The Sinking of the Laconia

The Sinking of the Laconia is a twopart TV film, first aired onandJanuary 2011 on BBC Two, about the Laconia incident the sinking of the British ocean liner RMS Laconia during World War II by a German Uboat, which then, together with three other Uboats and an Italian submarine, rescued the passengers but was in turn attacked by an American bomber.

Six hundred miles from the coast of Africa, in September 1942, a German Uboat, U156, sinks the British troopship Laconia which is en route from Cape Town to the United Kingdom. a When realising that there are POWs and civilians on board, and that they are facing certain death without rescue, Uboat Commander Werner Hartenstein Duken makes a decision which goes against the orders of German high command. The Uboat surfaces and Hartenstein instructs his men to save as many of the shipwrecked survivors as they can. b Hartenstein also attempts to dive with all the survivors on board and, though this puts the submarine into a crash dive, control is regained and it resurfaces. He also has a Red Cross flag displayed and a message sent to the Allies to organise a rescue of the survivors. The Italian prisoners are taken off U156 by another Uboat and an Italian submarine c . ........

Source: Wikipedia