[Hyack]

Sorry, but I can't see anywhere that indicates the crew were prepared to surrender in April or May. It shows the boat was still active in early May firing 5 torpedoes. They started their return trip before getting the signal to surrender on May 11, so as I see it they were still fighting until early May, therefore no "cheap" shot against the Esquimalt on 16 April.

[Jabberwalker]

I think that you are right, upon reviewing the material. They were lurking off of Chebucto head, waiting for prey like a spider. Anyway, if there is any symmetry or justice in the universe, the worst loss of life ever in Maritime history occurred on the same day that the Esquimalt was torpedoed.


The sinking of the Goya on April 16, 1945, just three weeks before the end of the war in Europe, is acknowledged as almost certainly the greatest maritime disaster, in terms of lives lost, of all time. [17]

Indeed, when the 5,230-ton transport ship set out from Hela near Danzig (Gdansk) with its human cargo of some 7,000 refugees and wounded soldiers, the Soviets were pressing into Berlin itself, and the Bay of Danzig, with the exception of the narrow Hela peninsula, had become virtually a Soviet lake. In spite of the merciless blows that were bringing Germany to its knees, what was left of its once mighty military continued to evacuate civilian refugees to the west. Under almost constant fire from Soviet artillery, ships, and planes, German authorities were still able to evacuate 264,887 people to relative safety during the month of April 1945. [18]

German ports in the western Baltic were by now so overcrowded with shipping and refugees that when the already badly mauled Goya weighed anchor on its final voyage, it set out with five other ships for the Danish capital of Copenhagen. As the convoy made its way along the treacherous Stolpe Bank, it was spotted by Captain Konovalov, commander of the minelayer submarine L-3. Considered to be the most successful submarine in the entire Soviet fleet, the L-3 was credited with sinking four ships in 1941, six in 1942, and three in 1943, including U-boat U-416, by mining. [19]

At precisely four minutes to midnight, the L-3 fired two torpedoes at the Goya, which found their marks amidship and stern. Almost immediately the ship broke in half, her masts crashing down upon the passengers crowding the decks. Before anyone could escape from the holds, the onrushing sea quickly drowned out the anguished screams of the refugees below. The vessel sank in just four minutes, resulting in the loss of almost 7,000 lives. There were only 183 survivors. [20]

"The special tragedy of the Goya," American historian Alfred de Zayas has commented, "was that it happened so close to the of the war, at a time when the German surrender was within grasp." These deaths failed to hasten the end of the war in any way. At a time when the Soviets had already begun the actual expulsion of Germans from the entire Baltic region, he asked rhetorically, "Why then send so many thousands of refugees to the bottom of the sea?" [21]

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v12/v12p371_Ries.html

[martin14]

'Mercy' is not a Slavic word.

Doesn't translate well into German, either.

[BartSimpson]

Thanos Thanos:

A waste of life at the end of the most miserable waste of life that ever occurred.

Quoted for accuracy.

[BartSimpson]

martin14 martin14:

'Mercy' is not a Slavic word.

Doesn't translate well into German, either.

It doesn't fare too well in Arabic or Farsi, either.