- Laconia Order
The Laconia Order ("Laconia-Befehl") was issued by German
Grand Admiral ("Großadmiral")Karl Dönitz duringWorld War II as a result of theLaconia incident .Prior to this incident, vessels of the German Navy (
Kriegsmarine ), like most other navies, customarily picked up survivors. In 1942, off the coast ofwest Africa in theAtlantic Ocean , the German vessels attempting to rescue survivors of the ocean liner, which it had fired upon without warning, RMS Laconia were attacked by an American aircraft.The order
The order was as follows:
Nuremberg trial
This order, along with
War Order No. 154 of 1939, were introduced by the prosecution at the post-war Nuremberg Trial ofGrand Admiral Karl Dönitz . In the judgement, it was found that by issuing these two orders, Dönitz causedNazi Germany to be in breach of theSecond London Naval Treaty of 1936. However, as evidence of similar conduct by the Allies was presented at his trial, his sentence was not assessed on the grounds of this breach of international law. [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/juddoeni.htm Judgement : Doenitz] theAvalon Project at theYale Law School ]ee also
*
War Order No. 154
*Unrestricted submarine warfare References
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