Llandovery Castle was hit with a torpedo from German U-boat U-86 on 27 June 1918. The U-boat then opened fire on the survivors.
During the First World War, many hospital ships were attacked, sometimes deliberately and sometimes as a result of mistaken identity. They were sunk by either torpedo, mine or surface attack. They were easy targets, since they carried hundreds of wounded soldiers from the front lines.
Background
A hospital ship (HS) is designated for primary function as a medical treatment facility or hospital; most are operated by the military forces or navies of various countries around the world, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones.[1] Hospital ships were covered under the Hague Convention X of 1907.[2] Article four of the Hague Convention X outlined the restrictions for a hospital ship:
The ship should give medical assistance to wounded personnel of all nationalities
The ship must not be used for any military purpose
Ships must not interfere or hamper enemy combatant vessels
Belligerents as designated by the Hague Convention can search any hospital ship to investigate violations of the above restrictions.
If any of the restrictions were violated, the ship could be determined as an enemy combatant and be sunk. Investigators from neutral countries like Spain were allowed to inspect hospital ships to confirm that Article Four wasn't being violated.[3]
The high command of Imperial German viewed Allied hospital ships as violating the Hague Convention and ordered its submarine forces to target them as part of their Unrestricted submarine warfare on Allied shipping.[4] Even with the inspections from neutral countries the German High command alleged that hospital ships were violating Article Four by transporting able-bodied soldiers to the battleground.[4] The biggest hospital ship sunk by either mine or torpedo in the First World War was Britannic, the sister of Olympic and the ill-fated Titanic. Britannic hit a mine on November 21, 1916; 30 people were killed, but the rest of the crew and passengers were able to escape.[5] The largest loss of life caused by the sinking of a hospital ship would be Llandovery Castle. The ship was hit by a torpedo from the German U-boat U-86 on June 27, 1918. Shortly thereafter, the submarine surfaced and gunned down most of the survivors; only 24 were rescued.[6] After the war, the captain of U-86, Lieutenant Helmut Patzig, and two of his lieutenants were charged with war crimes and arraigned at the Leipzig war crimes trials, but Patzig disappeared, and the two lieutenants both escaped after being convicted and sentenced to prison.[7] The Allies weren't the only ones who had their ships attacked at the beginning of the war, the German hospital ship Ophelia was seized by British naval forces as a spy ship[8] and near the close of the war the Austrian hospital ship Baron Call was unsuccessfully attacked by torpedo on October 29, 1918.[9]
^"Asturias" was beached near Bolt Head, but the damage was so extensive that she was declared a total loss. The government then bought and salvaged her, and she became a floating ammunition hulk at Plymouth for two years.
^"Convention for the adaptation to maritime war of the principles of the Geneva Convention". Yale University. October 18, 1907. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
^R.H. Gibson, Maurice Prendergast (November 2002). The German Submarine War 1914-1918 (2002 ed.). Periscope Publishing Ltd. pp. 285, 438. ISBN 1-904381-08-1.
^ a bCrispin Sadler and Wayne Abbott (2006). "Deep Wreck Mysteries - Red Cross Outrage". History Television. Archived from the original (TV Show) on August 31, 2009. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
^ a bMarc Leroux (2008). "The sinking of the Canadian Hospital Ship". Canadian Great War Project. Retrieved August 21, 2009.
^pg 312 - R.H. Gibson, Maurice Prendergast (November 2002). The German Submarine War 1914-1918 (2002 ed.). Periscope Publishing Ltd. p. 312. ISBN 1-904381-08-1.
^"Hold German Hospital Ship" (PDF). The New York Times. May 22, 1915. Retrieved September 2, 2009.
^John Beech (2004). "AH Navy". coventry.ac.uk. Archived from the original on April 28, 2006. Retrieved September 1, 2009.
^"British Hospital Ship sunk, 85 lost". The New York Times. November 18, 1915. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
^Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Asturias". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
^"31 ON HOSPITAL SHIP KILLED BY U-BOAT". The New York Times. Mar 27, 1917. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
^"HMHS Asturias". roll-of-honour.com. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
^The war on hospital ships, with narratives of eyewitnesses, and British and German diplomatic correspondence (1918) (1918 ed.). New York and London : Harper & brothers. pp. 14–15. - Call number: SRLF_UCSB:LAGE-315170
^"Kirsten – The Fleets". The Ships List. 2009. Archived from the original on 10 October 2009. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
^Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Huntly". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
^"HMHS Dover Castle (+1917)". wrecksite. 2009. Retrieved 21 August 2009.
^"SS Donegal (+1917)". wrecksite. 2011. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
^Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Donegal". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
^"SS Donegal". clydesite.co.uk. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved November 8, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^"U-BOATS DESTROY 2 HOSPITAL SHIPS". The New York Times. April 22, 1917. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
^ a b c"AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN HOSPITAL SHIPS OF WORLD WAR I". jeffdonofrio.net. 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
^"TEUTON HOSPITAL SHIP SUNK IN THE ADRIATIC" (PDF). The New York Times. March 20, 1916. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
^"Hospital Ship Sunk by a U-Boat" (PDF). The New York Times. February 28, 1918. Retrieved 2 August 2009.
^"Union Line and Castle Lines". merchantnavyofficers.com. 2009. Retrieved 21 August 2009.
^Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Koningin Regentes". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
^"PSS Koningin Regentes (+1918)". wrecksite. 2011. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
^"PSS Koningin Regentes [+1918]". wrecksite.eu. 22 October 2009. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
^"Booth Line's S.S. "Lanfranc" 2". bluestarline.org. September 25, 2005. Archived from the original on July 4, 2008. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
^"Letitia - 1917". museum.gov.ns.ca. 2011. Archived from the original on July 26, 2013. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
^"SS Letitia". wrecksite. 2011. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
^Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Marechiaro". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved August 29, 2009.
^"Ships used in Immigration". jeffdonofrio.net. 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
^The War on hospital ships, from the narratives of eye-witnesses (1917) (1917 ed.). London : T. Fisher Unwin. 1917. p. 1. - Call number: SRLF_UCLA:LAGE-3563453
^"War of the U-Boats" (PDF). The New York Times. July 28, 1918. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
^"SS Rohilla (+1914)". wrecksite. 2011. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
^"Rohilla". merchantnavyofficers.com. 2002. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
^"HMHS Rohilla". roll-of-honour.com. 2011. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
^Leroux, Marc (2008). "HMS Salta". union-castle.net. Archived from the original on 31 August 2011. Retrieved 21 August 2009.
^Schnee 2018, p. 199
^"Kaiserliche Marine 1916" (in German). deutsche-schutzgebiete.de. 2000. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
^"SS Tabora (+1914)". wrecksite. 2011. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
^The war on hospital ships, with narratives of eyewitnesses, and British and German diplomatic correspondence (1918) (1918 ed.). New York and London : Harper & brothers. 1917. p. 11. - Call number: SRLF_UCSB:LAGE-315170
^"Peace Movement Diverts Attention at Year's End from Battlefields to Chancelleries of Belligerents and Principal Neutral Capitals" (PDF). The New York Times. December 31, 1916. Retrieved August 24, 2009.
^П.Г.Усенко (P.G.Usenko), IСТОРIЇ ВЕЛИКОЇ ВIЙНИ 1914–1917 рр. НА ЧОРНОМУ МОРI[permanent dead link] (From the history of the Great War of the 1914-1917 on the Black Sea). Page 80. (in Ukrainian)
^"Wounded drown at night". The New York Times. Aug 6, 1918. Retrieved 21 August 2009.
Schnee, Heinrich (2018). Deutsch-Ostafrika Im Weltkriege (in German). WENTWORTH Press. ISBN 9780341468585. - Total pages: 546