Sink The Bismark. Was This A War Crime?

[10ClarionSt]

Many sailors who were at this battle said the Bismark had raised the black flag of surrender before being torpedoed by HMS Dorsetshire. Was this tantamount to a war crime by the British Navy? It's speculated that Churchill wanted the Bismark sunk in repraisal for the loss of HMS Hood. Many of the crew on Dorsetshire protested about firing torpedos into Bismark. But like many things in WW2, I suppose we will never really know the full story.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1391220/Should-sunk-Bismarck-Tormented-sailor-reveals-German-sailors-tried-surrender-ship-destroyed-costing-2-000-lives.html

[sandyRoe]

The victors can't commit war crimes.

[jno]

hadn't heard that before.

It won't be deemed a war crie because that would remind people of the Belgrano.

[Canary42]

Nazi propaganda.

[jno]

Nazi propaganda from one of the British sailors??

[heathfield]

The Hague convention stipulates that a white flag is to be used as a signal of for offer of surrender or temporary truce. So why a black flag? Lowering a ship's colours also signals that a ship is willing to surrender. Observers have stated that Bismark sank with her colours still flying. But no doubt the controversy will run and run, and serve to increase the sales of Iain Ballantyne's new book.

[jno]

"The internationally recognized symbol for offering parley is a black flag, particularly in the context of shipping. For example a ship at war wishing to enter parley with its attackers may raise a black flag to indicate this"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parley

[emmie]

no it wasn't, this is war, and that ain't pretty, if you had rather we lost then fine. Do you think the Japanese thought for one minute before bombing Pearl Harbour, or indeed the Nazi war machine killing millions, whichever way you work this there are unpleasant, nasty and downright gruesome
happenings in war time, and if we start by playing nice we will get walked over. If they sunk the Bismark it was because it was a threat, the sinking of HMS Hood may have been pay back, but think if they had not sunk it, it would have gone on to take many more British and allied lives.

[Sqad]

It was the bloody Bismark Clarion, which as sunk the Hood, 1,000 lives lost. The Nazi Wolfpacks were in full flow.....not a time for the "queasy"

The Bismark had to be sunk and if it was already going down but torpedoes gave it an extra push.....so be it.

[Sqad]

so....X posted with emmie.

[emmie]

and an old pal of mine served in the merchant navy in WW2, , and had the dastardly misfortune to be torpedoed twice, first and second ship went down with the loss of many hands, don't think for one minute the Germans who were responsible thought about the loss of those lives, and even if they did, this was all out war.

[emmie]

more than 1,400 were lost, 3 survivors, and see who was involved

http://www.hmshood.com/history/denmarkstrait/whyloss.htm

[VHG]

Just before D Day we (the allies) bombed all along the French coast to destroy roads, railway lines, bridges etc.

We did not want to alert the Germans that we were going to land at Normandy so we bombed all along the coast, including many places we had no intention of landing.

This killed many French people and destroyed many towns and villages.

Was this a war crime?

I am afraid in war nasty things happen, it is the nature of things.

I am sure the Germans and Japs committed far worse "war crimes" than the allies.

Just before D Day we bombed a French town with Germans in it, and the Germans were so annoyed they took out over 90 prisoners (mostly French Resistance) from the local jail and shot them in cold blood.

Just after D Day the Germans went to a nearby village and massacred over 600 innocent people from that village. The village is still there as it was afte the massacre, empty.

http://www.oradour.info/

Don't feel sorry for the Germans.

[frugalfred]

I've visited Oradour-sur-Glane - a most thought-provoking place.

[Baldric]

So, what are you suggesting, we stump up a bit of Compo maybe?

[emmie]

nor the Japanese, they committed such atrocities, on the Chinese, Koreans, and anyone unlucky enough to be captured, read any record of the prisoners in Japanese run prisons, they didn't adhere to the Geneva convention.

[jno]

[i]I am sure the Germans and Japs committed far worse "war crimes" than the allies.[i]

But of course - as sandyRoe points out, victors never commit war crimes.

But the Germans, as I recall, were prosecuted for theirs. Whereas ours just never happened.

[emmie]

as are the death camps, it's a reminder just what they were capable of, and wartime is not for the faint of heart, we like many countries were fighting for our lives, freedom from tyranny.

[jno]

so you're saying that as lots of people commit crimes, nobody should be charged with them, emmie? Much like modern London, then.

[shaneystar2]

Don't feel sorry for the Germans ?
If you knew the other side of it from personal experience at what my late father in law went through during the war you would feel sorry .He wasn't a Nazi .Just an ordinary man who through no fault of his own had to serve .
This anti German business that still goes on today really piddles me off .
And of course the bombing of Dresden wasn't a war crime ?