The Llandovery Castle Massacre — How a Little-Known Attack on a WWI Hospital Ship Would Forever Change War Crime Prosecutions

“In the 1940s, Allied prosecutors preparing for a new round of war crimes trials revisited the Llandovery Castle decision.”

ON THE EVENING of June 27, 1918, the Canadian hospital ship Llandovery Castle was heading from Halifax to Liverpool.

Weighing 11,423-tons, the former passenger liner had been turned over to Great Britain’s military in 1916, serving first as a troop transport then as a hospital ship. In early 1918, it was chartered by the Government of Canada to ferry Canadian soldiers wounded on the Western front back home for a long convalescence.

As the Llandovery Castle neared the Irish Coast, it was spotted by the German U-boat U-86. Despite the fact that the vessel was clearly marked with illuminated red cross insignia, the 27-year-old commander of the submarine, Helmut Patzig, ordered his crew to attack.

At least one of U-86’s torpedoes struck home. The Llandovery Castle contained over 600 beds and cots for patients, but these were empty — the ship was steaming to England to pick up another transport of wounded servicemen. Still, more than 250 people were on board: a British crew and personnel from the Canadian Army Medical Corps, including 14 nurses.

U-86. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons)

As the Llandovery Castle went down, those on board scrambled into lifeboats. Witnesses would later report that the U-86 surfaced. Survivors were ordered off lifeboats and onto the sub deck for questioning. After concluding the interrogations, Patzig’s crew fired on the lifeboats with a 10.5 cm deck cannon. Only one lifeboat containing 24 men escaped. They were the only survivors of the Llandovery Castle ambush.

The Llandovery Castle should not have been a target. According to the Hague Conventions—pre-war treaties that tried to regulate combat—hospital ships could be stopped and boarded but not attacked. Germany was a signatory of these conventions, along with other nations currently at war. As per Hague strictures, the Llandovery Castle was painted white with prominent red crosses along its sides and was brightly lit at night. Most importantly, it wasn’t carrying war supplies or armed soldiers—two other treaty rules for hospital ships.

The attack wasn’t the result of mistaken identity; the crew of U-86 later testified they knew the Llandovery Castle was a hospital ship by its lights. Patzig still felt it was a legitimate target.

He wasn’t the only naval officer to think this way. The Imperial German Navy was convinced the Allies were abusing Hague privileges by using hospital ships to convey guns and reinforcements.

Read the entire article on the MilitaryHistoryNow.com website here:

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