Murder on the High Seas

13th March 1944: A U-boat commander orders the shooting of all ship wreck survivors on the grounds of 'operational necessity'

A U-boat crew on lookout, possibly U-852.

In March 1944 Heinz-Wilhelm Eck, commanding U-852, was in the South Atlantic, headed for his allocated patrol area in the Indian Ocean. He had been warned that anti-U-boat patrols were especially vigilant in this area. After spotting and sinking the solitary SS Peleus, his first sinking in his first patrol as cap…