General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
RE: Why Doenitz Lied?
Posted by:
Craig McLean
()
Date: January 06, 2001 03:47PM
<HTML>An interesting bit of history and an interesting question!
Falsifying records at the time, and denying the incident occured by means of a U-boat, was likely just to defuse the situation and help maintain whatever good relations existed between Germany and Portugal.
Lieing about it after the war was over is another question, as it had been an error afterall. Doenitz himself hadn\'t sunk the ship, nor ordered it, so it seems to me he wouldn\'t be trying to cover up for himself---he had much bigger problems regarding his own defense at Nuremberg I would think.
Maybe this was merely a \"clumsy\" attempt on his part to keep Hardegen himself out of any potential trouble?? Lemp was already gone (re: Athenia) so no need to cover that up any longer, but Hardegen could have conceivably been charged with some sort of war crimes, at least as well as anyone might have guessed back in those days. (Recall that the 7 U-boat POWs had finally been hanged at Ft. Leavenworth in August 1945--for a different type situation altgether--but I\'m sure that execution hadn\'t exactly gone unnoticed in Germany.)
One might also wonder why records hadn\'t been falsified in the case of American ships that came under U-boat fire before the US was in the war (Grier, Kearney, Reuben James)??? (One point here might be the US ships were placed in harm\'s way by the US gov\'t itself, having had them escorting convoys and hounding U-boats---all warlike activities themselves, at a time the US was officially neutral...)
Oh well, food for thought!
Regards,
Craig</HTML>
Falsifying records at the time, and denying the incident occured by means of a U-boat, was likely just to defuse the situation and help maintain whatever good relations existed between Germany and Portugal.
Lieing about it after the war was over is another question, as it had been an error afterall. Doenitz himself hadn\'t sunk the ship, nor ordered it, so it seems to me he wouldn\'t be trying to cover up for himself---he had much bigger problems regarding his own defense at Nuremberg I would think.
Maybe this was merely a \"clumsy\" attempt on his part to keep Hardegen himself out of any potential trouble?? Lemp was already gone (re: Athenia) so no need to cover that up any longer, but Hardegen could have conceivably been charged with some sort of war crimes, at least as well as anyone might have guessed back in those days. (Recall that the 7 U-boat POWs had finally been hanged at Ft. Leavenworth in August 1945--for a different type situation altgether--but I\'m sure that execution hadn\'t exactly gone unnoticed in Germany.)
One might also wonder why records hadn\'t been falsified in the case of American ships that came under U-boat fire before the US was in the war (Grier, Kearney, Reuben James)??? (One point here might be the US ships were placed in harm\'s way by the US gov\'t itself, having had them escorting convoys and hounding U-boats---all warlike activities themselves, at a time the US was officially neutral...)
Oh well, food for thought!
Regards,
Craig</HTML>
Subject | Written By | Posted |
---|---|---|
Why Doenitz Lied? | Ying | 01/06/2001 08:46AM |
RE: Why Doenitz Lied? | Craig McLean | 01/06/2001 03:47PM |
RE: Why Doenitz Lied? | Fin Bonset | 01/07/2001 01:38PM |
RE: Did He Lie ? | MPC | 01/07/2001 10:16PM |
Allies and peace treaties. | SuperKraut | 01/08/2001 12:39PM |
RE: Allies and peace treaties - portugal | kurt | 01/08/2001 05:36PM |
RE: Allies and peace treaties. | Ying | 01/09/2001 10:55AM |
RE: Did He Lie ? | Ying | 01/08/2001 03:38AM |
RE: Ying ! | MPC | 01/10/2001 08:32PM |
RE: Why Doenitz Lied? | kpp | 01/10/2001 11:35PM |