USAAF bomb the Laconia rescue

16th September 1942: U-Boats gathered for a rescue operation in the south Atlantic are bombed despite flying the Red Cross flag

Shuttle service for shipwrecked persons from the Laconia between U156 (foreground) and U507 (background) as they redistribute the rescued men between them on the 15th September 1942. Picture taken by Oblt. z. S. Leopold Schuhmacher.

Werner Hartenstein, commander of U-156, had been organising a rescue operation ever since a he had torpedoed the Laconia on…