{"product_id":"the-cruelest-night","title":"The Cruelest Night","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"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 \"Germanys Dunkirk \" Admiral Doenitzs 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44956048654389,"sku":"ByrdShop_0316189200","price":91.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780316189200.jpg?v=1770316185","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-cruelest-night","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}