The story of the Laconia was the subject of a talk by Ray Young to a recent meeting of Largs Probus Club. The RMS Laconia left Alexandria in Egypt in September 1942 with 1,800 Italian prisoners, 180 Polish Guards, 268 British Soldiers and 80 civilians, including five women. One of the women was Lady Grizel Mary Wolfe Murray nee Boyle of Fairlie who had been living there with her Army husband and working as a nurse.
She was the daughter of Captain The Earl of Glasgow, DSO, RN and the Countess of Glasgow, of Kelburn Castle, Fairlie, Ayrshire; wife of Major Malcolm Victor Alexander Wolfe Murray, The Black Watch. Lady Grizel was pregnant, and it was decided she should return home as Rommel’s guns advanced to within range of Alexandria.
The liner Laconia
The Laconia reached the west coast of Africa when on 12th September it was spotted by U-156 under the command of Captain Werner Hartenstein. Mistaking it for an armed troopship, two torpedoes were fired and the Laconia began sinking.
Several hundred on the Laconia were killed instantly and when U-156 surfaced it found some 2,000 survivors in the water. Captain Hartenstein immediately ordered a rescue operation, calling for assistance from other U-boats and he broadcast in English asking for additional help from any ships in the area adding that he would not attack any ship helping in the rescue. He took 200 survivors onboard the decking and a further 200 in tow on lifeboats.
Hartenstein’s U 156 loaded with Laconia survivors
U-156 remained at the scene for two and a half days and was joined by U-506 on 15th September.
On 16th September the U-boats were spotted by an American B-24 Liberator bomber flying from a secret airbase on Ascension Island. The pilot reported back to base that the submarine had a white flag with a red cross and they had unsuccessfully challenged the submarine via radio to display its national flag. The submarine blinked via signal light what the bomber crew understood to read “German Sir”. The bomber crew asked Ascension Island what to do next. The senior officer on duty that day ordered the B-24 to “sink the sub”. The aircraft attacked with depth charges and bombs and this forced U-156 to dive and shipwrecked survivors were cast back into the sea.
Due to this incident Admiral Donitz issued The Laconia Order on 17th September prohibiting U-boat crews from attempting such rescues.
Lady Grizel was in the water swimming for around an hour before being picked up by a lifeboat already crammed with 68 people. After 10 days at sea Lady Grizel passed away on 26th September and was buried at sea. On 8th October the lifeboat reached the coast of Liberia with just 16 survivors having travelled some 7,000 miles.
U-156 was sunk on 8 March 1943 with Captain Hartenstein and all hands.
At the Nuremberg Trials the Allied prosecutors sought to prove Admiral Donitz’s Laconia Order was tantamount to murder and therefore a war crime deserving the death penalty, but the case failed when Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the US Navy in the Pacific, said he had issued similar orders after the Japanese attack on Pearl harbour whereby his forces were not expected to rescue survivors if it would jeopardise their mission.
Admiral Donitz was spared the death penalty and served 10 years in Spandau Prison. He died in 1980.
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