Crushing fishing boats: historical?

Faith · 01-01-18, 04:27 AM

Hitler never gave the order, since at the beginning of the war, U-Boats still considered fishing vessels as targets. As in World War One, rather than shooting at them with the deck gun, the crew boarded the vessel and planted timed explosives, while taking the crew aboard. But with the massive improvements in aviation, this method was seen as suicidal. During the first two years of the war, only two fishing boats were sunk this way, on September 16th and October 28th, 1939. There was a brief resurgence when the USA declared war, but it didn't go beyong late 1942.

Interstingly, fisherman were protected by the Hague Treaty of 1907, which said that the participants were "not to take advantage of the harmless character of the said vessels in order to use them for military purposes while preserving their peaceful appearance". While the countries of the world honored the treaty during the First World War, no one respected it during the second.

Hope this answers the historical aspect, and I apologize if I sound rather "brusque".

01-01-18, 04:27 AM	#4
Faith Bosun Join Date: Aug 2017 Posts: 64 Downloads: 73 Uploads: 6	Hitler never gave the order, since at the beginning of the war, U-Boats still considered fishing vessels as targets. As in World War One, rather than shooting at them with the deck gun, the crew boarded the vessel and planted timed explosives, while taking the crew aboard. But with the massive improvements in aviation, this method was seen as suicidal. During the first two years of the war, only two fishing boats were sunk this way, on September 16th and October 28th, 1939. There was a brief resurgence when the USA declared war, but it didn't go beyong late 1942. Interstingly, fisherman were protected by the Hague Treaty of 1907, which said that the participants were "not to take advantage of the harmless character of the said vessels in order to use them for military purposes while preserving their peaceful appearance". While the countries of the world honored the treaty during the First World War, no one respected it during the second. Hope this answers the historical aspect, and I apologize if I sound rather "brusque".