SEA BARBARISM

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20087, 6 November 1939, Page 11

SEA BARBARISM

U-BOAT COMMANDER

DEATH ORDER GIVEN

LONDON, Oct. 2G

An order that 100 British soldiers and airmen should be left t.o drown was given by the commander of a U-boat to the captain of an American rescue ship. This new form of Nazi sea barbarism was revealed when survivors of the torpedoed British steamer Yorkshire were landed at an English port.

The order was ignored by the captain of the American steamer Independence Hall, and most of the men, with their wives and families, were saved.

The soldiers and airmen were being invalided home from India and the Far East.

American Rage

“The captain of the Independence Hall saw red when the U-boat commander ordered him not to rescue the soldiers and airmen,” said one survivor. “The American seamen were still fuming at the ruthlessness of the order when we were picked up in pitch darkness after having been seven hours adrift.

“Most of the invalid soldiers were being sent to hospitals in England. One of them —the worst case of the lot —was left behind, and went down with the ship.

“I heard one American sailor shout with rage: ‘l’ll get into this war within a week if I can. We’ll sweep these Nazis off the seas.’

“The soldiers thought the submarine might follow the Independence Hall to see if the captain carried out the order not to pick them up. so when they appeared on deck they shrouded ’themselves in sheets and blankets to hide their uniforms.

“But I do not think the American officers or crew would have cared if the Germans had seen them. I have never seen a crowd of seamen so bitter.”