Aubrey Soper, has further and better (he says) information, Monday, November 8, 2004, on the tragic loss of the German liner Cap Arcona The German lin…
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Aubrey
Soper, has further and better (he says) information,
, on the tragic loss of the
German liner Cap Arcona
The
German liner Cap Arcona in her heyday.
Fact and fiction on the May 3, 1945 sinking of “Cap
Arcona”
IT appears that there is much better information about the Cap Arcona than what you had put into page 64 of Nuremberg, the Last Battle. In one to those odd perversities of history, the Germans would likely have looked much worse than the British if the latter had not bombed the Cap Arcona.
This is from the squadron’s
Operations Record Book:
"[Time up, 1515; time down,
1635] DD771. Shipping strikes in Lubeck Bay.
All the bombs were dropped on a motor vessel of
15-20,000 tons at 0.0208. The ship was already
burning as a result of attacks by 263 Squadron
and we scored two direct hits. Now left burning
in five places and later seen capsized and
burning, CAT.I."
[Source: Operations Record Book, AIR
27/1109, 5822, p. 1, Public Record Office,
London]
And from elsewhere:
“Antagonism between the crew and the 500 SS guards on board is recorded, as is Kapitain
Bertram’s petition to have his ship painted with red crosses, or at least illuminated, so that it might be recognised as a hospital ship. These requests were denied.
“On 3 May Group Captain Johnny Baldwin was in the cockpit of his Hawker Typhoon, leading 198
Squadron over a Neustadt Bay teeming with military targets – among them the Cap Arcona. At 205m long, the liner was easy to spot. The five aircraft dived and fired their rockets before embarking on strafing runs with their 20mm cannons. It was the squadron’s last action, and the pilots could never have guessed at the carnage they were wreaking.” [source not given]
