The sinking of the “Laconia”
I’ve now managed to watch the two-part, three-hour television drama on the sinking of the “Laconia” which was broadcast in Britain on BBC2 on 6 and 7 January. The film is a British-German co-production written by Alan Bleasdale.
It tells the remarkable story of how, on 12 September 1942, the German submarine U-542 sank the British ship the “Laconia” but then endeavoured to rescue many of the survivors until an American B-24 Liberator bombed them.
The well done and ably acted dramatisation shows how messy war is both operationally and morally but presents the Germans in an uncharacteristically humane light.
You can find out more about this incident here.
January 23rd, 2011 at 5:12 am
The real significance of the Laconia incident is the way Doenitz ordered a rigid adherence for the future submarine war (which was very intense in 1942 and 1943) to no further picking up of survivors. It has been argued his order did not carry this meaning but that won’t wash.