Originally Posted by UKönig
September 3, 1939, found the U-boats at sea, ready for action. They had barely been informed of the English declaration of war when Oberleutnant Lemp, in command of U-30, sighted a passenger liner on a favorable torpedo attack bearing. Since the liner was off the normal shipping lanes and was 'zig-zagging', he assumed it was a troopship and after establishing its British nationality had accordingly attacked. The Athenia, bound from England to the USA had been sunk with the loss of 128 lives.
This mistake had a few collateral consequences along with it, for it gave the British government the chance to assert that Germany had intended to wage unrestricted U-boat warfare right from day 1. The fact that the strictly legal conduct of the other U-boats soon disproved this allegation, Britain stuck by this charge and repeated it in the face of her own breaches of international law.
The German government quickly denounced this charge, and further, denied that the Athenia was sunk by a U-boat. At the time, this disclaimer was made in good faith, because none of the patrolling U-boats had reported a sunken passenger liner, while all had received strict instructions to treat all merchant shipping in accordance with Prize Regulations.
Meanwhile, fully realizing the consequences of his actions, Oblt. Lemp made no specific mention of the sinking in his W/T reports, and it was only after U-30 had returned to base at the end of September, did Oblt. Lemp inform Adm. Doenitz personally that it was he who had fired the fatal shot.
However, instead of admitting the mistake, and expressing the appropriate regret, the German gov't. continued to deny all culpability and instructed the Naval High Command to supress the incident. Doenitz, therefore, had no choice but to order Lemp to remove the offending page from the war diary of U-30 and slip in another where the record of the sinking was omitted, so that the truth should not leak when the customary 8 copies of the WD were prepared.
Though War Diaries are technically classified, they are open to scrutiny for training purposes (why you need 8 copies), so that the supression of the Athenia sinking -as ordered by the highest German Authorities- could not be insured by any other means. This was one of the matters closely investigated at the Nurnburg tribunal. It stands to record as the only incident where a war diary had been altered for any reason.
But Goebbels carried things further, and without telling anyone of his intent, made the abstruse assertion that the sinking of the Athenia was carried out by the British themselves, by placing a bomb-type device aboard, so that they could lay claim that the Germans wanted unrestricted U-boat war, right from the start.
As a direct result, and a far-reaching effect on the whole 1st phase of the U-boat war, was the order that in future, passenger liners were verboten as targets regardless of nationality or even if they were in enemy service, sailing alone or in convoy. To this restriction was soon added another. At the time, it was considered 'desirable' that Germany should not fire the first shot (maybe return fire was allowed, but no opening salvos) in hostilities against France, U-boats were then forbidden to attack ships of French origin.
The strain these orders put upon U-boat captains and crews can be readily understood when it is remembered that they were in force at a time when the British Expeditionary Force was in France (and massing to evacuate at Dunkirque), U-boats could still operate in the English channel, and secondly, it is almost to completely impossible to determine ship nationality at night. The second order was rescinded Nov, 24, 1939 and the first, regarding passenger ships, not until the summer of 1940.
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