icy waters of the Baltic. It was in this maelstrom of despair that the subject of this book, Hans Fackler, carried out the bulk of his service as a combat engineer in the Wehrmacht. For many, the experience of escaping East Prussia would be seared into their memories, and for young Fackler the sinking of the armed passenger ship Wilhelm Gustloff and the death of over 9,500 of his fellow passengers, most of whom were civilians, would be the subject of nightmares for the rest of his life.
The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff is the worst single-ship loss of life in maritime history and whilst there are several auto-biographical accounts, Fackler's memories are unique in that he was a soldier-survivor. He had been put aboard the ship, for evacuation to western Germany, after being wounded in a grenade explosion during his participation in a German counterattack near Königsberg in January 1945. Aside from the extraordinary account of the Gustloff sinking, the book covers Fackler's conscription, his training and experiences of fighting on the Eastern Front. After his 'escape' from a Soviet hospital in April 1945 Fackler managed to walk two hundred miles back to his home in Bavaria. The narrative is well written and compelling with a highly credible interpretation of biographical detail by the author, Klaus Willmann. In addition to its utility as a very readable story, the book gives valuable insight into battlefield tactics and, later, the challenges of finding work, as a veteran, in post-war Germany. As with virtually every other German first-hand account of the war in the East, the mistreatment and abuse of prisoners-of-war, 'undesirables' and ethnic minorities is rarely mentioned and, when they are, culpability is denied. In this instance, though, the subject's young age and the nature of his service make this omission more forgivable - perhaps even, understandable. All-in-all this is one of the best first-hand accounts of the German experience of fighting on the Eastern Front that this reviewer has read. It serves to inform and entertain, a combination which is not always achieved in writing about military history. Recommended.
The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff is the worst single-ship loss of life in maritime history and whilst there are several auto-biographical accounts, Fackler's memories are unique in that he was a soldier-survivor. He had been put aboard the ship, for evacuation to western Germany, after being wounded in a grenade explosion during his participation in a German counterattack near Königsberg in January 1945. Aside from the extraordinary account of the Gustloff sinking, the book covers Fackler's conscription, his training and experiences of fighting on the Eastern Front. After his 'escape' from a Soviet hospital in April 1945 Fackler managed to walk two hundred miles back to his home in Bavaria. The narrative is well written and compelling with a highly credible interpretation of biographical detail by the author, Klaus Willmann. In addition to its utility as a very readable story, the book gives valuable insight into battlefield tactics and, later, the challenges of finding work, as a veteran, in post-war Germany. As with virtually every other German first-hand account of the war in the East, the mistreatment and abuse of prisoners-of-war, 'undesirables' and ethnic minorities is rarely mentioned and, when they are, culpability is denied. In this instance, though, the subject's young age and the nature of his service make this omission more forgivable - perhaps even, understandable. All-in-all this is one of the best first-hand accounts of the German experience of fighting on the Eastern Front that this reviewer has read. It serves to inform and entertain, a combination which is not always achieved in writing about military history. Recommended.
February 12, 2022
Interesting Memoir
This is an interesting "memoir" by a German veteran. It was not written by the veteran himself but "told to" a journalist. It provides insights into the state of the Wehrmacht during 1944/45 and describes how the veteran rebuilt his life after hostilities ended. Of particular interest is his account of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a little-remembered incident of the Soviet/German war.
This is an interesting "memoir" by a German veteran. It was not written by the veteran himself but "told to" a journalist. It provides insights into the state of the Wehrmacht during 1944/45 and describes how the veteran rebuilt his life after hostilities ended. Of particular interest is his account of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a little-remembered incident of the Soviet/German war.
September 12, 2025
What an horrific true survivor account of 17 year old Hans, a drafted German soldier sent to the Russian Front during the ending days of WW II. If not for being severely injured from an exploded grenade he probably wouldn't have survived the war.
Everyone currently clamoring for going to war with Russia in support of Ukraine need to read this book.
Everyone currently clamoring for going to war with Russia in support of Ukraine need to read this book.
January 23, 2022
A great, if somewhat horrifying book, from a brilliant point of view of the victims. The author does an amazing job with the POV, and making you feel the dread of those on the ship. It's quite a macabre read, and very gruesome which was a pleasant surprise. It made the stakes rise exponentially.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews