Quote:
Originally Posted by Faith
Interstingly, fisherman were protected by the Hague Treaty of 1907, (...)
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Wasn't it Cicero who said "In war times any law evaporates..." ?
Hitler was very ignorant about the military potential of u-boats before they showed success. Also U-boat commanders were rather listening to what Doenitz had to say, or they used their own judgement, also in the above fisherboat case.
Time and situation permitting, some commanders allowed tanker crews to leave their ship before it got destroyed, that's historically proved.
As for fishing boats, the commander had to judge if such a boat could become a threat or not once the u-boat was spotted. Later in the war where enemy planes had become a considerable danger for u-boats (because of radar), such fisherboats would almost always be considered as a threat, rest assured that u-boat commanders were considering first their own crew's safety. German u-boats didn't follow some american examples for taking crew onboard AFAIK, not in WWII.