Many liners were armed and used for troop transport as well as carrying other vital war materials.
The laconia incident sucked. no doubt. however she was armed according to what i have read, and as such the U-boat commander attacked her rightfully.
The
however they justified it by repeated occurrences where the Japanese sailors not wishing to surrender would draw a weapon or hand grenades and blow themselves up (usually killing or injuring would be rescuers in the process) the idea was to make an attempt at rescuing them... but if they so much as looked at you the wrong way you better shoot them dead.
its a razor sharp line to walk, but the thing to remember is he was convicted of war crimes because his side lost and thats what it boils down to
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