Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Devil
Walker rescused all sailors who were ON the surface, obviously if a U boat was sunk with charges, no chance.
The Bismarck had signalled for a U boat to come and collect her logbooks etc. When the signal was intercepted, I think by Bletchley Park, they relayed this to the Admiralty who told the KGV who ordered all ships to immediately leave the area.
hoever, I do recall recading about Erich Topp, U boat Commander. He sirfaced, told a crew to leave their ship, and then sank it. It was dark by this time and a voice was heard from the darkness asking if they needed any water, food etc and gave them a direction to row. The lifeboats suspected treachery kept quiet. As the U boat sailed away they heard laughter from the sub.
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Yes; there was unfortunately a lot of propaganda about U-Boats machine gunning anyone they caught - wild stories were told to Allied cargo ship crews, making them suspicious. Granted, sometimes Allied crewmen were killed by gunfire during fights with U-Boats, but aside from the sinking of SS "Peleus" I have not heard of U-Boats shooting near survivors after a ship had sunk. And of course the Commander responsible for the "Peleus" incident was executed.
Likewise there are various pro-Nazi partisans who accuse the Allies of war crimes while minimizing whatever Germany did - I suspect the Wikipedia writer who called Johnnie Walker a war criminal may have been a "wehraboo" - a German military fanboy who uncritically admires the Third Reich's military/politics. Often, these revisionists promote various myths:
-Hitler knew nothing about mistreatment of the Jews
-Jewish bankers provoked Nazi Germany
-America and Britain committed genocide against Germans in WWII
-The SS was "just an anti-Communist organization"
...and so on.
TIK on youtube (a popular online military Historian) has some good commentary on the wehraboo subculture..
I suppose we can all agree that, although most U-Boat men fought fairly, and even helped survivors, they were fighting in support of an evil cause and that we should feel grateful that the Allied nations - for all their faults - won the war.
In any event I am glad that Wikipedia ruled in your favor.
