page_title: Werner Hartenstein
section_title: Fourth patrol and Laconia incident
hierarchical_section_title: Werner Hartenstein / World War II / Fourth patrol and Laconia incident
caption_attribution_description: English: Shuttle service for shipwrecked persons from the Laconia between U156 (foreground) and U507 (background) See also: Spraul, G.: "Vom Fähnlein zur Fahne in den Tod", ISBN 978-3-86634-502-7, pp. 637 Deutsch: Pendelverkehr von Schiffbrüchigen der Laconia zwischen U156 (Vordergrund) und U507 (Hintergrund) Vgl. auch Spraul, G.: Vom Fähnlein zur Fahne in den Tod, ISBN 978-3-86634-502-7, Seite 637ff
context_page_description: Werner Hartenstein was a German naval officer during World War II who commanded the U-boat U-156. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. Hartenstein was credited with sinking 20 ships totaling 97,504 gross register tons, and with damaging three ships and a destroyer.
  Born in Plauen, Hartenstein joined the Reichsmarine in 1928. After a period of training on surface vessels and service on various torpedo boats during the Spanish Civil War and the first year of World War II, he transferred to the U-boat service in 1941. In September 1942, Hartenstein torpedoed and sank the RMS Laconia, then attempted to rescue the survivors. He was forced to abort the rescue when his U-boat came under attack by a B-24 Liberator bomber of the United States Army Air Forces. The event became known as the "Laconia incident" and resulted in the "Laconia Order", an order from the Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote to the entire German U-boat force that forbade rescuing the survivors of sunken ships.
context_section_description: On U-156's fourth patrol (20 August 1942 – 16 November 1942), Hartenstein sank and then organised the rescue of the survivors of RMS Laconia, resulting in the "Laconia incident" and "Laconia Order".
  U-156 together with U-68 under the command of Karl-Friedrich Merten departed from Lorient on 20 August 1942 heading for the Bay of Biscay. Hartenstein received the order to operate against Convoy SL-119 on 25 August. After a two-day pursuit, U-156 found a straggler, the SS Clan Macwhirter, west of Casablanca. Hartenstein attacked from a submerged position to avoid detection under the bright moonlight. Clan Macwhirter was hit by two torpedoes and sank, killing nine members of the crew and two gunners; 79 sailors survived the sinking. Two later sightings on 2 and 6 September did not lead to favourable attack positions.
  On 12 September 1942 U-156 was patrolling off the coast of West Africa midway between Liberia and Ascension Island roughly 600 nautical miles (1,100 km; 690 mi) south of Cape Palmas. At 11:37 the aft port lookout sighted a smoke stack at 230 degrees. Hartenstein followed the target, which was zigzagging at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph), until the general direction of the large ocean liner became evident. U-156 was running at 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) into a favourable attack position, and Hartenstein ordered the attack at 21:07. He slowed speed at 22:00 and ordered surfaced deflection shots from torpedo tubes I and III. After three minutes and six seconds the first torpedo detonated, then the second. He had hoped to capture the ship's senior officers, but to his surprise, Hartenstein saw over two thousand people struggling in the water. Hartenstein immediately began rescue operations. Laconia sank at 23:23.
  At 01:25 on 13 September 1942 Hartenstein radioed the Befehlshaber der U-Boote (BdU—commander of U-boats) requesting guidance and confirmation on how to proceed. The BdU responded at 03:45 ordering Wolf pack Eisbär, consisting of U-507 under the command of Harro Schacht, U-506 under the command of Erich Würdemann and U-459 under the command of Georg von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, to assist Hartenstein immediately. At 06:00 Hartenstein ordered that the following message be sent on the 25m wavelength:
  "If any ship will assist the ship-wrecked Laconia crew, I will not attack providing I am not being attacked by ship or air forces. I picked up 193 men. 4°53 South/11°26 West – German submarine"
  The message was repeated twice on the international 600m wavelength. The BdU later changed the order slightly and U-506, U-507 and the Italian submarine Capellini were dispatched. In parallel U-156 was assisting and supplying the survivors in the numerous lifeboats that kept arriving or were picked up. U-506 arrived at 11:32 on 14 September 1942, followed by U-507 in the afternoon of 15 September. Heading to a rendezvous with Vichy French ships under Red Cross banners, the U-boats were attacked by a U.S. Army B-24 Liberator bomber (343d Bomb Squadron; Lieutenant James D. Harden) at 12:32 on 16 September 1942. The attack ordered by Captain Robert C. Richardson III, which killed a number of people in the lifeboats and damaged U-156, forced Hartenstein to abandon the rescue operations. A majority of survivors were later rescued by British merchant ships and two Vichy French warships, the cruiser Gloire and the sloop Annamite, out of Dakar, Africa.
  This event later became known as the "Laconia incident" and led BdU Admiral Karl Dönitz to issue the "Laconia order" to his U-boat commanders that stated in part "No attempt of any kind must be made at rescuing members of ships sunk ..." At the end of the war, the Laconia Order was unsuccessfully used against Admiral Dönitz in his war crime trial. The prosecution failed when Fleet Admiral Nimitz testified that in the war with Japan the United States Navy had followed the same general policy as was set forth in the German admiral's directive.
  U-156 received a radio message on 17 September 1942 indicating that Werner Hartenstein had become the 63rd member of the U-boat service and the 125th 
caption: U-156 (foreground) and U-507 (background) on 15 September 1942
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