Laconia incident

The "Laconia" incident happened in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. On 12 September 1942, RMS "Laconia", carrying some 80 civilians, 268 British Army soldiers, about 1,800 Italian prisoners of war, and 160 Polish soldiers (on guard), was struck and sunk by a torpedo from "Kriegsmarine" submarine "U-156" off the coast of west Africa.

The U-boat commander, "Kapitänleutnant" Werner Hartenstein and his crew heard Italian voices coming from those struggling in the water and realized their error. The Germans immediately commenced rescue operations and were joined by the crews of other U-boats in the area.

Heading to rendezvous with Vichy French ships under Red Cross banners, the U-boats were deliberately attacked by a U.S. Army B-24 Liberator bomber.

This event profoundly affected the operations of the German fleet, which abandoned the practice of attempting rescue of civilian survivors under the "Laconia Order" of Admiral Karl Dönitz.

Events

German attack

At 10 p.m. on September 12, 1942, "U-156" was patrolling off the coast of West Africa midway between Liberia and Ascension Island. The submarine's commanding officer, "Kapitänleutnant" Hartenstein, spotted a large British ocean liner sailing alone and attacked it.

At 10:22 p.m. the liner, sailing under the name "Laconia", transmitted the following message on the 600-meter band

:SSS SSS 0434 South / 1125 West Laconia torpedoed

signifying "under attack by submarine".

As "Laconia" began to sink, Hartenstein surfaced. He hoped to capture the ship's senior officers. To his surprise, Hartenstein saw over two thousand people struggling in the water.

Survivor Jim McLoughlin states in "One Common Enemy" Hartenstein asked him if he was in the Royal Navy, which he was, and then asked why a passenger ship was armed, stating, "If it wasn't armed, I would not have attacked." McLoughlin believes this indicates Hartenstein had thought it was a troop transport rather than a passenger ship; in fact, by signalling to the Royal Navy, "Laconia" was acting as a "de facto" naval auxiliary. Moreover, merchantmen armed with guns (which most were) fell outside the protection from attack without warning and the requirement to place survivors "in a place of safety" (for which lifeboats did not qualify); therefore, it made no difference if she was a troop shipFact|date=June 2008.

Rescue operations

Hartenstein immediately began rescue operations. "Laconia" sank at 11:23 p.m. At 1:25 a.m. September 13 Hartenstein sent a coded radio message to "Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote" (Commander-in-Chief for Submarines) alerting them to the situation. It read:

Head of submarine operations, Admiral Dönitz, immediately ordered two other U-boats to divert to the scene. Soon "U-156" was crammed above and below decks with nearly two hundred survivors, including five women, and had another 200 in tow aboard four lifeboats. At 6am on September 13, Hartenstein broadcast a message on the 25-meter band in English (and plain language) to all shipping in the area giving his position, requesting assistance with the rescue effort and promising not to attack. It read:

"U-156" remained on the surface at the scene for the next two and a half days. At 11:30am on September 15, she was joined by "U-506" commanded by "Kptlt". Erich Würdemann and a few hours later by both "U-507" under "Korvettenkapitän" Harro Schacht and the Italian submarine "Cappellini". The four boats, with lifeboats in tow and hundreds of survivors standing on their decks, headed for the African coastline and a rendezvous with Vichy French surface warships which had set out from Senegal and Dahomey.cite web
url=http://www.history.navy.mil/avh-vol2/Chap6.pdf
title=Amphibian Patrol Squadrons (VP-AM) Histories: VP-AM-1 to VP-AM-5
publisher=United States Navy
month=December | year=2003
accessdate=2006-09-05|format=PDF According to the official after-action report by the U.S. Navy, all four submarines were present. Survivor accounts in "One Common Enemy" and "The U-Boat Peril" say the Italians arrived later.]

American bombing

The next morning, September 16, at 11:25 a.m., the four submarines, with Red Cross flags draped across their gun decks, were spotted by an American B-24 Liberator bomber from Ascension Island. Hartenstein signalled to the pilot requesting assistance. Lieutenant James D. Harden of the U.S. Army Air Force turned away and notified his base of the situation. The senior officer on duty that day, Captain Robert C. Richardson III, replied with the order "Sink sub."

Harden flew back to the scene of the rescue effort and at 12:32 p.m. attacked with bombs and depth charges. One landed among the lifeboats in tow behind "U-156" while others straddled the submarine itself. Hartenstein cast adrift those lifeboats still afloat and ordered the survivors on his deck into the water. The submarines dived and escaped. Hundreds of "Laconia" survivors perished, but French vessels managed to re-rescue about a thousand later that day. In all, some 1,500 passengers survived.

Under the Hague Conventions, hospital ships are protected from attack, but their identity must be communicated to belligerents (III, 1-3), they must be painted white with a Red Cross emblem (III, 5), and must not be used for other purposes (III, 4). Since a submarine remained a military vessel even if "hors de combat", the Red Cross emblem did not confer automatic protection, although in many cases it would have been allowed as a practical matter. The order given by Richardson has been called a possible war crime, but the use of a Red Cross flag by an armed military vessel would be a violation under the Geneva Convention of 1949 (II, 44). There is no provision in either convention for temporary designation of a hospital or rescue ship. Under the informal rules of war at sea, however, ships engaged in rescue operations are held immune from attack.

Consequences

The "Laconia" incident had far-reaching consequences. Until then, as indicated in point #1 of the "Laconia Order," it was common for U-boats to assist torpedoed survivors with food, water and directions to the nearest land. Now that it was apparent the Americans would attack rescue missions under the Red Cross flag, Dönitz prohibited rescues; survivors were to be left in the sea.

At the Nuremberg Trials held by the victorious Allies in 1946, Dönitz was indicted for war crimes, including the issuance of the "Laconia" order":

quotation|The prosecution has introduced much evidence surrounding two orders of Dönitz, War Order No. 154, issued in 1939, and the so-called "Laconia" Order of 1942. The defense argues that these orders and the evidence supporting them do not show such a policy and introduced much evidence to the contrary. The Tribunal is of the opinion that the evidence does not establish with the certainty required that Dönitz deliberately ordered the killing of shipwrecked survivors. The orders were undoubtedly ambiguous and deserve the strongest censure.
The evidence further shows that the rescue provisions were not carried out and that the defendant ordered that they should not be carried out. The argument of the defence is that the security of the submarine is, as the first rule of the sea, paramount to rescue and that the development of aircraft made rescue impossible. This may be so, but the Protocol is explicit. If the commander cannot rescue, then under its terms he cannot sink a merchant vessel and should allow it to pass harmless before his periscope. The orders, then, prove Dönitz is guilty of a violation of the Protocol. (Emphasis added)
In view of all the facts proved and in particular of an order of the British Admiralty announced on the 8th May, 1940, according to which all vessels should be sunk at sight in the Skagerrak, and the answers to interrogatories by Admiral Chester Nimitz stating unrestricted submarine warfare was carried on in the Pacific Ocean by the United States from the first day of the Pacific War, the sentence of Dönitz is not assessed on the ground of his breaches of the international law of submarine warfare. [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/juddoeni.htm Judgement : Doenitz] the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School]

ee also

* Laconia Order
* Italian submarine Cappellini
* Unrestricted submarine warfare
* Allied war crimes

Footnotes

References

* cite book | title = Kriegsmarine U-boats 1939-45 | first = Chris | last = Bishop | location = London | publisher = Amber Books | year = 2006 | isbn = 9781904687962 | oclc = 123895804
*
* cite book | title = One Common Enemy: The Laconia Incident: A Survivor's Memoir | first = Jim | last = McLoughlin | location = Australia | publisher = Wakefield Press Pty | year = 2006 | isbn = 9781862546905 and also ISBN 094806577X

Further reading

*

External links

* [http://www.uboataces.com/battle-laconia.shtml The Laconia Incident on Uboataces.com]
* [http://www.uboat.net/articles/index.html?article=33 The Laconia Incident on Uboat.net]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/capturewales/transcripts/helen-charles.shtml An account from Helen Charles, a survivor of RMS Laconia]