War Order No. 154
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War Order No. 154 was issued end of November or the beginning of December 1939. It was the first explicit instruction by the German Navy (German: Kriegsmarine) to use the tactics of unrestricted submarine warfare, this order along with the so-called "Laconia" Order of 1942 were introduced by the prosecution at the post-war Nuremberg Trial of Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz. In the judgement it was found that by issuing these two orders, he caused Germany to be in breach of the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936. However as evidence of similar conduct by the Allies was presented at his trial, his sentence was not assessed on the grounds of this breach of the international law.[1]
The order No, 154 was:
- ...
- [last paragraph] Do not rescue any men; do not take them along; and do not take care of any boats of the ship. Weather conditions and proximity of land are of no consequence. Concern yourself only with the safety of your own boat and with efforts to achieve additional successes as soon as possible. We must be hard in this war. The enemy started the war in order to destroy us, and thus nothing else matters.[2]
The German Navy started World War II with Prize Rules which complied with Article 22 or the First London Naval Treaty which stated that merchant vessels which did not demonstrate "persistent refusal to stop" or "active resistance" could not be sunk without the ship's crew and passengers being first delivered to a "place of safety". The ships lifeboats were not a place of safety, unless other shipping or land was close at hand. [3]
On the very first day of the war SS Athenia was sunk by U 30. In the following weeks, as was laid out in the transcript of Dönitz's Nuremberg Trial [4] , the British and the Germans issued orders to their respective fleets which quickly made the initial German compliance with Article 22 of the First London Naval Treaty less and less possible.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Judgement : Doenitz the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School
- ^ Exhibit Number GB-196 Trials of German Major War Criminals: Volume 13 Thursday, 9 May 1946, Day 125 the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School
- ^ Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armaments, (Part IV, Art. 22, relating to submarine warfare). London, 22 April 1930
- ^ Trials of German Major War Criminals: Volume 13 Saturday, 11 May 1946, Day 127 Monday, Monday, 13 May 1946, Day 128 the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School
