The Cruelest Night

by Christopher Dobson

"The Cruelest Night" reveals, for the first time, the full story of the worst of all sea tragedies, the sinking of the German ocean liner Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic Sea in 1945. At least 7000 military personnel and civilians in flight from the avenging Red army perished--nearly five times the number who died on the Titanic. The subsequent loss in the the same operation of two other oveladen German liners, the General Steuben and the Goya, brought the devastating toll to 18,000.

This book describes the background of the whole the amazing episode of "Germany's Dunkirk," Admiral Doenitz's evacuation of nearly two million Germans who lay in the path of the Russian advance as the eastern front collapsed. On January 30, 1945, the Wilhelm Gustloff, a Nazi pleasure liner built to hold 2000, set sail from the port of Gdynia with approxiamately 8000 aboard. In part to prevent even more of the refugees clamoring at the docks from boarding, the liner departed hastily--without proper escort, suitable crew, or enough lifeboats, and so overloaded that it could not follow the precautionary zigzag course through the mine and submarine infested Baltic. The next night the Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed.

Incorporating horrific accounts by survivors, the authors provide vivid descriptions of the desperate crush to board the ship, the pandemonium at sea, and the remorseless struggle by soldier, sailor, and civilian alike for a place on the lifeboats.

Dobson, Miller, and Payne outline the naval and political implications of the events and reveal the suppressed story of Captain Alexander Marinesko, the hard drinking, flamboyant Soviet submarine ace responsible for the sinking, who was later disgraced and banished to the dreaded labor camp at Kolyma. Here too, is the mystery of the whereabouts of the famed Prussian "Amber Room" and the extraordinary story of Gauleiter Erich Koch, the Nazi was criminal whom the authors discovered alive and imprisoned in Poland.

The Baltic ordeal was the greatest seaborne evacuation in history, as well as the biggest sea disaster.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Maritime, Germany

223 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Becca Pirie · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the beginning of November, I read a book called Death in the Baltic by Cathryn J Prince, a non-fiction book published in 2013 about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. I thought it was a good book, but I saw a one-star review that said there was incorrect information in it and mentioned two other books to read instead: A. V. Sellwood's The Damned Don't Drown, and The Cruelest Night. So I checked my library and, yay, they had a copy of this sitting on a shelf.

This was fantastic. A quick, gripping read. I didn't take too many notes while reading cause 1. I'm an idiot 2. I didn't wanna stop reading. It's horrifying in places, just to read about and imagine the absolute terror these thousands of people felt is pretty overwhelming. Some of the images in my head of a staircase blocked with trampled corpses and unbelievable amounts of frozen bodies in the sea won't be leaving me any time soon.

It blows my mind when I think about the fact that this sinking is not commonly known. As this book says itself (although I didn't write down the actual quote cause I suck) if you ask someone what they think is the worst shipwreck, you'll often hear Titanic or Lusitania, and a few months ago, I'd have said one of those two as well. It was only upon reading the synopsis for a historical fiction book called Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys that I learned about this ship and it's story. A death toll of, what is now thought to be, around 9,400 and not a lot of people know. Just...wow.

I would recommend this book (even though it is now out of print...if you can get a copy, do it, it's a great book).

[Roger Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Cruelest Night tells of the worst maritime disaster in history, a shipwreck where five times more died than on the Titanic. The writing paints vivid pictures so that the reader gets a clear picture of a frightening and disastrous night on the Baltic. It lays out the tragic historical events that led to a Russian submarine sinking the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship packed with thousands of women and children.

[Bill Purkayastha · Rating 1 out of 5]

No book that claims the Titanic was a Cunard liner, when ten seconds of research would tell the author it was White Star, can be taken seriously. No book which claims the German U Boatwaffe lost "well over ninety percent" of its crew, without providing figures (the exact figures are easily available from German records and were high but much less than 90%) can be taken seriously. Nor, like the vast majority of pop "history" books written during the era, can its antiSoviet tone be concealed, to the extent that the book approaches being pro Nazi. Overall, Cold War pulp fiction masquerading as history.

[Alan Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another well-written book by Christopher Dobson. The Cruelest Night was the first account in English of the sinking of the cruise liner Wilhelm Gustoff while carrying thousands of refugees, wounded soldiers, and others from East Prussia to Germany proper, on 30 January 1945. A moving account of the loss and suffering of those doomed by AH's miscarried war on the USSR. The book also covers the loss of two other larger German liners in early 1945, again from torpedoes from Soveit submarines.

[Gabby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I looked up this book after reading The Salt to the Sea. It brought the event to life in a way that honored those who died with its honest and harrowing descriptions. If you want to learn about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. It's a shock to me that it's not more well known as "the greatest maritime tragedy of WWII".

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

The historical account of the events in the fiction book Salt to the Sea. An interesting and informative read.

[Tracy McClowry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this after reading "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys, for more historical information about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. Very well researched and interesting book.

[Maren Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO GOOD! Using it for my research paper!

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good historical read about the greatest maritime tragedy in history - the sinking of the Wilhelm Gusthoff during WWII. Sadly, the history books don't tell of this event. Worth the read if you like history in general or WWII history.

[Alice Kuhn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The untold story of one of the greatest maritime tragedies of World War II. At least seven thousand military personnel and civilians died when the Wilhem Gustoff, an ocean liner, was sunk by a Russian submarine in the Baltic Sea in 1945.