Editing SS General von Steuben (section)

===Final voyage===
On 9 February 1945, the 14,660-ton ''Steuben'' sailed from Pillau, near Königsberg on the Baltic coast, for Swinemünde (now [[Świnoujście]], Poland). Official reports listed 2,800 wounded German soldiers; 800 civilians; 100 returning soldiers; 270 navy medical personnel (including doctors, nurses and auxiliaries); 12 nurses from Pillau; 64 crew for the ship's anti-aircraft guns, 61 naval personnel, radio operators, signal men, machine operators and administrators, plus 160 merchant navy crewmen, for a total of 4,267 people on board.<ref>Koburger, Charles W., ''Steel Ships, Iron Crosses, and Refugees'', Praeger Publishers, NY, 1989, p.7. Koburger also notes that other equally reliable sources put the total embarked at 3,300.</ref> Due to the rapid evacuation ahead of the Red Army's advance, many Eastern German and Baltic refugees boarded the ''Steuben'' without being registered, increasing the number of those on board to approximately 5,200.

Just before midnight on 9 February, the [[Soviet submarine S-13|Soviet submarine ''S-13'']], commanded by [[Alexander Marinesko]], fired two [[torpedo]]es 14 seconds apart at the ''Steuben''; both hit her [[Port and starboard|starboard]] [[Bow (watercraft)|bow]], just below the [[Bridge (nautical)|bridge]], where many of the crew were sleeping. Most were killed by the impact of the torpedoes. According to survivors, the ''Steuben'' sank by the bow and listed severely to starboard before taking her final plunge, within about 20 minutes of the torpedo impacts. An estimated 4,500 people died in the sinking. German [[S138-class torpedo boat|torpedo boat]] [[SMS G196|''T-196'']] hastily pulled up beside ''Steuben'' as she sank; its crew pulled about 300 survivors straight from ''Steuben'''s slanting decks and brought them to Kolberg in [[Pomerania]] (today [[Kołobrzeg]], Poland). A total of 650 people were rescued from the ''Steuben''.