Four: Sergeant A. E. Hammarton, Royal Air Force, who died at sea on 12 September 1942, when the Cunard White Star liner, S.S. Laconia was torpedoed and sunk by U-156 in shark-infested waters off West Africa, with 1,800 Italian Prisoners of War aboard: on learning of this, the U-Boat commander commenced rescue operations, but his admirable endeavours, and those of other U-Boats that joined the scene, were quickly curtailed by an unfortunate attack delivered by Allied aircraft - and the transmittal of Doenitz’s notorious ‘Laconia Order’

1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with named Air Council enclosure, in card box of issue addressed to ‘N. V. Hammarton, 5 Cowslip Road, South Woodford, London E.18’, nearly extremely fine (4) £100-£140

Albert Edward Hammarton, prior to transferring to the Royal Air Force, had served as Gunner No. 861173 in 175th Heavy Battery, Royal Artillery (T.A.). During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force as Sergeant No. 538645, and had volunteered for service as an Air Gunner, he saw service in 47 (B) Squadron in the Middle East at Heliopolis and at Khartoum, before transferring as operational aircrew to 162 (Wellington) Squadron as Sergeant Wireless Operator. He appears to have become unwell and was transferred No. 7 General Hospital and was then being repatriated to the U.K. aboard the Laconia when he died at sea on 12 September 1942. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Alamein Memorial, Egypt.

S.S. Laconia
The S.S. Laconia was homeward bound from the Cape in September 1942, with some 2,700 people aboard, including 1,800 Italian Prisoners of War under a 160-strong Polish guard, when she was torpedoed by the U-156, commanded by Kapitain Werner Hartenstein, on 12 September 1942, in a position about 500 miles south of Cape Palmas, Liberia and about 360 miles north-east of Ascension Island. Shortly after the liner capsized, the crew of the now surfaced U-Boat were amazed to hear Italian voices yelling amongst the survivors struggling in the water, and on speaking to some of them, Werner Hartenstein immediately began rescue operations, alerting at the same time nearby U-Boats to come to his assistance. Also by radio he contacted his seniors in Germany, asking for instructions and, more courageously, sent out an un-coded message inviting any nearby ships to assist, allied or otherwise, promising not to attack them on the basis his U-Boat, too, was left unmolested. And amazingly, to begin with at least, Berlin replied in the affirmative, although Hitler personally intervened to threaten Admiral Raeder in the event of any U-Boats being lost to enemy action as a result of the rescue operation. Over the next few days, Hartenstein’s ‘rescue package’ achieved commendable results, and by 16 September, U-156 had picked up around 400 survivors, half of which she towed astern in lifeboats, while other enemy U-Boats, the U-506 and the U-507, and the Italian Cappellini, had arrived on the scene and acted with similar compassion.

Tragically, on 16 September, an American Liberator bomber, operating out of Ascension Island, attacked the gathered U-Boats, forcing Hartenstein and his fellow captains to cut their tows with the lifeboats and submerge. Mercifully, some Vichy French warships arrived on the scene soon afterwards from Dakar, and in total, including those still aboard the U-Boats, some several hundred men, women and children were saved. But two lifeboats remained undiscovered, their occupants having to endure a living nightmare, adrift without adequate sustenance, under a burning sun, with sharks for company, for several weeks.

Following his enforced departure from the scene of rescue on 16 September, Kapitain Hartenstein remained in contact with Berlin, in a vain attempt to complete his worthy task. In the event, he, and his fellow U-Boat commanders, received Doenitz’s infamous ‘Laconia Order’, forbidding any attempt to assist survivors of sunken vessels, a diktat that mercilessly rewrote the conduct of sea warfare (and became one of the charges levelled at the Grand Admiral at Nuremberg).

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