Sailing alone in the Atlantic Ocean the armed RMS Laconia, a converted civilian ocean liner which had been requisitioned by the Royal Navy, was transporting Italian prisoners of war from Cape Town in South Africa to Freetown, Sierra Leonne. On board Laconia there were 1,793 Italian prisoners, a guard of 103 Polish soldiers, 286 British soldiers, 87 civilians and the Laconia crew consisting of 463 officers and men.German U-boat U-156 was patrolling off the west coast of Africa when her commander Werner Hartenstein spotted the lone vessel. Armed troopships and merchantmen were legitimate targets for attacks without warning, and as such U-156 attacked Laconia at around 10 pm on the 12^th September 1942.

At 10.22 pm Laconia transmitted the “SSS” message and gave her position. “SSS” was the code sign signifying “under attack by submarine”. Although there were sufficient lifeboats for the ships complement including the prisoners, Laconia was listing heavily preventing half the lifeboats from being launched until the ship had settled. Most prisoners managed to escape from their locked cargo holds by battering down the hatches or climbing ventilator shafts. By the time the last lifeboat had been launched most of the survivors were in the water. When Laconia began to sink U-156 surfaced in order to capture the ship’s surviving senior officers but to their surprise they saw over 2,000 people struggling in the water. Once the captain of U-156 realised the passengers were mostly POW’s and civilians, he sent a coded message to Admiral Karl Dönitz, head of U-boat operations, for further orders. Whilst waiting for a reply he flew a Red Cross flag and began rescue operations. U-156 rescued nearly 200 survivors including 5 women who were crammed above and below decks. He towed 4 lifeboats with another 200 on board. At 6 am on the 13^th September 1942 U-156 broadcasted a message in English, not in code, requesting assistance with the rescue mission. U-156 gave her position and an assurance he would not attack providing he was not attacked by ship or air.

Dönitz immediately ordered seven U-boats to divert to the scene to pick up survivors. Fuhrer Adolf Hitler was furious and ordered the rescue to be abandoned and Admiral Erich Raeder ordered Dönitz to disengage. However, Raeder did order U-boats U-506, U-507 and Italian submarine Comandante Cappelli to rendezvous with U-156 and rescue any Italians they could find. Raeder requested the Vichy French to send warships from the Ivory Coast to rescue Italian survivors, and the French who in turn sent one cruiser and two sloops. As ordered Dönitz disengaged the original U-boats and issued another order to U-156 to remain on station. U-156 remained on the surface for the next two and half days and by mid-day on the 15^th September 1942 she was joined by U-506, U-507 and Comandante Cappellini. The four submarines with lifeboats being towed headed for the African coast and a rendezvous with the Vichy French warships.

The British in Freetown, Sierra Leone intercepted the open message from U-156 but refused to take any action believing it to be a ruse by the Germans. On the 15^th September 1942 a message was passed on to the Americans which implied Laconia had been sunk that day and a British merchant vessel was the way to pick up survivors. However, there was not a mention of the German rescue involvement under a ceasefire or that Vichy French ships were heading toward the rescue area.

During the night of the 16^th September 1942 U-156 became separated from the other three Axis submarines and was spotted by an American B-24 Liberator bomber.

The U-boat had a Red Cross flag draped across her gun-deck and signalled the pilot for assistance in both Morse code and English. A British RAF officer on board U-156 also signalled that Laconia survivors were on board. The B-24 pilot turned away without responding, but notified his airbase on Ascension Island of the situation. The American airbase had been set-up in secret as it provided vital fuel supplies to aircraft patrolling the Atlantic, also to resupply the air route to British forces in Egypt and Soviet forces in Russia.  Later claiming he knew nothing about the Red Cross-sanctioned German rescue operation the senior officer of the day ordered the B-24 to “sink the sub”. He had assumed the German U-boat would attack the two Allied freighters diverted by the British to the site, and would only rescue Italian POWs. The Liberator flew back to where U-156 was spotted and attacked her with bombs and depth charges. Dozens of survivors were killed when a bomb landed among the lifeboats being towed by U-156. A number of bombs landed either side of U-156 but caused very little damage. However the captain of U-156 cast adrift the remaining lifeboats still floating. Laconia’s survivors who were travelling on the gun-deck were ordered into the water and the U-boat submerged slowly in order they may escape being sucked down. Two of the lifeboats being towed by U-156 decided to head for Africa ignoring the captain’s request to stay in the area and be rescued by Vichy French ships. One of the lifeboats reached the coast of Africa 27 days later with only 16 survivors out of 68 who began the journey. A British trawler rescued the second lifeboat but only 4 of the 52 occupants survived after 40 days at sea.

U-506, U-507 and Cappellini continued to pick up survivors having been totally unaware U-156 had been attacked. The captain of Cappellini received a message to put the shipwrecked into rafts, with the exception of women, children, Italian POWs and British survivors and meet the French ships. German headquarters confirmed the attack on U-156 and requested the number of survivors held on each of the U-boats. U-507 replied they had 491, of whom 15 were women and 16 were children. U-506 reply was 151 including 9 women and children. The two U-boats chose to ignore the order from headquarters to cast adrift all British and Polish survivors, mark their positions and instruct them to remain where they were. Instead they began to tow them to the rescue rendezvous.

The American airbase on Ascension Island despatched five B-25s to search for the submarines. On the 17^th September 1942 one B-25 located Laconia’s rafts and informed British merchant ship Empire Haven of their position. The original B-24 sighted U-506 and attacked. U-506 crash-dived but the B-24s bombs failed to drop. However, on the second run two 500 lb (237 kg) bombs and two 350 lb (159 kg) depth charges were dropped but not cause any damage. The commander of the Ascension Island airbase received an ambiguous message from the British in Freetown that three French ships were en route from Dakar. He assumed the French intended to invade the Ascensions and in order to prepare for an invasion he cancelled the submarine hunting.

The French cruiser Gloire picked up 52 British survivors whilst still 54 miles (100 km) from the rendezvous point. At approximately 2 pm on the 17^th September 1942 she met up with the French sloop Annamite as well as U-507 and U-506 at the point of rendezvous. All survivors on the U-boats were transferred to the rescue ships with the exception of two British officers who were kept on board U-507. After the transfer Gloire sailed off on her own and within four hours had rescued another eleven lifeboats and by 10 pm she found another lifeboat then proceeded to the planned rendezvous. At about 1 am a light was spotted on the horizon and Gloire investigated and rescued another 84 survivors.

However, this meant Gloire had to arrange a new rendezvous of 9.30 am whereby Annamite transferred her survivors to Gloire. The survivors were recorded as 373 Italians, 70 Poles and 597 British which included 48 women and children. Gloire departed for Dakar to resupply on the 21^st September 1942 then on to Casablanca. Arriving at Casablanca on the 25^th September 1942 British Colonel Baldwin presented the captain of Cappellini with a letter of gratitude for the welfare to the survivors of Laconia.

The Italian submarine Cappellin radioed for instructions and waited for a reply as they were unable to locate the French warships. The French sloop Dumont d’Urville was sent to rendezvous with Cappellini, she stopped and rescued a lifeboat from torpedoed British cargo ship Trevilley en route which had been sunk on the 12^th September 1942. They did not have any luck searching for other Trevilley survivors and proceeded to rendezvous with Cappellini on the 20^th September 1942. The remaining survivors with the exception of six Italian and two British officers were transferred from Cappellini to Dumont d’Urville. In the meantime, the Italian POWs had been transferred to Annamite and arrived at Dakar on the 24^th September 1942. Of the original 2,732 complement on board Laconia only 1,113 survived. Of the 1,619 who died, 1,420 were Italian POWs.

The Laconia Incident had far-reaching consequences because Dönitz issued an order prohibiting U-boat crews from attempting rescues and all survivors were to be left in the sea. Occasionally U-boat crews ignored the order and did provide aid for survivors by giving them food, water, simple medical kits for the wounded, and a compass bearing to the nearest landmass.

The Laconia Incident was a series of events and a lack of communications following the legitimate attack by U-156. The only person to come out of the incident with any credit was the commander of U-156, Korvettkapitän Werner Hartenstein. For his actions during the rescue mission he received a radio message, on the 17^th September 1942, to say he had been awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross.

Unfortunately he did not survive the war as he and his crew were killed in action, east of Barbados, on the 8^th March 1943 by depth charges dropped from an American PBY Catalina aircraft.  

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