PROFESSOR HENRY KEATTS (59-1990) and MAJOR JAMES ROSE (78-C-1984) ask a series of questions, and here is the current one:

"The Germans never intentionally machine gunned survivors in the water, but wasn't one Allied crew shot up by accident while hiding behind some wreckage? The German Captain was executed?"

HANK & JIM, you are correct - the U-Boot crews never shot up any Allied survivors, even though the old propaganda said that this was a common sport. Publications like the AMERICAN LEGION Magazine and Rodale's SCUBA DIVER are only two that attempt to keep this propaganda alive.

The boat you mention was U-852 under Kapitanleutnant Heinz Eck, and he was en route to his patrol area in the Indian Ocean, transiting down the African coast to round Cape Horn and go into his operational area. He was under orders NOT to engage any targets before reaching this area so as not to tip off the Allies that another U-Boat was going into that area. As U-852 was going southward in the Southern Atlantic, the Greek steamer SS PELEUS just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Eck - despite his orders to the contrary - fired torpedoes at the ship.

The 'EELS' hit their mark, and SS PELEUS sank in less than thirty seconds! When the water closed over the scene, Eck was alarmed at the amount of floating debris from the ship - debris that, in the Southern Atlantic, would reveal the presence of a German U-Boat to the patrol planes in the morning. The ship sank so quickly that Eck felt there was no chance that anyone escaped, so he ordered his guns to sink the floating crates and, he hoped, prevent an all-out search for U-852. This took place on the night of 13/14 March, 1944.

There were survivors, however, and they had heard the stories that the U-Boats would kill them for sport, so they hid behind the floating crates. As the machine guns from U-852 shot up the floating crates, bullets came through, killing some of these survivors. Once satisfied that the flotsam had been sunk, Eck went onward toward the Cape and the Indian Ocean. This was to be the last cruise of U-852, as RAF aircraft from the 8 and 621 Squadrons caught the TYPE IX-C boat S.E. of Socotra on 3 May, 1944 and attacked. The stricken U-Boat was beached on the Somalia coast (perhaps she is still there today???) and 22 of the crew, including Kapitanleutnant Eck, survived & were captured by the British.

By this time, it was obvious that the Allies would be victorious, so Eck was kept as a Prisoner of War until War's end. The Brits fully intended to try AND EXECUTE Eck for this sinking, but did not want to wish that any British P.O.W.'s in German hands would be executed in retaliation, so they waited until the end of the War.

Once the War was ended and the Allies fully in control, the trial of Kapitanleutnant Heinz Eck went forward with great speed. Eck was told that if he swore that he was only following orders from GrossAdmiral Karl Donitz to machine gun survivors in the water, that he would be off the hook. There was never such an order given by Donitz, and Eck realized that the British were giving him a chance to save his own neck by putting Donitz' neck in the noose, so to speak. He again said that this was an accident and that GrossAdmiral Karl Donitz had never given any order to shoot men in the water. Since he refused to save himself at the expense of the life of GrossAdmiral Donitz, Eck's fate was sealed. He was sentenced to death, a sentence which was quickly carried out by a British firing squad late in 1945, long before the questionable Nurnberg Trials ever convened.

I spent an entire day talking with Eck's sister, THALITA ECK (663-1988) in 1988 and we talked about this case. She very kindly gave her entire file from the court martial to SHARKHUNTERS, which was translated at that time by SIG KLAUSSNER (211-1994). We will read it all when we do the history of U-852.