The LACONIA Affair also ‘U-Boats to the Rescue’
by Leonce Peillard

Hardbound edition published by Putnam’s, New York in 1963, containing 270 pages, 24 photographs. Published in Great Britain under the title ‘U-boats to the Rescue’. No details known.

A translation of ‘l’Affaire du LACONIA’ which was published in French in 1961. The sinking of the LACONIA by U-156 with 1,800 Italian P.O.W.’s aboard and the subsequent rescue of survivors by U-boats, Italian submarines and Vichy French warships is told in detail, mainly from the German viewpoint. The author conducted interviews with many participants, including Admiral Dönitz. One of the charges made against Grossadmiral Dönitz at Nürnberg was the ‘Laconia Order’ about rescuing survivors, and that resulted from this incident. One appendix is the transcription of the portion of the trial that involved LACONIA. Good background history on U-156 and Hartenstein, is given.

EDITOR NOTE - the prosecutor at Nürnberg tried to show that Dönitz ordered the U-boats to kill survivors of sinking ships. This would have been considered murder, but that was not his order at all. There never was any order from Dönitz to kill survivors and in fact, when Hitler once told him to make this a policy, Dönitz flatly refused, saying that it would be dishonorable. However, because of the American B-24 LIBERATOR that tried to bomb U-156 during this rescue and the improved Allied ASW, Dönitz ordered that no U-boat could surface and give assistance to survivors - the safety of the U-boat and crew depended upon it.