Heinz-Wilhelm Eck (27 March 1916 30 November 1945) was a German

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...

commander of the Second World War who was tried, convicted, condemned and executed postwar for ordering his crew to shoot the survivors of a Greek merchantman sunk by .

Service history

Eck was born in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

and served with the ''

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...

'' from 1934, becoming a ''

Kapitänleutnant ''Kapitänleutnant'', short: KptLt/in lists: KL, ( en, captain lieutenant) is an officer grade of the captains' military hierarchy group () of the German Bundeswehr. The rank is rated OF-2 in NATO, and equivalent to Hauptmann in the Heer an ...

'' on 1 December 1941 and assuming his first command on 15 June 1943. From 18 January 1944 he led on a patrol heading for South African waters and then on to the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

. While en route he encountered the lone Greek steamer , and sank her with two torpedoes on 13 March.

''Peleus'' affair

The sinking ''Peleus'' left a large debris field, amongst which were several survivors clinging to rafts and wreckage. This debris could betray the presence of ''U-852'' to enemy aircraft and shipping patrolling the area. Eck decided to sink the wreckage with

hand grenades A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade gener ...

and

automatic weapons An automatic firearm is an auto-loading firearm that continuously chambers and fires rounds when the trigger mechanism is actuated. The action of an automatic firearm is capable of harvesting the excess energy released from a previous dischar ...

. The question of whether this "dispersal" order explicitly or implicitly encouraged the killing of the sailors in the water, or whether this was an unfortunate example of

collateral damage Collateral damage is any death, injury, or other damage inflicted that is an incidental result of an activity. Originally coined by military operations, it is now also used in non-military contexts. Since the development of precision guided ...

was the subject of a post-war trial. During the trial, Eck acknowledged he realized that by sinking the rafts, he was denying the seamen a chance of survival. Eck ordered his junior officers to fire into the wreckage in an effort to sink it. Accounts differ greatly as to the number of shots fired and the damage done. The two surviving Greek sailors reported the shooting went on for a long time, and that at least four of their compatriots were killed by it. The German crew's report stated, however, that they had fired several short machine gun bursts into the wreckage and were unable to see their targets in the dark. The men shooting were later proven to be the ship's

engineering officer An engineering officer can be a Merchant Navy engineer or a commissioned officer with responsibility for military engineering, typically used in the British Armed Forces. In the Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's nava ...

Hans Lenz Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjab ...

(who claimed he had done so under protest to spare an enlisted man from having to do it), Walter Weisspfennig (the ship's

doctor Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

who was not supposed to be handling

firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...

s), the second in command August Hoffmann and an enlisted engineer, Wolfgang Schwender (who was under direct orders and fired very few rounds). Eck was also present during the incident; the remaining crew were below decks. The operation to sink the rafts and wreckage was not hugely successful, but the submarine was able to evade pursuit, and managed to sink the British merchant ship SS ''Dahomian'' off

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

on 1 April, this time hastily leaving the scene rather than pausing. A few weeks later on 30 April the boat was spotted by a

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its ...

bomber flying from

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, which managed to damage her with

depth charges A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive hydraulic shock. Most depth charges use h ...

, thus preventing her from diving. Eck went to the

Somali Somali may refer to: Horn of Africa * Somalis, an inhabitant or ethnicity associated with Greater Somali Region ** Proto-Somali, the ancestors of modern Somalis ** Somali culture ** Somali cuisine ** Somali language, a Cushitic language ** Somali ...

coast and beached ''U-852'' on a coral reef while under attack from six bombers of 621 Squadron

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

. Of Eck's crew of 65, seven were killed and the remaining 58 made it to shore. They were captured by the

Somaliland Camel Corps The Somaliland Camel Corps (SCC) was a Rayid unit of the British Army based in British Somaliland. It lasted from the early 20th century until 1944. Beginnings and the Dervish rebellion In 1888, after signing successive treaties with the then r ...

and local militia and sent to prison camps to await the end of the war.

Post-war trial

In prison, Lenz provided his captors with a signed confession. This, when combined with the testimony of the ''Peleus'' survivors and the log of ''U-852'' (which Eck had failed to destroy), provided conclusive testimony. Following the war's conclusion, all the above named crew members were placed on trial at the Hamburg war trials (an extension of the

Nuremberg trials The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945 ...

for less prominent war criminals) for the deaths of the steamer's crew. The judge was

Melford Stevenson Sir Aubrey Melford Steed Stevenson (17 October 1902 – 26 December 1987), usually known as Sir Melford Stevenson, was an English barrister and, later, a High Court judge, whose judicial career was marked by his controversial conduct and ...

. After a four-day hearing, at which crew members, survivors and experts were called, all five men were found guilty. Eck, Hoffmann, and Weisspfennig were sentenced to death. Weisspfennig was condemned because as a

non-combatant Non-combatant is a term of art in the law of war and international humanitarian law to refer to civilians who are not taking a direct part in hostilities; persons, such as combat medics and military chaplains, who are members of the belligere ...

under the

Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conv ...

, he was prohibited from firing weapons even in action. Eck and Hoffmann were executed because in their roles as the boat's senior officers, responsibility for the actions of their crew, as well as their own, fell directly on their shoulders. All three were shot by

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are ...

Lüneburg Heath Lüneburg Heath (german: Lüneburger Heide) is a large area of heath, geest, and woodland in the northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen ...

on 30 November 1945. Lenz, due to his protests and his written confession, received a life sentence, while Schwender, the only man involved who had been under direct orders, was given seven years. Schwender was released from prison on 21 December 1951; Lenz was released on 27 August 1952. The incident was the only case in which U-boat personnel were convicted of war crimes committed during the Second World War, compared to the thousands of people from the other branches of service. Similar and even worse war crimes had been committed by German submarines during the First World War, as in the case of the machine-gunning of the survivors of the hospital ship. Allied submarines (such as and ) were also recorded as committing similar war crimes, though such instances were quietly hushed up at the time and years after the war ended; no legal proceedings were ever attempted against their crews. The crew of the ''Wahoo'' could not be tried after the war, because they were by then dead, as were the crew of the German , who had shot the shipwrecked survivors of the fishing trawler ''Noreen Mary''. However, the historian Dwight R. Messimer from the U.S. Naval Institute came to the conclusion, that "regardless of whether or not Heinz Eck and the others were guilty of war crimes, poor judgment, or of just following orders, the outcome of the trial was Siegerjustiz (victor's justice)". Gwyn Griffin's best-selling 1967 novel ''An Operational Necessity'' was based on the ''Peleus'' Incident.

References

Bibliography

* * * Savas, Theodore P., editor. (1997, 2004). ''Silent Hunters: German U-boat Commanders of World War II''. Naval Institute Press and Savas Publishing Company. (Includes long essay on Eck with extensive discussion of the trial testimony and his actions, by Dwight Messimer.) * Dwight R. Messimer: Heinz-Wilhelm Eck - Siegerjustiz and the Peleus Affair. In: ''Silent Hunters: German U-boat Commanders of World War II''. Da Capo Press 1997. , pages 137ff

External links