You will rescue no one and take no one with you. Have no care for the ships boats, weather condition

Discussion in 'The War at Sea' started by CL1, Jul 21, 2019.

  1. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    You will rescue no one and take no one with you. Have no care for the ships boats, weather conditions and the proximity of land are of no account. Care only for your own boat and strive to achieve the next success as soon as possible. We must be hard in this war. The enemy started the war in order to destroy us, therefore nothing else matters.
    Admiral Karl Dönitz

    Document-20: The sinking of the "Olivegrove"
     
    Hugh MacLean likes this.
  2. Hugh MacLean

    Hugh MacLean Senior Member

    War Order 154 was issued by Doenitz in early December 1939. In practice, however, German submarine crews continued to abide by the "custom of the sea‟ and to help shipwrecked fellow mariners where and when the occasion arose. Only one U-boat commander, Heinz-Wilhelm Eck, U-852, was convicted of war crimes for the sinking of the Greek merchantman PELEUS in 1944.
    Incidentally my father served aboard OLIVEGROVE in 1939 and paid off 6 months prior to her sinking but was later torpedoed and sunk on another ship in 1942 in the South Atlantic. The U-boat commander who sunk the ship gave them a course for the nearest land and wished them well.
    Regards
    Hugh
     
    dbf and CL1 like this.
  3. Roy Martin

    Roy Martin Senior Member

    sadly the Laconia incident ended all the 'custom of the sea'
     

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