Well if you want to be technical, the whole U.S. Submarine force doctrine of unrestricted submarine warfare (attack without warning on merchants) was illegal and violation of Geneva Convention. The U.S. reasoned that 1. The Pearl Harbor attack was Illegal 2.Germany was already committing these attacks. However, to my knowledge the British never gave the order to perform unrestricted warfare and this came back in the Nuremberg trials. there was no love in Britain for the u-boats and there was a push for severe punishment for those that ordered the attacks. They wanted Dontiz to hang and because the Americans had performed similar acts in the pacific and because they received some pressure from the U.S. to give him a light punishment, he was spared.
War is hell though, even though we play war simulations we can not experience the true emotions that go along with those events. One simulation that I thing gets close is B-17 Flying fortress. The whole mood of the game is depressing reflecting the mood of the bomber crews that knew that either they would be killed or that they were about to create a firestorm over the civilian population that would kill thousands. Bombs from high altitudes were not precise then. There really is nothing civilized in war and the destruction and death, both military and civilian is one of the reasons we have not seen a large global conflict since World War II.
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