Post by Administrator on Nov 29, 2021 22:26:09 GMT
VIA: Tom Anthony - All at Sea.
76 years ago tomorrow, 3 officers of the U-boat arm of the ‘Kriegsmarine’ were led out onto Lüneburg Heath, and shot by a British Army firing squad. They were the only U-boat personnel executed for war crimes. What led these German naval officers to this end?
The story began on 13th March 1944, when U-852, commanded by Heinz-Wilhelm Eck, spotted SS PELEUS in the Atlantic, about 500 miles north of Ascension Island. PELEUS was built in West Hartlepool by William Gray & Company, and launched as SS EGGLESTONE in 1928, being renamed PELEUS by her Greek owners in the same year. She was on charter to the British Ministry of War Transport, and sailing in ballast from Freetown (Sierra Leone) to Buenos Aires. Her crew numbered 35 - 18 Greeks, 8 British, one seaman from Aden, two Egyptians, three Chinese, a Russian, a Chilean and a Pole, and 4 British RN DEMS (Defensively equipped Merchant Ship) gunners, including George Laidlaw Miller, a Royal Navy gunner, age 20; Son of George Frederick and Annie Connell Miller, of Whitley Bay, Northumberland. The U-boat tracked her until nightfall, and then fired two torpedoes at close range. Both found their target, and the freighter quickly broke up, sinking in three minutes; all that was left of her was flotsam, including several life rafts, and about half of her crew.
Eck took two crew aboard the U-boat for interrogation, and after questioning, returned them to their raft. He decided he must hide the evidence of his action by destroying the debris, including the life-rafts. For the next five hours, the U-boat moved around the debris field, using small arms and grenades to sink the debris and finish off the survivors. After he was satisfied that all had been killed he sailed away. Unluckily for Eck, four of the crew survived the carnage, though one, Kefalas died later from wounds. The other three, Chief Officer Antonios Liossis, A/B Dimitrios Argiros, and a greaser Rocco Said, drifted for 49 days, before being rescued by SS Alexandre Silva (Portuguese) which took them to Lobito (Angola). The incident was reported to British naval authorities, and affidavits taken from the three men.
On 30 April 1944 the U-boat was found off the coast of Somalia by Wellingtons of 621 Squadron RAF flying out of Khormaksar (Aden). After 2 days of attacks, the damaged U-boat scuttled herself on the Somali shore. Most of the crew, including Eck, were captured by troops of the Somaliland Camel Corps and the ships log, which later provided useful evidence, recovered.
In October 1945, Eck and four other U-852 officers were the first defendants tried before the British Military War Crimes Court, Hamburg, on charges of violation of the laws of war. The court consisted of 3 officers of the British army along with 2 officers of the Royal Navy and 2 officers of the Greek Navy.
The charge sheet read “Committing a war crime in that you in the Atlantic Ocean on the night of 13/14th March, 1944, when Captain and members of the crew of U- 852 which had sunk the steamship “Peleus” in violation of the laws and usages of war were concerned in the killing of members of the crew of the said steamship, Allied nationals, by firing and throwing grenades at them.” Shipwrecked and helpless survivors of a torpedoed ship were protected by the international law of war, and killing them was considered a war crime. Eck denied all the charges and claimed that he had not intended to kill any of the seamen, and all he was doing ensuring that the ship’s debris sank so that no trace was left. His defence fell flat when many of his crew testified the opposite. All 5 were found guilty and Eck, Watch Officer August Hoffman, and the boat's doctor Walter Weispfennig, were sentenced to death by shooting – the other two were imprisoned for a time, and later released.
References (some in original story)
Griffin, Gwyn (1967). An Operational Necessity. New York: Putnam.
• SS Peleus at Uboat.net
• Clay Blair : Hitler's U-Boat War [Volume 2]: The Hunted 1942–1945 (1998) ISBN 0-304-35261-6 (2000 UK paperback ed.)
• "Screw Steamer Egglestone". teesbuiltships.co.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
External links
• Submarine atrocities
• The Peleus affair at u-boat net
• uboat.net/allies/merchants/listing.php
• uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/ship3218.html
• www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RAF/621_wwII.html
76 years ago tomorrow, 3 officers of the U-boat arm of the ‘Kriegsmarine’ were led out onto Lüneburg Heath, and shot by a British Army firing squad. They were the only U-boat personnel executed for war crimes. What led these German naval officers to this end?
The story began on 13th March 1944, when U-852, commanded by Heinz-Wilhelm Eck, spotted SS PELEUS in the Atlantic, about 500 miles north of Ascension Island. PELEUS was built in West Hartlepool by William Gray & Company, and launched as SS EGGLESTONE in 1928, being renamed PELEUS by her Greek owners in the same year. She was on charter to the British Ministry of War Transport, and sailing in ballast from Freetown (Sierra Leone) to Buenos Aires. Her crew numbered 35 - 18 Greeks, 8 British, one seaman from Aden, two Egyptians, three Chinese, a Russian, a Chilean and a Pole, and 4 British RN DEMS (Defensively equipped Merchant Ship) gunners, including George Laidlaw Miller, a Royal Navy gunner, age 20; Son of George Frederick and Annie Connell Miller, of Whitley Bay, Northumberland. The U-boat tracked her until nightfall, and then fired two torpedoes at close range. Both found their target, and the freighter quickly broke up, sinking in three minutes; all that was left of her was flotsam, including several life rafts, and about half of her crew.
Eck took two crew aboard the U-boat for interrogation, and after questioning, returned them to their raft. He decided he must hide the evidence of his action by destroying the debris, including the life-rafts. For the next five hours, the U-boat moved around the debris field, using small arms and grenades to sink the debris and finish off the survivors. After he was satisfied that all had been killed he sailed away. Unluckily for Eck, four of the crew survived the carnage, though one, Kefalas died later from wounds. The other three, Chief Officer Antonios Liossis, A/B Dimitrios Argiros, and a greaser Rocco Said, drifted for 49 days, before being rescued by SS Alexandre Silva (Portuguese) which took them to Lobito (Angola). The incident was reported to British naval authorities, and affidavits taken from the three men.
On 30 April 1944 the U-boat was found off the coast of Somalia by Wellingtons of 621 Squadron RAF flying out of Khormaksar (Aden). After 2 days of attacks, the damaged U-boat scuttled herself on the Somali shore. Most of the crew, including Eck, were captured by troops of the Somaliland Camel Corps and the ships log, which later provided useful evidence, recovered.
In October 1945, Eck and four other U-852 officers were the first defendants tried before the British Military War Crimes Court, Hamburg, on charges of violation of the laws of war. The court consisted of 3 officers of the British army along with 2 officers of the Royal Navy and 2 officers of the Greek Navy.
The charge sheet read “Committing a war crime in that you in the Atlantic Ocean on the night of 13/14th March, 1944, when Captain and members of the crew of U- 852 which had sunk the steamship “Peleus” in violation of the laws and usages of war were concerned in the killing of members of the crew of the said steamship, Allied nationals, by firing and throwing grenades at them.” Shipwrecked and helpless survivors of a torpedoed ship were protected by the international law of war, and killing them was considered a war crime. Eck denied all the charges and claimed that he had not intended to kill any of the seamen, and all he was doing ensuring that the ship’s debris sank so that no trace was left. His defence fell flat when many of his crew testified the opposite. All 5 were found guilty and Eck, Watch Officer August Hoffman, and the boat's doctor Walter Weispfennig, were sentenced to death by shooting – the other two were imprisoned for a time, and later released.
References (some in original story)
Griffin, Gwyn (1967). An Operational Necessity. New York: Putnam.
• SS Peleus at Uboat.net
• Clay Blair : Hitler's U-Boat War [Volume 2]: The Hunted 1942–1945 (1998) ISBN 0-304-35261-6 (2000 UK paperback ed.)
• "Screw Steamer Egglestone". teesbuiltships.co.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
External links
• Submarine atrocities
• The Peleus affair at u-boat net
• uboat.net/allies/merchants/listing.php
• uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/ship3218.html
• www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RAF/621_wwII.html