Laconia Incident - Summary of Incident

Summary of Incident

In late 1942, a German U-boat sank the British troopship Laconia carrying 463 officers and crew, 80 civilians, 286 British Army soldiers, 1,793 Italian prisoners of war, and 103 Polish soldiers (guards) off the coast of West Africa. After realising that the passengers were primarily POWs and civilians, the U-boat started rescue operations while flying the Red Cross flag. A U.S. Army Air Corps bomber flying out of a secret South Atlantic airbase on Ascension Island attacked the U-boat. The U-boat abandoned the rescue effort and left the survivors to drift to Africa. Over half the survivors died. This incident led to German Admiral Dönitz issuing the Triton Null signal on 17 September 1942, which came to be known as the "Laconia Order"; the signal forbade submarine commanders from rescuing survivors from torpedoed ships.

Outside of Italy little was known of the details of the Laconia incident even to the present day. Although most of the crew were from Liverpool, most people had not heard the story as it was something not talked about. Due to the treatment of the Italian POWs, the American bombing and the resulting unrestricted warfare, the allies were reluctant to acknowledge that mistakes were made. For his part, Admiral Dönitz' actions in supporting the rescue were opposed by Hitler, who ordered that the sinking of the Laconia be kept secret, and most senior officers. Surprisingly, most present day opposition to telling the story came from the German production teams who worked on the 2010 Television drama who objected to Nazis being shown in a positive light.