Attack
As the convoy passed the Hel peninsula at the exit of the Danzig Bay, it was sighted by the Soviet minelayer submarine L-3 which also carried torpedoes. Even though the Goya was faster than submarines, the convoy was slowed by the engine problems of the Kronenfels, which also required a 20-minute stop for repairs. At around 23:52, the commander of L-3, Captain Vladimir Konovalov, gave the order to fire.
Within seven minutes of being torpedoed, the Goya, a freighter without the safety precautions of a passenger ship, sank to a depth of approximately 76m, with the loss of possibly more than 6,000 people killed, either within the ship, or outside by drowning and hypothermia in the icy waters. The exact number can probably never be determined. The captain of another ship mentioned a figure of 7-8,000 passengers and crew in his report. In total, only 183 people were saved from the water by M 256 and M 328. It may be the second-worst maritime disaster by number of casualties during World War II, following the Wilhelm Gustloff.
Read more about this topic: MV Goya
Famous quotes containing the word attack:
“Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns.”
—Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855)
“Remote and ineffectual Don
That dared attack my Chesterton.”
—Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953)
“And whether it is Thursday, or the day is stormy,
With thunder and rain, or the birds attack each other,
We have rolled into another dream.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)