The Altmark Research Paper

August 1915: British liner the Arabic sunk. Germany agrees not to sunk unarmed, unresisting passenger ships without warning.

The general explained that “... after the Llandovery Castle was torpedoed, not a helping hand was offered to our wounded comrades” (137) and that there was “more than three hundred wounded Canadians struggling in the choppy waters of the English Channel....”(137). These words burned a picture into the minds of the soldiers. It showed the unfair and inhumane ways of the German army. The wounded soldiers with amputated limbs sunk to the bottom instantly with the salt stingy in their wounds all whilst the Germans soldiers laughed on. It was described that “... the lifeboats were sprayed by machine-gun fire ... the laughing men on the U-boat ... the amputation cases went to the bottom instantly ... they couldn't swim, poor chaps ... the salt water added to their dying agony....” (138). The general then used this to motivate the soldiers to avenge the deaths of their wounded Canadians soldiers. He said “... men, we are going into action in a few days, and we will be given an opportunity to avenge the lives of our murdered comrades ... if they choose to suspend the accepted rules for conducting civilized warfare, by

1.1: Before an actual invasion, the issue of the German U-boats had to be resolved. In the Atlantic ocean, allied ships that were carrying

In September of 2012, "Germany's last surviving U-Boat captain who helped sink dozens of U.S. and British ships has been honoured by the modern military in his homeland seven decades after he was twice decorated by Hitler for bravery." It may seem grim to honor a person who referred to "American shooting season" as his hobby during the war, but it is important to recognize the contributions of U-Boat commanders like Reinhard Hardegen.

Of the 1198 passengers who died, 128 of these were American. This aroused great anger in Americans, and further attacks followed as in June the German government announced passenger ships would be sunk without warning. The sinking of the Lusitania was used in British propaganda to remind the US citizens of the lives that had been lost due to Germany, hence they should join the war to defeat them. The Germans decided to return to the policy of unrestricted submarine attacks on shipping in January 1917.

On May 7th, a British-owned Ocean liner was fired upon without waring off the coast of Ireland. Of the 1,959 passengers, 1,198 were killed, including 128 Americans. The U.S demanded compensation and an end to German attacks on unarmed passenger and merchant ships. In August, Germany pledged to see the safety of passengers before sinking unarmed vessels. Although, in November another liner was sunk without warning, killing 227 people, including 27 Americans.

The first and foremost answer would be the sinking of the Lusitania, an British cruise/transport ship, bound for Britain from New York. The German U-boat ring sought to sink all supply ships headed for Britain in order to starve the island. It sank the Lusitania as part of its efforts. 1195 people died, including 128 Americans.

With the arming of British merchants ships as an effort to protect its passengers and crew came a potential loophole for the Germans, essentially allowing them unrestricted submarine warfare. Though international law did not directly involve submarines, it was previously agreed that attacks on merchant ships must follow prize rules. Germany agreed that they would avoid sinking neutral ships, however, in addition to the unlikeliness of a submarine surfacing to notify a ship of an attack, as such would endanger its own safety, the arming of a merchant ship made it unclear as to whether it was simply a neutral vessel for commerce, or if it was a warship. Germany could easily claim they mistook an armed merchant ship for a warship, and attacked it as a precaution. On February 10, 1915, the United States announced in a note that Germany would be held absolutely, unconditionally responsible for any losses of American lives or property. Yet, on March 15, 1915, the Falaba was sunk by a German submarine, who claimed it was shipping contraband, with the loss of over 100 lives, one of which was an American named Leon Thrasher. The United States, despite the fact that Thrasher entered the designated war zone, condemned the Germans for the immoral act and lack of warning, knowing that if they did not, such a disaster would recur, and that their stance on the Thrasher case would set the standard for America’s reactions to future catastrophes during the war. On May 7, 1915, the British ship Lusitania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland. Though simply a passenger ship, the Lusitania was transporting small arms ammunition, and because of this was, according to the Germans, unneutral. The sinking of the Lusitania was of such importance to the

The Battle of the St. Lawrence Seaway refers to the attacks on Allied shipping in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence from 1942 through to the end of the shipping season in 1944 . German submarines, commonly called U-boats, entered into these Canadian waters to hinder and delay Allied supplies from reaching Britain across the Atlantic . However, Allied convoys still made voyages to Britain and back, constantly supplying them with goods. Sailing across the middle of the Atlantic itself was considered far more dangerous than just leaving the Canadian ports. Therefore, through examining Germany’s intent for entering the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, effect on Allied shipping, and subsequent response by the Allies with respect to the attacks, it can be shown that U-boats entering into Canadian waters had very little impact on impeding Allied shipping.

The sinking of these ships outraged the United States and Germany couldn’t risk the United States entering the war. Following an apology to the United States for their actions, in August Germany pledged to see the safety of the passengers before sinking unarmed ships. This pledge would not last long because in November Germany sunk an Italian ship without warning, killing 272 people and 27 Americans. These incidents caused President Woodrow Wilson to send a strongly worded warning towards Germany to stop unrestricted submarine warfare against ships. This warning caused the German government to halt the operation of unrestricted submarine warfare. During the time that Germany stopped operations of unrestricted submarine warfare, they lost major battles to Great Britain’s Royal Navy. Germany’s surface fleet were no match for the Royal Navy’s surface fleet. Germany couldn’t stand fleet-to-fleet against the Royal Navy so Germany made a policy of avoiding all fleet-to-fleet confrontations. By 1917 the lack of a productive navy caused Britain to resume their blockade of Germany. This lead to representatives from the German Navy to convince the military leadership and Kaiser Wilhelm II that resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare can lead Germany to victory. They argued that the United States were never neutral to begin with since they were supplying ammunitions to Great Britain and the fact that Germany was losing due to exhaustion from lack of food due to

Imagine yourself as a military personnel working on your naval base like any normal day. One minute you are calm and peaceful, another you break out into a brutal battle. Bullets flying, people dying, chaos all around you. In this article I am going to tell you about the event that had taken place in 1941. By the end of this, you will be able to see this event through the eyes many people who were there to witnessed this tragedy.

The lack of food supplies due to the British Blockade and increasing casualty lists begun to make an impact on German morale. This, combined with the allies’

On February 3, 1915 the Germans set for a Proclamation which state that the waters around the British Isles were to be considered an official war zone. Therefore the Germans felt they had the right to sink any ship that entered what they consider to be the war zone. Germany continued to sink merchant vessels without thinking of the safety of passengers and its crew. This was violation of the international rules of warfare.

German U boat attacks escalated and the next three ships with CORB children for Canada left in a convoy known as ZA.

The British faced many dilemma’s during World War II regarding ship Struma. The biggest dilemma faced was that even though England was responsible to save the Jews. The Struma Ship was a small iron hull ship that was in the process of taking hundreds of Jewish refugees from Romania to Palestine. With the Ship breaking down several times around December 1941. They arrived in Istanbul on December 15, 1941. The engine was malfunctioning, and there was leakage in the hull. The captain of the ship requested a permit to stay in the harbor until those repairs were completed. The Turkish authorities, considering the recent catastrophe that befell Salvador and its Jewish passengers in the Sea of Marmara, generously accorded the permission to stay