Galeria

 

placed mine fields and steel nets across the Gulf of Finland, but in the last stages of the war, the Soviets had gotten through to the Baltic Sea. The submarine commanders were toki to sink everything in sight, in retaliation for the wrongs the Germans had inflicted.

The Gustloff was torpedoed three times by an S-13 Soviet submarine (designed by Germans in Holland between the world wars to evade Versailles Treaty clauses and sold to the Russians prior to World War II) at 55 degrees N and 17 Eat 9 P.M. on January 31, 1945, with the air temperature at zero degrees Fahrenheit. One hour later it sank in water that was 190 feet deep and 41 degrees in temperature, claiming the lives of 5,348 of its 6,600 passengers and crew. Of those on board. 3°A were wounded soldiers, 9°A) naval personnel, 15% submarine officers and 73°Ai refugees.

The Steuben
Several days later, the Steuben, with 13,000 GRT, was torpedoed twice and sank in seven minutes, claiming 3,608 lives. The ex-München had been renamed in 1930, after Baron von Steuben, who helped with American independence, when the ship began carrying passengers across the Atlantic, between Germany and the U.S. From 1935 until 1939, it served for KdF cruises, and beginning in 1940, it served as a military dormitory in Danzig.

Between the Gustloff and Steuben, almost 9,000 lives were lost, accounting for 90% of all lives lost at sea during January and February. What had been considered a safe and fast means of transportation became one of fear. Before the loss of the Gustloff to a submarine, all the other ships had been sunk due to mine fields or air raids.

KRAFT DURCH FREUDE CANCELS - 1937
Here are a handful of K.d.F. cancels that appeared in a John Rawlings article in Germania, Vol.15, February 1979, the publication of the Germany & Colonies Philatelic Society of Great Britain. Ships represented are: Oceana, St.Louis, Monte Olivia, Monte Sormiento [How Germanic can you get?J, Stuttgart and Berlin.

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 92 - July - August - September - 1996, Page 33.