SS Deutschland (1923)

Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristics

SS Deutschland<ref group=note>Sometimes called Deutschland IV to distinguish from others of the name</ref> was a Template:GRT German ocean liner of the HAPAG line. It was sunk in a British air attack on May 3, 1945.

History

Commissioning

One of a group of four ships that included the Template:SS, Template:SS, and Template:SS, the Deutschland was launched on 28 April 1923. She began her maiden voyage on 27 March 1924, to Southampton and then on to New York City. The turbine-powered ship had a speed of Template:Convert; she was later re-engined with larger-geared turbines in 1929, with service speed increased to Template:Convert. This gave the ship a seven-day passage across the Atlantic.

On 17 November 1933, Deutschland collided with the American cargo ship Template:SS in New York Harbor. Munargo suffered severe damage and was beached north of Bedloe's Island,<ref name=Times201133a>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref> but was refloated on 18 November 1933.<ref name=Times211133a>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref>

In October 1938, while en route to New York with 981 persons aboard the ship suffered an explosion in her Number Two hold. After calling for assistance, the crew was able to bring the fire under control and continue on her itinerary.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

World War II

In 1940, Deutschland became an accommodation ship for the German Navy at Gotenhafen. In 1945, on seven Baltic voyages as part of Operation Hannibal, she carried 70,000 refugees from the German eastern territories to the west.

Sinking

In April 1945, her conversion into a hospital ship was begun. An attempt was made to paint the vessel white, but there was only sufficient paint available to paint her funnels white, and to paint a Red Cross on one side of one of her funnels.

Between 16 and 28 April 1945, the concentration camp of Neuengamme was systematically emptied of all its remaining prisoners, other groups of concentration camp inmates and Soviet prisoners of war (POWs); with the intention that they would be relocated to a secret new camp. In the interim, they were to be concealed from the advancing British and Canadian forces; and for this purpose the Schutzstaffel assembled a prison flotilla of decommissioned ships in the Bay of Lübeck, consisting of the liners Template:SS and Deutschland, the freighter Template:SS, and the motor launch Athens. Since the steering motors were out of use in Thielbek and the turbines were out of use in Cap Arcona, Athens was used to transfer prisoners from Lübeck to the larger ships and between ships; they were locked below decks and in the holds, and denied food and medical attention.Template:Citation needed

During the first days of May 1945, thousands of concentration camp inmates were locked below decks and in the holds, and denied food and medical attention.Template:Citation needed All people on board the Deutschland survived the attack, though two accompanying vessels sank with great loss of life. Subsequently, on 3 May 1945, she was attacked by British Royal Air Force squadrons three times, and sank in the Bay of Lübeck off Neustadt, but everyone aboard survived. A fourth British air attack that day sank the Cap Arcona and Thielbek, with great loss of life.<ref>Roy Nesbit: Cap Arcona: atrocity or accident?, Aeroplane Monthly, June 1984.</ref><ref>Heinz Schön: Die Cap Arcona-Katastrophe. Eine Dokumentation nach Augenzeugen-Berichten. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1989, Template:ISBN."</ref>

In 1949, the wreck was raised and scrapped.

See also

• List of maritime disasters