lone hospital ship - what do i do

[Keelbuster]

So, I returned to base (tacking on another medium merchant and a small merchant, both BRITISH).

I got credit for sinking the hospital ship. Infact, it made a handsome contribution to my patrol total.

Ships sunk - 8
Merchant tonnage - 54543 (includes the ~12k for the h-ship)
Warship tonnage - 10725

My crew earned promotions and medals.

It seems that BdU shares my view on this matter!

On the other hand, I didn't win any medals.

Nevertheless, I think the moral of the story is - if it is flying a british flag, SINK THE BASTARD. Not sure if this will work in WaWII though.

Kb

[bigboywooly]

wow you lucky b**tard lmao

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by bigboywooly

wow you lucky b**tard lmao

Nah, if there was a postwar game, im pretty sure he'd end up like U-852.

[Keelbuster]

Hmm - Ducimus - I just read the Eck story off of Uboat.net:

"This boat got famous for all the wrong reasons when Kptlt. Heinz Eck had survivors of the Greek steamer Peleus machine-gunned in the water to erase all signs of his sinking. Eck and 2 of his crew were executed after the war, the only U-boat commander to be even tried for war crimes."

Arg...I mean - I didn't machine-gun any survivors, so....

But yea - how did they find out? I guess Eck should have machine-gunned a few others?

Also - there's no way I'm going to survive this war. I've never survived a DiD career (0/6 or so). So, hells bells!

Kb

[Keelbuster]

An afterthought (but probably should have been a forethought) - some military units can't take prisoners. Recon teams, or special forces, for instance, _have_ to kill everything that detects them. That's their job. They can't take prisoners, and they can't let the enemy go, so they have to off them. I wonder about Uboats - kinda like a special forces unit but at sea - so can they be expected to take prisoners? not really. Can they be expected to let prisoners go? Maybe. Tough call.

But were the Greek allied at that point?

Kb

[Ducimus]

Arg...I mean - I didn't machine-gun any survivors, so....

No, but sinking a hosptial ship with the red cross is tantamount to the same thing. You'd be on trial, just like the officers of U-852 were after the war.

But yea - how did they find out? I guess Eck should have machine-gunned a few others?

Google search for the "Peleus incident" or "Peleus affair". Ive found some good reading on this before. Long story short, some numbnuts forgot to destroy the boats war diary when the abandoned ship. Which i might add, was beached on the East african coastline so salvaging from the boat was a simple walk on the beach. Theres a great photo of that particualr IXD2 laying beached in the sand somewhere.

EDIT:
An intresting note. I guess you could call it the "apologists" rational, but i read one article claiming his intent was to sink the tell tail wreckage. Not the people persay. It was dark and he coulndnt see. I think he acutally left the area and then came back after brooding on it. Weather or not thats the acutal case is up to debate.

Another note is that we, the US were guilty of the same thing, only it was much mroe deliberate. "Mush" morton from the USS wahoo spent 2 hours machine gunning shipwrecked japanese troops from a troop ship he had just sunk.

I read too much WW2 sub history

[Keelbuster]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

Which i might add, was beached on the west african coastline so salvaging from the boat was a simple walk on the beach. Theres a great photo of that particualr IXD2 laying beached in the sand somewhere.

I've seen a few beached sub photos - i was asking myself - how the hell do these things get beached? If they are just left, by the crew, with no flooding, etc, I guess the could beach. Maybe that's the case?

Kb

[Khayman]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

EDIT:
An intresting note. I guess you could call it the "apologists" rational, but i read one article claiming his intent was to sink the tell tail wreckage. Not the people persay. It was dark and he coulndnt see. I think he acutally left the area and then came back after brooding on it. Weather or not thats the acutal case is up to debate.

It's covered well in the book "Silent Hunters: German U-Boat Commanders of WW2". Eck was apparently concerned about the amount of wreckage and how it would be spotted by aircraft patrols from Freetown or Ascension. He didn't think his big IXD2 stood much of a chance against air attack.

Before Eck left port he talked to an old classmate, Adalbert Schnee. Schnee told him to be careful in that area and that traces of wreckage from a torpedoed ship could be recognised from the air for the "next few days". So he tried to sink the rafts of the ship he'd hit.

I'd recommend the book if you want to know more. It covers his actions and his trial, with direct quotes from the trial itself. It also has the pic you mention.

[dbf574]

Originally Posted by Keelbuster

So, I returned to base (tacking on another medium merchant and a small merchant, both BRITISH).

I got credit for sinking the hospital ship. Infact, it made a handsome contribution to my patrol total.

Ships sunk - 8
Merchant tonnage - 54543 (includes the ~12k for the h-ship)
Warship tonnage - 10725

My crew earned promotions and medals.

It seems that BdU shares my view on this matter!

On the other hand, I didn't win any medals.

Nevertheless, I think the moral of the story is - if it is flying a british flag, SINK THE BASTARD. Not sure if this will work in WaWII though.

Kb

Yeah, but what was your renoun count? (Supposedly, a sinking of a Hospital ship is -10,000/ship )

[bookworm_020]

Don't worry about it being a hospital ship, it was most likely pacted with 6000 troops with athletes foot!

At least you didn't sink a geman hospital ship!

[Saukko]

Originally Posted by bookworm_020

Don't worry about it being a hospital ship, it was most likely pacted with 6000 troops with athletes foot!

Well, he could have ordered the ship to stop with a few shots from deck gun and then searching for weapons. Especially the nurses need to be searched very closely.

[andy_311]

Did exactly the same last night. of the coast of Canada about 600KM NNE of Halifax detected 2 merchants closeing on my position fired both aft tubes blind in thare direction.
Then took a look what they where in the external view,too late can't recall torpedos it turned out the merchants where hospital ships.both fish hit the first hospital ship (boy they got alot of searchlights I think I counted 10) she went down in about 4 mins
and when I checked my log it was confirmed I just took out a hospital ship. I got a hit on the renown I think I lost 10,000 but what the hell I still got about 111,600 left.
I don't feel guilty about doin it,the russians did the same to the Wilhelm Gustav.(sorry if the spellings wrong)

What was the saying in the StarForce Troopers movie about the "bugs"




"KILL THEM ALL"

and

"THE ONLY GOOD BUG IS A DEAD ONE"

:rotfl:

[rogerbo]

Originally Posted by andy_311

Did exactly the same last night. of the coast of Canada about 600KM NNE of Halifax detected 2 merchants closeing on my position fired both aft tubes blind in thare direction.
Then took a look what they where in the external view,too late can't recall torpedos it turned out the merchants where hospital ships.both fish hit the first hospital ship (boy they got alot of searchlights I think I counted 10) she went down in about 4 mins
and when I checked my log it was confirmed I just took out a hospital ship. I got a hit on the renown I think I lost 10,000 but what the hell I still got about 111,600 left.
I don't feel guilty about doin it,the russians did the same to the Wilhelm Gustav.(sorry if the spellings wrong)

Yes the rusians did sink the Wilhelm Gustlof and some more.
However in that case it was a little different as the WG was the Barack ship for the U-Boot division and when she left she was equiped with AA Guns and a lot of U-Boot personel and thousends of Refugees and only a few injured Soilders. So strictly the WG was not a Hospital Ship as she was Armed. (Still over 9000 Ppl. died that night)