The Laconia Affair

'The Laconia Affair' is Peillard's fascinating tale of a little known story from WWII...although...it should be far better known. A German U-Boat-156, under the command of one Commander Hartenstein, torpedoed a large British ship. As it was going down, he heard the cries of terrified men--Italian. As it turns out the British ship, along with a large complements of Brits, including women and children, was transporting 1,800 Italian Prisoners of War--German allies. Now, Hartenstein has a serious problem. Submerge and leave the survivors to their fate or stage a rescue operation. To his credit, he decided on the rescue operation although he did get Admiralty approval. Because of the huge number of survivors, Hartenstein called for help--two German and one Italian U-Boats. Messages were sent to a distant Vichy French cruiser to come to the rescue. The U-Boats take women, children and some men on board and put others on the decks. Those who can't be crowded onto the submarines are towed in chains of life boats. Hartenstein radios, in the clear, to any listening Allied Forces that he is rescuing British and Italians and needs help. He got it too. An American Liberator bomber circles Hartenstein's U-Boat, then makes three separate bombing runs. Life Boats are shattered by the bombs, the U-Boat is damaged and Hartenstein is forced to put most of the survivors into the sea so that he can submerge and avoid destruction. Some survivors die in the sea but the French cruiser eventually picks up survivors from lifeboats and the German and Italian submarines. Over 1,000 people survive who would otherwise have died. Hartenstein, hero of the rescue, is later killed when his U-Boat is sunk. This is a story of the horror of war--how morality conflicts with the imperative of destroying the enemy. For a brief moment of time, humanity and courage prevailed. Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico