Hi Bishie,

The rules regarding the treatment of survivors when the war started were based on the Prize Ordinance which distinguished between the survivors of merchant ships and survivors of warships. Warships could be sunk without warning and their survivors were to be abandoned & left to their fate or taken prisoner. That was the same in every navy in the world and didn’t change over the course of the war. Survivors of merchant ships however, were to be treated differently.

Merchant ships could not be sunk without warning. They had to be stopped first and a determination made about the nature of their cargo. This usually consisted of firing a shot across their bow & requiring the ship’s captain to come over to the U-boat in a lifeboat along with the ship’s papers including her cargo manifest. If the cargo did not consist of “war supplies” or “contraband” (the definition of which was complicated but was based on what the Brits considered contraband) then the ship could not be sunk. If the cargo was found to be “contraband” the ship could be sunk or taken as a “Prize” (a prize crew was put aboard & the ship diverted to a German controlled port). If the ship was to be sunk, the safety of its crew had to be assured. If the weather was very bad, a lifeboat was not considered a safe place for the crew and either they had to be taken aboard another ship (and there was not room nor supplies for them on a U-boat) or the ship could not be sunk.

Germany strictly adhered to these rules until it became impossible for them to do so. At the outbreak of the war, the Brits armed their merchant ships & issued orders that they were to resist the enemy and radio their position and the nature of the danger when they encountered a U-boat or other German warship. Eventually the traditional SOS signal was changed to SSS if the danger was a submarine and later in the war it was changed to SSSS. There were other signals used for other types of danger like surface warships and aircraft as well. At that point the Prize Ordinance was dropped completely by Germany though the sinking of neutral merchant ships and hospital ships etc. was still forbidden. Survivors were to be abandoned & left to their fate. Eventually zones were declared where any merchant ship could be sunk without warning.

Normally, if it was safe for the U-boat to do so, U-boats would call a lifeboat alongside and ask the name of the ship, her cargo, where she sailed from, and her destination. After that they usually asked if anyone needed medical attention and they offered a course & distance to the nearest land. Sometimes, if they had them to spare they offered food & water, cigarettes, or brandy etc. They also sometimes fished survivors out of the water & called a lifeboat alongside to take them aboard.

At no point in the war were orders issued by Germany to shoot survivors in the water or in lifeboats. However after the Laconia incident (12 September 1942) Hitler told Doenitz to issue those orders. Doenitz refused and Hitler relented. Senior officers (Captain, Chief Engineer, etc.) were to continue to be taken aboard the U-boat and returned to a special POW camp for allied merchant seamen (Milag) to keep them from just going right back to sea if they were rescued which is what they normally did. Senior officers were difficult for the allies to replace as their training took years.

Additionally, after the Laconia incident, orders were issued to NOT help survivors or fish survivors out of the water to put them in lifeboats. They were to be abandoned & left to their fate. Again, no orders were issued to harm survivors in the water or in lifeboats. To their credit, some U-boats simply ignored the “Laconia Order” and continued to assist survivors when it was safe to do so.

The Brits adhered to the Prize Ordinance at the beginning of the war too but not in every sector. They eventually quit following it too. America simply ignored the Prize Ordinance. From the first day of the war American subs were ordered to sink any enemy vessel (except hospital ships etc.) without warning & to abandon survivors & leave them to their fate or take them prisoner.

Also see the article entitled Treatment of Merchant Ship Survivors by U-boat Crews 1939 – 1945 at: [uboat.net].

Regards,

Ken Dunn