The Damned Don't Drown: The Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff (Bluejacket Books)

Once one of Nazi Germany's most vaunted cruise liners, the Wilhelm Gustloff packed her decks with some 6,500 refugees in January 1945 and made her way out of the Gulf of Danzig just before the Russian army swept in. Scores of SS officers, top-ranking Nazi officials, members of the German Women's Naval Service, and hundreds of wounded German soldiers, fragmented army units, and fleeing peasants were on board when the ship was hit by torpedoes twelve miles off shore. Panic broke out, and more than 6,000 passengers were lost - making it the greatest sea disaster ever recorded. The author of this book, Arthur V. Sellwood, a journalist known for his action-filled naval stories, draws on interviews with some of the survivors and official documents to assure the authenticity of his account.