General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Awa maru not a hospital ship
Posted by:
kurt
()
Date: March 14, 2001 06:12PM
<HTML>The Awa maru was not a hospital ship. No hospital ship was sunk by US sub forces in WWII under any circumstances.
The Awa maru (sunk by the Queenfish) was ferrying POW supplies under international agreement with the US. The US agreed to give it safe passage because of its humanitarian mission. Per agreement, the ship was painted and lit, and stayed on a pre-arranged course. The Queenfish, off course due to navigational errors, and with several snafus in radio traffic that made the commander less aware of the Awa Maru then he should have been, fired blind on a target he acquired on radar that he thought was in a free fire zone. This was the Awa Maru, returning from its mission, but still under int\'l protection. Evidence was obatined at the scene that the Awa maru was carrying large amounts of war material (mostly raw rubber). The commander of the queenfish tried to use this as an explanation atr his court martial, but this was ruled by the US Navy as irrelevant because the safe passage agreement for the Awa maru did not fobid the carrying of war supplies in addition to its humanitarian cargo.
There was considerable concern that the Japanese would retaliate for the sinking buy killing US pows, but nothing ever came of it: the incident blew over.
We also knew from escaped POWs that Japan\'s large (~26 ships) hospital fleet was carrying large amounts of munitions, a violation of their neutral status that rendered them legitimate targets. But the US naval high command never pressed the issue, and refused ideas from sub commanders to sink, or perhaps board and search the hospital ships, because of fears of retalitation against US POWs. </HTML>
The Awa maru (sunk by the Queenfish) was ferrying POW supplies under international agreement with the US. The US agreed to give it safe passage because of its humanitarian mission. Per agreement, the ship was painted and lit, and stayed on a pre-arranged course. The Queenfish, off course due to navigational errors, and with several snafus in radio traffic that made the commander less aware of the Awa Maru then he should have been, fired blind on a target he acquired on radar that he thought was in a free fire zone. This was the Awa Maru, returning from its mission, but still under int\'l protection. Evidence was obatined at the scene that the Awa maru was carrying large amounts of war material (mostly raw rubber). The commander of the queenfish tried to use this as an explanation atr his court martial, but this was ruled by the US Navy as irrelevant because the safe passage agreement for the Awa maru did not fobid the carrying of war supplies in addition to its humanitarian cargo.
There was considerable concern that the Japanese would retaliate for the sinking buy killing US pows, but nothing ever came of it: the incident blew over.
We also knew from escaped POWs that Japan\'s large (~26 ships) hospital fleet was carrying large amounts of munitions, a violation of their neutral status that rendered them legitimate targets. But the US naval high command never pressed the issue, and refused ideas from sub commanders to sink, or perhaps board and search the hospital ships, because of fears of retalitation against US POWs. </HTML>
