The Sinking of the Cap Arcona: 3rd May 1945

80 years ago, on the 3rd May 1945, Hawker Typhoons of the RAF's 2nd Tactical Air Force attacked German shipping in Lubeck Bay, north of Hamburg. They succeeded in sinking three large ships and damaging another. Tragically, these ships were crammed with Concentration Camp prisoners that had been evacuated from the Neuengamme concentration camp; over 7000 were killed in the last days of the Second World War.

Join us as we look into what happened on that terrible day 80 years ago.

Sources:

- A Disaster in Lübeck Bay: An Analysis of the Tragic Sinking of the Cap Arcona, 3 May 1945 - Dr Daniel Long PHd

- 2nd Tactical Air Force, Vols. 3 and 4 - by Chris Shores and Chris Thomas

- Sea of Death: The Baltic 1945 by Claes-Goran Wetterholm

- Survivor by Sam Pivnik

- The Last Survivor by Frank Krake about Wim Aloserij

Please do follow the @neuengamme.memorial and @husumschwesing channels.

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The Damcasters © 2025 by Matt Bone is licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

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0:00 The Tragic Attack on Lübeck Bay

1:31 Intelligence Failures in the Final Days

3:32 The Ordeal of Concentration Camp Prisoners

5:26 Mistaken Targets and The Fog of War

7:17 The Deadly Assault on Cap Arcona

10:47 Survivors' Harrowing Experiences

14:09 The Aftermath and Burial of Victims

14:57 Reassessing Historical Narratives

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