Lifeboats

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Just because they did not take prisoners doesn't mean they simply shot survivors in the water. This would have been considered WAY outside the established rules of conduct, even for unrestricted submarine warfare.

In many cases they would come near enough to any lifeboats to talk to the survivors and get a positive ID on the ship they'd just sunk and any other info her men were willing to give them. There are accounts of u-boat crews passing over some basic supplies if needed as well as giving survivors their position and a course towards the nearest landfall, even charts and navigational aids if they had them to spare and the survivors had none. Also accounts of u-boat commanders finding and hailing neutral ships in the area and sending or bringing them back to pick up survivors of enemy ships they'd sunk.

Even the Laconia Order, which officially forbade u-boat crews from picking up or rendering extensive aid to survivors of their attacks, was only issued after an Allied plane attacked a u-boat that was attempting to rescue the Laconia's survivors.

Also you have to remember that the men on board u-boats were themselves sailors who might at any time be left at the mercy of the open sea and the elements of nature, and who were very much aware of this fact. To turn one's weapons on a helpless castaway already in that situation would be, for lack of a better phrase, a huge karmic no-no.

Much better to die either in a blazing inferno, or slowly drifting through the Atlantic for days than a simple (?) shot to the head... Glad it's not my choice