SS Laconia

The Vessel

The SS Laconia was a British Cunard Line passenger-cargo liner, built at the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson yard at Wallsend between 1921 and 1922 and commissioned on 9 May 1922. She was 183 metres long, 19,695 gross tons, and powered by twin quadruple-expansion steam engines producing approximately 12,000 horsepower. Her peacetime accommodation was approximately 350 first-class, 350 second-class, and 1,500 third-class passengers, plus a crew of 475.

Laconia had been originally built for the Cunard Line's Liverpool to New York transatlantic service; her subsequent service before the Second World War had included the Mediterranean winter cruise trade and the Boston to Liverpool route. By September 1939, she had been requisitioned by the British Ministry of War Transport and converted to an armed merchant cruiser for the Royal Navy's Northern Patrol operations.

The armed merchant cruiser conversion included: addition of eight 6-inch guns; installation of anti-submarine equipment; modification of the passenger accommodation for military use; and addition of basic armour plating at critical points. From 1939 to 1941, Laconia served with the Royal Navy's Northern Patrol in the eastern Atlantic. In 1941, she was reconverted to a troop transport role under the Ministry of War Transport: her role became the transport of Allied personnel between British and Mediterranean theatre destinations.

Her master on her final voyage was Captain Rudolph Sharp, 55, a career Cunard Line officer. Her complement on 12 September 1942 was approximately 2,750 persons: 463 crew; 286 British military personnel; approximately 1,800 Italian prisoners of war being transported from captured Italian military units in North Africa to British internment camps in Britain; approximately 80 Polish troops (former internees in Italian camps returning to Allied service); and approximately 120 civilian passengers including military families and merchant marine personnel.

The Voyage

Laconia departed Suez on 12 August 1942 bound for Freetown, Sierra Leone and thence Britain, carrying the approximately 2,750 aboard. Her voyage had been routine: transit of the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the South Atlantic without substantial incident. On 12 September 1942, she had reached a position approximately 800 kilometres northeast of Ascension Island, in the central South Atlantic.

The Italian prisoners of war aboard were a specific operational consideration. The 1,800 Italians had been captured by British forces in the Western Desert campaign during late 1941 and 1942; they were being transported to Britain for internment for the remainder of the war. The specific arrangements required by the 1929 Geneva Convention for the treatment of prisoners of war had been substantially maintained: the prisoners were not restrained, were provided with adequate food and medical care, and were housed in converted troop-accommodation spaces.

The mixed complement of British and Allied military personnel, Italian prisoners, and civilian passengers produced a specific operational complexity. The ship's safety arrangements (lifeboats, life rafts, emergency procedures) had been configured for the combined complement; however, the specific language barriers (Italian prisoners did not predominantly understand English), and the subsequent operational implications of the prisoner population during any emergency, had not been systematically addressed.

The ship was travelling alone, not in convoy, at approximately 16 knots on a north-northeast course. The German submarine campaign in the South Atlantic in September 1942 had been substantially expanded: the Kriegsmarine had deployed type IXC U-boats to the South Atlantic specifically targeting British military transport and commercial shipping. The specific threat to Laconia had not been identified by British intelligence, though the general threat to South Atlantic shipping was known.

The Disaster

At approximately 22:10 on 12 September 1942, the German submarine U-156 under the command of Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartenstein detected Laconia at approximately 7,000 metres range. U-156 was on her fifth war patrol in the South Atlantic and had been ordered to engage Allied military shipping.

Hartenstein's attack was conducted from approximately 2,500 metres range using U-156's bow torpedo tubes. Two torpedoes were launched at approximately 22:22; both torpedoes struck Laconia on the starboard side amidships at approximately 22:23 on 12 September 1942.

The torpedo damage was catastrophic. The two torpedoes opened a combined breach of approximately 18 metres along Laconia's starboard hull below the waterline, flooding multiple watertight compartments simultaneously. The ship began to list to starboard within minutes; her wireless equipment was damaged by the explosions and only emergency short-range signals were transmitted; her lifeboat evacuation commenced under rapidly deteriorating conditions.

The specific tragedy of the subsequent evacuation was the treatment of the Italian prisoners. The prisoners had been housed in below-deck spaces and were the most difficult category of complement to evacuate. Some of the British guards were reported to have deliberately obstructed the Italian prisoners' access to the lifeboats; others to have assisted. The specific pattern of evacuation substantially disadvantaged the Italian prisoners relative to the British, Polish, and civilian personnel.

SS Laconia sank at approximately 23:23 on 12 September 1942 in approximately 4,200 metres of water, approximately 800 kilometres northeast of Ascension Island. The sinking took approximately 60 minutes from the initial torpedo impact.

Upon surfacing after the sinking, U-156 Hartenstein observed substantial numbers of survivors in the water, many of whom could be heard speaking Italian. The discovery that Laconia had been carrying Italian prisoners of war produced what became the specific historical significance of the incident: Hartenstein's subsequent decision to initiate rescue operations for the Italian prisoners and other survivors.

Over the subsequent six days (12-19 September 1942), U-156 conducted surface rescue operations for the Laconia survivors. Hartenstein transmitted an uncoded radio message in English on 13 September 1942 requesting cessation of hostilities during the rescue operation and requesting Allied rescue vessels to join the rescue effort. Three additional German U-boats (U-506, U-507, and the Italian submarine Cappellini) joined the rescue operation over the subsequent days.

The rescue operation recovered approximately 1,100 survivors of the Laconia sinking, of whom approximately 800 were eventually transferred to French Vichy naval vessels at the Ivory Coast (the British and Polish personnel were subsequently repatriated; the Italian prisoners were returned to Vichy French internment). The subsequent intervention by the US Army Air Forces (a B-24 Liberator bomber attacked U-156 on 16 September 1942 despite the ongoing rescue operation) effectively terminated the open rescue operation.

The Legacy

The Laconia incident of 12-19 September 1942 was one of the most historically significant events of the Battle of the Atlantic. The specific loss of life was substantial: of the approximately 2,750 aboard, approximately 1,658 died: 1,425 Italian prisoners (approximately 79 per cent of the total), and 233 British, Polish, and civilian personnel. Approximately 1,100 survived.

The specific historical significance was not the casualty figure but the German response and its subsequent doctrinal consequences. Hartenstein's rescue operation on behalf of Italian prisoners had been a specific humanitarian action that, from the German Navy's operational perspective, had exposed U-156 and the supporting U-boats to substantial Allied attack risk. The subsequent USAAF attack on U-156 (despite the ongoing rescue operation and the uncoded radio request for rescue cooperation) produced what became known in Kriegsmarine doctrine as the "Laconia Order".

The Laconia Order, issued by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz on 17 September 1942, specifically prohibited future German U-boat rescue of Allied survivors. The order stated: "No attempt of any kind must be made at rescuing members of ships sunk... the rescuing of survivors is contradictory to the most primitive demands of warfare for destroying enemy ships and crews." The order became the standard Kriegsmarine policy for the remainder of the Second World War and produced substantially higher Allied survivor casualties in subsequent merchant-marine sinkings.

The Laconia Order subsequently became a principal subject of the Nuremberg naval war crimes trials (1946). Dönitz was charged with issuing the Laconia Order as a violation of international humanitarian law; however, the court's ultimate finding was complicated by the specific circumstances of submarine warfare (where rescue operations were often impossible given the operational exposure), and Dönitz's Laconia Order conviction was effectively incorporated into his broader crimes-against-peace conviction rather than being treated as a specific independent war crime.

The specific cultural response to the Laconia incident has been extensive. The incident has been the subject of multiple documentary films (including the 2011 BBC drama The Sinking of the Laconia), academic historical studies (including Frederick Grossmith's 1994 The Sinking of the Laconia), and memorial commemorations in Britain, Italy, and Germany. The German Naval Museum at Laboe, Kiel contains a specific exhibit on the Laconia incident.

The wreck of SS Laconia has never been located; she lies at approximately 4,200 metres depth in the South Atlantic at approximately 5 degrees south, 11 degrees west. No systematic search has been conducted. The 1,658 dead - including the 1,425 Italian prisoners - are commemorated by the Italian Merchant Navy Memorial at Rome, by the Cunard Line Memorial at Liverpool, and by the Merchant Navy Memorial at Tower Hill, London. The annual Laconia Incident Commemoration is conducted at the Italian Naval Cemetery at Taranto on 12 September.