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Cap Arcona (1927)
Career (Germany)
Builder:	Blohm and Voss shipyard, Hamburg for Hamburg-Südamerikanische Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft (HSDG)
Laid down:	1926
Launched:	May 14, 1927
In service:	October 29, 1927 (maiden voyage)
Homeport:	Hamburg, Germany
Fate:	Sunk on May 3, 1945. Wreck dismantled in 1949.
General characteristics
Tonnage:	27,561 BRT, 15,011 net
Displacement:	11,500 long tons (12,880 US tons)
Length:	205.9 meters (675.52 ft) 196.2 m (floating)
Beam:	25.8 m (84.6 ft)
Draught:	12.8 m (8.7 m)
Propulsion:	Two steam turbines, two propellers. 17,500 kW
Speed:	Service: 20 knots, Hamburg-Buenos Aires in 15 days
Capacity:	1,315 (1927)
Complement:	475

The Cap Arcona was a large German luxury ocean liner, formerly of the Hamburg-South America line. While heavily-laden with prisoners from Nazi concentration camps, she was sunk in 1945, with the loss of many lives.

History

Plans of the Cap Arcona.

The 27,561 gross ton Cap Arcona, named after Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, was launched in 1927. She was considered one of the most beautiful ships of the time, was the largest German ship on the South American run, and carried upper-class travelers and steerage-class emigrants, mostly to South America.^[1]

In 1940, the Cap Arcona was taken over by the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) and used in the Baltic Sea as an accommodation ship. In 1942, she was used as a stand-in for the doomed Titanic in the German film version of the disaster. In early 1945, the Kriegsmarine reactivated her for Operation Hannibal, and she was used to transport 25,795 German soldiers and civilians from East Prussia to western Germany.^[2][3]

As a prison ship

Aerial shot of the Neuengamme concentration camp taken by British aviation on April 16, 1945.

Towards the end of April 1945, the Nazis assembled a small fleet of ships in the Bay of Lübeck, comprising the liners Cap Arcona and SS Deutschland, and the smaller vessels Thielbek and Athen. The Athen was used to transfer prisoners from Lübeck to the larger ships and from ship to ship. By the end of the month, these ships and a number of barges held more than 10,000 prisoners from Neuengamme and other concentration camps, including Stutthof and Mittelbau-Dora. The order to transfer the prisoners from the camps to the prison ships came from Hamburg Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann, who was himself acting on orders from Berlin. Kaufmann later claimed during a War Crimes Tribunal that the prisoners were destined for Sweden, however, at the same trial Bassewitz-Behr, the head of the Hamburg Gestapo, said that the prisoners were in fact slated to be killed in compliance with Himmler's orders^[4], and it has been suggested that the plan called for scuttling the ships with the live prisoners still aboard.^[5]

M4 Shermans of the 23rd Hussars.

On April 30, 1945, two Swedish ships, Magdalena and Lillie Matthiessen, sailed from Lübeck, the first with 223 western European prisoners, for the most part French-speaking, who were transferred from the Thielbek to the Magdalena, and the second with 225 women from Ravensbrück on board for transportation to hospitals in Sweden.

On May 2, 1945, Second Army reached the towns of Lübeck and Wismar. No. 6 Commando, 1st Special Service Brigade commanded by Brigadier Derek Mills-Roberts, and 11th Armoured Division, commanded by Major-General George P. B. Roberts, entered Lübeck without resistance. The International Red Cross informed Major-General Roberts that 7,000-8,000 prisoners were aboard ships in the Bay of Lübeck.^[6][7]

Sinking

Attaching 60-pdr SAP warheads onto 3 in rocket projectile bodies.

Armourers loading RP-3 rockets with 60 lb High Explosive heads onto steel Mk. I rails.

Typhoon being rearmed.

198 Squadron. Typhoons on airfield.

Bay of Lübeck, three kilometers from Neustadt (left at the top): Position of the sinking of Cap Arcona.^[8]

On May 3, 1945, four days after Hitler's suicide, but four days before the unconditional surrender of Germany, the Cap Arcona, the Thielbek, and the passenger liner Deutschland (possibly converted to a hospital ship but not marked as such), were attacked as part of general attacks on shipping in the Baltic by RAF Typhoons of 83 Group of the 2nd Tactical Air Force, commanded by Sir Arthur Coningham.

The attacks were by No. 184 Squadron, based at RAF Hustedt, led by Squadron Leader Derek L. Stevenson, by No. 193 Squadron, based in Ahlhorn (Großenkneten), led by Squadron Leader D. M. Taylor, by No. 263 Squadron, based in RAF Ahlhorn, led by Squadron Leader Martin Trevor Scott Rumbold, by No. 197 Squadron RAF, led by Squadron Leader K. J. Harding also at Ahlhorn, and by No. 198 Squadron based at Plantlünne led by Group Captain Johnny Baldwin. These Hawker Typhoon Mark 1B fighter-bombers used High Explosive 60 lb rocket projectiles, bombs, and 20 mm cannons.

Pilots of the attacking force stated that they were unaware that the ships were laden with prisoners. However, some sources suggest elements of British command knew of the occupants, but failed to pass the information on.^[9]

The burning Cap Arcona shortly after the attacks.

The RAF commanders ordering the strike reportedly thought that the ships carried escaping SS officers, possibly fleeing to German-controlled Norway.

Equipped with lifejackets from locked storage compartments, most of the SS guards were able to jump overboard from the Cap Arcona, and they shot any prisoners who tried to escape. German trawlers sent to rescue Cap Arcona's crew members and guards managed to save 16 sailors, 400 SS men, and 20 SS women. Most of the prisoners who tried to board the trawlers were beaten back, while those who reached shore were shot down. Only 350 of the 4,500 prisoners who had been aboard the Cap Arcona survived.^[10] Among the survivors was Erwin Geschonneck, who later became a notable German actor, and whose story was made into a film in 1982.

RAF Pilot Allan Wyse of No. 193 Squadron later recalled, "We used our cannon fire at the chaps in the water . . . we shot them up with 20mm cannons in the water. Horrible thing, but we were told to do it and we did it. That's war."^[11]

Severely damaged and set on fire, the Cap Arcona eventually capsized. The death toll was estimated at 5,000 people.^[12]

F-6

Photos of the burning ships, listed as Deutschland, Thielbek, and Cap Arcona, and of emaciated survivors swimming in the very cold Baltic Sea (seven degrees Celsius), were taken on a reconnaissance mission over the Bay of Lübeck by F-6 aircraft of the USAAF's 161st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron around 5:00 pm, shortly after the attack.^[13]

On May 4, 1945, a British reconnaissance plane shot photos of the two laid wrecks : Thielbek, Cap Arcona.^[14].

The capsized hulk of the Cap Arcona later drifted ashore, and the beached wreck was broken up in 1949. It was the second worst seafaring incident in history.

For weeks after the attack, the bodies of victims washed ashore, where they were collected and buried in mass graves at Neustadt in Holstein, Scharbeutz and Timmendorfer Strand.^[15] Parts of skeletons washed ashore over the next thirty years, until the last find in 1971.^[16]

Memorial to Cap Arcona and Thielbek victims^[17] at Neustadt in Holstein.

The prisoners were of 28 different nationalities: American, Belarussian, Belgian, Canadian, Czechoslovakian, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourger, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swiss, Ukrainian, Yugoslavian and others.^[16]

Locations

• Cap Arcona: 54°3.9′N 10°50.45′E / 54.065°N 10.84083°E / 54.065; 10.84083
• Thielbek: 54°4.3′N 10°50.40′E / 54.0717°N 10.84°E / 54.0717; 10.84
• Deutschland: 54°7.5′N 10°48.25′E / 54.125°N 10.80417°E / 54.125; 10.80417

See also

• Maritime disasters
• Wilhelm Gustloff, torpedoed by a Soviet submarine on January 30, 1945, while in the process of evacuating civilians and personnel. Circa 9,400 lives lost. If accurate, this would be the largest known loss of life occurring during a single ship sinking in recorded maritime history.
• Thielbek, also sunk in the RAF raid that sank the SS Cap Arcona and SS Deutschland. Over 2,800 lives lost, mostly prisoners of the Germans.
• Deutschland, sunk together with SS Cap Arcona by RAF aircraft. Unknown number of lives lost, mostly prisoners of the Germans.
• Goya, torpedoed by a Soviet submarine during the evacuation of troops and civilians, with over 6,000 estimated dead.
• Steuben, torpedoed by a Soviet submarine evacuating civilians and troops, with over 4,000 estimated dead.
• HMT Rohna, sunk by the Germans in November, 1943. Over 1,138 estimated deaths, with 1,015 of them being American troops. This still constitutes the largest loss of US troops at sea.
• Armenia, sunk by German aircraft in November 1941, with over 5,000 deaths estimated.
• Junyō Maru, sunk by the British in September 1944, with over 5,000 deaths (mostly Asian slave laborers and Allied POWs) estimated.
• Lancastria, sunk by German aircraft in June, 1940, during the evacuation of Western France with over 4,000 deaths (1,738 known dead) estimated.
• Laconia, sunk by a German submarine in September, 1942, during the Laconia Incident. 3,254 people lost their lives. It gave rise to the Laconia Order.
• Ukishima Maru, suspicious ship explosion, August 24, 1945, killing over 500 Koreans.
• Arandora Star, sunk by a German submarine July 2, 1940. 630 perished.
• Friendly fire
• Rescue of Stutthof victims in Denmark

References

Sources

• Roy Nesbit, Cap Arcona: atrocity or accident?. Aeroplane Monthly, June 1984
• Benjamin Jacobs and Eugene Pool, The 100-Year Secret: Britain's Hidden World War II Massacre. The Lyons Press, October 2004. ISBN 1-59228-532-5.
• Benjamin Jacobs, The Dentist of Auschwitz, University Press of Kentucky, Reprinted April 2001, ISBN 0813190126, chapters 17, 18.
• Günther Schwarberg: Angriffsziel "Cap Arcona", Steidl Verlag, 1998 Göttingen, ISBN 3-88243-590-9
• Lawrence Bond, Typhoons' Last Storm, documentary film 2000
• Drawing
• Wilhelm Lange, Mythos und Wirklichkeit - Eine "publikumswirksame" Präsentation der Cap-Arcona-Katastrophe vom 3. Mai 1945 (page 27) 2/2000, in Schiff und Zeit, Panorama maritim N° 52
• Hal Vaughan, Doctor to the Resistance: The Heroic True Story of an American Surgeon and His Family in Occupied Paris, Potomac Books Inc. 2004, ISBN 1574887734

External links

• History of the tragedy
• Disaster on the Baltic Sea
• Inferno
• Appendix A
• Photo-montage with sound
• Photo of the Cap Arcona (1938)
• Photos of the Cap Arcona
• Album photos
• Photo of the Cap Arcona (1945)
• Lucien Revert (French)
• Scuba diving around the wreck
• Cap Arcona (1927-1938). Video (Dutch)
• Titanic (1943) Part 8. Video (German), (English)
• Cap Arcona (1946). Video (German)
• Postcard of the Memorial
• Cap Arcona Wrecksite