Baralong Incident
Encyclopedia
The Baralong Incidents were naval engagements of the First World War
in August and September 1915, involving the Royal Navy
Q-Ship
HMS Baralong
, later renamed HMS Wyandra, and two German
U-boat
s.
The Baralong sank U-27, which had been preparing to sink a nearby merchant ship. About a dozen of the crewmen managed to escape the sinking submarine, and Lieutenant Godfrey Herbert, commanding officer of the Baralong, ordered the surviving sailors to be summarily executed
after they boarded the Nicosian. All the survivors of the U-27s sinking, including several who had reached the Nicosian, were shot by the Baralongs crew. Later, Baralong sank U-41
in an incident which has also been described as a war crime
.
by a German submarine in May 1915, the Lieutenant-Commander Godfrey Herbert of the Baralong was visited by two officers of the Admiralty
's Secret Service branch at the Naval base at Queenstown, Ireland
. He was told, "This Lusitania business is shocking. Unofficially, we are telling you... take no prisoners from U-boats."
Interviews with his subordinate officers have established LC Herbert's undisciplined manner of commanding his ship. Herbert allowed his men to engage in drunken binges during shore leave
. During one such incident at the port of Dartmouth
, several members of the Baralongs crew were arrested after destroying a local saloon. Herbert first paid their bail and then left port with the indicted crewmen aboard. Beginning in April 1915, Herbert further ordered his subordinates cease calling him, "Sir," and to address him only by the pseudonym
, "Captain William McBride."
Throughout the summer of 1915, the Baralong continued routine patrol duties in the Irish Sea without ever encountering the enemy.
On August 19, 1915, sank the White Star Line
r with the loss of 44 lives - this included three Americans and led to a diplomatic incident between Germany and the US. The Baralong had been about 20 mi (32.2 km) from the scene, and had received a distress call from the ship. Baralongs crew was infuriated by the attack and by their inability to locate survivors.
Meanwhile, about 100 miles south of Queenstown, U-27, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Bernard Wegener, stopped the British steamer Nicosian in accordance with the rules laid down by the London Declaration. A boarding party of six men from the U-27 discovered the Nicosian was carrying munitions and 250 American mules earmarked for the British Army
in France. They allowed the freighter's crew and passengers into lifeboats, and prepared to sink the freighter with their deck gun
.
U-27 was lying off Nicosians port quarter firing into it when the Baralong appeared on the scene, flying the ensign of the United States as a false flag
. When she was half a mile away Baralong ran up a signal flag to the effect that she was going to rescue Nicosians crew. Wegener acknowledged the signal. He then ordered his men to cease firing, and took U-27 along the port side of Nicosian to intercept the Baralong. As the submarine disappeared behind the steamship, Herbert steered Baralong on a parallel course along Nicosians starboard side.
Before U-27 came round Nicosians bow, Baralong hauled down the American flag, hoisted the Royal Navy's White Ensign
, and unmasked her guns. As U-27 came into view from behind Nicosian, Baralong opened fire with her three 12-pounder gun
s at a range of 600 yd (548.6 m), firing 34 rounds for only a single shot from the submarine. U-27 rolled over and began to sink.
According to Tony Bridgland,
Meanwhile, the crew of the Nicosian watched from the lifeboats, cheering wildly. Captain Manning was heard to scream, "If any of those bastard Huns come up, lads, hit 'em with an oar!"
Twelve men survived the sinking of the submarine, the crews of her two deck guns and those who had been on the conning tower. They swam to the Nicosian and clambered up her hanging boat falls and pilot ladder. Herbert, worried that they might try to scuttle the steamer, ordered his men to open fire with small arms, killing all except six on the Nicosian. Wegener is described by some accounts as being shot while trying to swim to the Baralong.
Herbert sent the Baralongs party of twelve Royal Marines commanded by a Corporal Collins to the Nicosian to hunt the surviving German sailors down. As they departed, Herbert told Collins, "Take no prisoners." They were discovered in the engine room and shot on sight. According to Sub-Lieutenant Gordon Steele of the Baralong: "Wegener ran to a cabin on the upper deck -- I later found out it was Manning's bathroom. The marines broke down the door with the butts of their rifles, but Wegener squeezes through a scuttle and dropped into the sea. He still had his life-jacket on and put up his arms in surrender. Corporal Collins, however, took aim and shot him through the head."
Corporal Collins later recalled that, after Wegener's death, Herbert threw a revolver in the German captain's face and screamed, "What about the Lusitania, you bastard!"
An alternative account says that the Germans who boarded the Nicosian were killed by the Nicosians engine room staff; this apparently came from the officer in command of the muleteers.
the freighter and scuttle her, so he ordered the Royal Marines
on his ship to shoot the survivors. If they had scuttled the freighter, it could have been counted as negligence on the part of Herbert. Moments before Baralong began her attack, the submarine was firing on the freighter. It is not known if the escaping sailors actually intended to scuttle the freighter.
The Admiralty, upon receiving Herbert's report, immediately ordered its suppression, but the strict censorship imposed on the event failed when Americans who had witnessed the incident from the Nicosians lifeboats spoke to newspaper reporters after their return to the United States.
The statements said that five survivors from U-27 managed to board the Nicosian, while the rest were shot and killed on Herbert's orders while clinging to the Nicosians lifeboat falls.The ropes by which a boat is lowered from the deck of a ship to the water It was further stated that when Herbert ordered his Marines to board the Nicosian, he gave the order "take no prisoners". Four German sailors were found in the Nicosians engine room and propeller shaft tunnel and were killed. According to the witness statements, U-27s commander was shot while swimming towards the Baralong.
The Memorandum demanded that the captain and crew of the Baralong be tried for the murder of unarmed German sailors, threatening to "take serious decision as to retribution for the unpunished crime". Sir Edward Grey
replied through the American ambassador that the incident could be grouped together with the Germans' sinking of the SS Arabic, their attack on a stranded British submarine on the neutral Dutch coast, and their attack on the steamship Ruel, and suggested that they be placed before a Tribunal composed of US Navy officers.
The outrage the Baralong incident aroused in Germany was used by the Kaiserliche Marine
to justify sinkings without warning at sea during World War I
, and especially in World War II
under Nazi Germany
. A German medal was issued commemorating the event. The German Navy also put the Baralong and her crew on the "Black List", meaning that any member of her crew was to be shot on sight if captured.
As a precaution to protect the ships against any reprisals against their crews, HMS Wyandra was transferred to the Mediterranean, and took the name of her sister ship Manica, while Baralongs name was deleted from Lloyd's Register
. The Nicosian was renamed Nevisian, and the crew was issued new Discharge Books, with the voyage omitted.
The crew of the Baralong were later awarded £185 prize bounty for sinking U-27.
A Kriegsmarine
submarine flotilla formed on June 25, 1938, was named "Wegener" in memory of the U-boat commander in this incident.
The U-41 was in the process of sinking SS Urbino with gunfire when the Baralong arrived on the scene, flying an American flag. When U-41 surfaced near the Baralong, the latter opened fire, continuing to fly the American flag, and sank the U-boat.
Crompton later published an account of U-41s exploits in 1917, "U-41: der zweite Baralong-Fall", which called the sinking of U-41 a "second Baralong case".
The event was also commemorated in a propaganda medal designed by the German Engraver Karl Goetz. This was one of many medals that were popular in Germany from around 1910 to 1940.
to order sailors attacked. Other historians debate this analysis (such as if the order was a violation) or debate aspects of the records, and have been either harsher or more lenient. Widely available German, British, and American records agree on certain facts, but a number of details of the incident may or may not have been fabricated based upon a less notable or extensive violation.
Disputed facts mostly center on the number of German sailors who escaped the sinking sub, to be killed later. This dispute undermines the justification of the British captain's order to attack the German survivors, on the grounds of protecting the freighter and her cargo. It is not known to what extent escaping German sailors attempted to surrender.
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in August and September 1915, involving the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
Q-Ship
Q-ship
Q-ships, also known as Q-boats, Decoy Vessels, Special Service Ships, or Mystery Ships, were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them...
HMS Baralong
HMS Baralong
HMS Baralong, also known as HMS Wyandrawas a Royal Navy warship that was active during World War I. She was a "Special Service Vessel" whose function was to act as a decoy, inviting attack by a U-boat in order to engage and destroy it.Baralong was successful on two occasions in her career,...
, later renamed HMS Wyandra, and two German
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
s.
The Baralong sank U-27, which had been preparing to sink a nearby merchant ship. About a dozen of the crewmen managed to escape the sinking submarine, and Lieutenant Godfrey Herbert, commanding officer of the Baralong, ordered the surviving sailors to be summarily executed
Summary execution
A summary execution is a variety of execution in which a person is killed on the spot without trial or after a show trial. Summary executions have been practiced by the police, military, and paramilitary organizations and are associated with guerrilla warfare, counter-insurgency, terrorism, and...
after they boarded the Nicosian. All the survivors of the U-27s sinking, including several who had reached the Nicosian, were shot by the Baralongs crew. Later, Baralong sank U-41
SM U-41 (Germany)
SM U-41 was one of the 329 submarines serving in the Kaiserliche Marine in World War I. U-41 engaged in naval warfare and took part in the First Battle of the Atlantic....
in an incident which has also been described as a war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
.
Action of 19 August 1915
After the sinking of the RMS LusitaniaRMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
by a German submarine in May 1915, the Lieutenant-Commander Godfrey Herbert of the Baralong was visited by two officers of the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
's Secret Service branch at the Naval base at Queenstown, Ireland
Cobh
Cobh is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. Cobh is on the south side of Great Island in Cork Harbour. Facing the town are Spike Island and Haulbowline Island...
. He was told, "This Lusitania business is shocking. Unofficially, we are telling you... take no prisoners from U-boats."
Interviews with his subordinate officers have established LC Herbert's undisciplined manner of commanding his ship. Herbert allowed his men to engage in drunken binges during shore leave
Shore leave
Shore leave is the leave that professional sailors get to spend on dry land. It is culturally infamous for its excess. Sailors without family obligations and with basic lodging needs provided aboard ship may spend their wages for the journey in a brief period of extravagance ashore and return to...
. During one such incident at the port of Dartmouth
Dartmouth, Devon
Dartmouth is a town and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the banks of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes...
, several members of the Baralongs crew were arrested after destroying a local saloon. Herbert first paid their bail and then left port with the indicted crewmen aboard. Beginning in April 1915, Herbert further ordered his subordinates cease calling him, "Sir," and to address him only by the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
, "Captain William McBride."
Throughout the summer of 1915, the Baralong continued routine patrol duties in the Irish Sea without ever encountering the enemy.
On August 19, 1915, sank the White Star Line
White Star Line
The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company, today most famous for its ill-fated vessel, the RMS Titanic, and the World War I loss of Titanics sister ship Britannic...
r with the loss of 44 lives - this included three Americans and led to a diplomatic incident between Germany and the US. The Baralong had been about 20 mi (32.2 km) from the scene, and had received a distress call from the ship. Baralongs crew was infuriated by the attack and by their inability to locate survivors.
Meanwhile, about 100 miles south of Queenstown, U-27, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Bernard Wegener, stopped the British steamer Nicosian in accordance with the rules laid down by the London Declaration. A boarding party of six men from the U-27 discovered the Nicosian was carrying munitions and 250 American mules earmarked for the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
in France. They allowed the freighter's crew and passengers into lifeboats, and prepared to sink the freighter with their deck gun
Deck gun
A deck gun is a type of artillery cannon mounted on the deck of a ship or submarine.The deck gun was used as a defensive weapon against smaller boats or ships and in certain cases where torpedo use was limited. Typically a crew of three; gunner, loader, and layer, operated the gun, while others...
.
U-27 was lying off Nicosians port quarter firing into it when the Baralong appeared on the scene, flying the ensign of the United States as a false flag
False flag
False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is flying the flag of a country other than one's own...
. When she was half a mile away Baralong ran up a signal flag to the effect that she was going to rescue Nicosians crew. Wegener acknowledged the signal. He then ordered his men to cease firing, and took U-27 along the port side of Nicosian to intercept the Baralong. As the submarine disappeared behind the steamship, Herbert steered Baralong on a parallel course along Nicosians starboard side.
Before U-27 came round Nicosians bow, Baralong hauled down the American flag, hoisted the Royal Navy's White Ensign
White Ensign
The White Ensign or St George's Ensign is an ensign flown on British Royal Navy ships and shore establishments. It consists of a red St George's Cross on a white field with the Union Flag in the upper canton....
, and unmasked her guns. As U-27 came into view from behind Nicosian, Baralong opened fire with her three 12-pounder gun
QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval gun
The QF 12 pounder 12 cwt gun was a common calibre naval gun introduced in 1894 and used until the middle of the 20th century. It was produced by Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick and used on Royal Navy warships, and exported to allied countries...
s at a range of 600 yd (548.6 m), firing 34 rounds for only a single shot from the submarine. U-27 rolled over and began to sink.
According to Tony Bridgland,
"Herbert screamed, 'Cease fire!' But his men's blood was up. They were avenging the Arabic and the Lusitania. For them this was no time to cease firing, even as the survivors of the crew appeared on the outer casing, struggling out of their clothes to swim away from her. There was a mighty hiss of compressed air from her tanks and the U-27 vanished from sight in a vortex of giant rumbling bubbles, leaving a pall of smoke over the spot where she had been. It had taken only a few minutes to fire the thirty-four shells into her."
Meanwhile, the crew of the Nicosian watched from the lifeboats, cheering wildly. Captain Manning was heard to scream, "If any of those bastard Huns come up, lads, hit 'em with an oar!"
Twelve men survived the sinking of the submarine, the crews of her two deck guns and those who had been on the conning tower. They swam to the Nicosian and clambered up her hanging boat falls and pilot ladder. Herbert, worried that they might try to scuttle the steamer, ordered his men to open fire with small arms, killing all except six on the Nicosian. Wegener is described by some accounts as being shot while trying to swim to the Baralong.
Herbert sent the Baralongs party of twelve Royal Marines commanded by a Corporal Collins to the Nicosian to hunt the surviving German sailors down. As they departed, Herbert told Collins, "Take no prisoners." They were discovered in the engine room and shot on sight. According to Sub-Lieutenant Gordon Steele of the Baralong: "Wegener ran to a cabin on the upper deck -- I later found out it was Manning's bathroom. The marines broke down the door with the butts of their rifles, but Wegener squeezes through a scuttle and dropped into the sea. He still had his life-jacket on and put up his arms in surrender. Corporal Collins, however, took aim and shot him through the head."
Corporal Collins later recalled that, after Wegener's death, Herbert threw a revolver in the German captain's face and screamed, "What about the Lusitania, you bastard!"
An alternative account says that the Germans who boarded the Nicosian were killed by the Nicosians engine room staff; this apparently came from the officer in command of the muleteers.
Aftermath
In Herbert's report to the Admiralty, he stated he feared the survivors from the U-boat's crew would boardBoarding (attack)
Boarding, in its simplest sense, refers to the insertion on to a ship's deck of individuals. However, when it is classified as an attack, in most contexts, it refers to the forcible insertion of personnel that are not members of the crew by another party without the consent of the captain or crew...
the freighter and scuttle her, so he ordered the Royal Marines
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
on his ship to shoot the survivors. If they had scuttled the freighter, it could have been counted as negligence on the part of Herbert. Moments before Baralong began her attack, the submarine was firing on the freighter. It is not known if the escaping sailors actually intended to scuttle the freighter.
The Admiralty, upon receiving Herbert's report, immediately ordered its suppression, but the strict censorship imposed on the event failed when Americans who had witnessed the incident from the Nicosians lifeboats spoke to newspaper reporters after their return to the United States.
German memorandum
The German government delivered a memorandum on the incident via the American ambassador in Berlin, who received it on 6 December 1915. In it, they cited six US citizens as witnesses, stating they had made sworn depositions regarding the incident before public notaries in the US.The statements said that five survivors from U-27 managed to board the Nicosian, while the rest were shot and killed on Herbert's orders while clinging to the Nicosians lifeboat falls.The ropes by which a boat is lowered from the deck of a ship to the water It was further stated that when Herbert ordered his Marines to board the Nicosian, he gave the order "take no prisoners". Four German sailors were found in the Nicosians engine room and propeller shaft tunnel and were killed. According to the witness statements, U-27s commander was shot while swimming towards the Baralong.
The Memorandum demanded that the captain and crew of the Baralong be tried for the murder of unarmed German sailors, threatening to "take serious decision as to retribution for the unpunished crime". Sir Edward Grey
Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon
Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon KG, PC, FZL, DL , better known as Sir Edward Grey, Bt, was a British Liberal statesman. He served as Foreign Secretary from 1905 to 1916, the longest continuous tenure of any person in that office...
replied through the American ambassador that the incident could be grouped together with the Germans' sinking of the SS Arabic, their attack on a stranded British submarine on the neutral Dutch coast, and their attack on the steamship Ruel, and suggested that they be placed before a Tribunal composed of US Navy officers.
German reaction
A debate took place in the Reichstag on 15 January 1916, where the Baralong incident was described as a "cowardly murder" and Grey's note as being "full of insolence and arrogance". It was announced that reprisals had been decided, but not what form they would take.The outrage the Baralong incident aroused in Germany was used by the Kaiserliche Marine
Kaiserliche Marine
The Imperial German Navy was the German Navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy and Norddeutsche Bundesmarine, which primarily had the mission of coastal defense. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded...
to justify sinkings without warning at sea during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and especially in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
under Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. A German medal was issued commemorating the event. The German Navy also put the Baralong and her crew on the "Black List", meaning that any member of her crew was to be shot on sight if captured.
As a precaution to protect the ships against any reprisals against their crews, HMS Wyandra was transferred to the Mediterranean, and took the name of her sister ship Manica, while Baralongs name was deleted from Lloyd's Register
Lloyd's Register
The Lloyd's Register Group is a maritime classification society and independent risk management organisation providing risk assessment and mitigation services and management systems certification. Historically, as Lloyd's Register of Shipping, it was a specifically maritime organisation...
. The Nicosian was renamed Nevisian, and the crew was issued new Discharge Books, with the voyage omitted.
The crew of the Baralong were later awarded £185 prize bounty for sinking U-27.
A Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
submarine flotilla formed on June 25, 1938, was named "Wegener" in memory of the U-boat commander in this incident.
Action of 24 September 1915
On 24 September 1915, Baralong sank the U-boat , for which her commanding officer at the time, Lieutenant-Commander A. Wilmot-Smith, was later awarded £170 prize bounty.The U-41 was in the process of sinking SS Urbino with gunfire when the Baralong arrived on the scene, flying an American flag. When U-41 surfaced near the Baralong, the latter opened fire, continuing to fly the American flag, and sank the U-boat.
Aftermath of the second incident
There were no neutral witnesses to the events that followed, apart from the German and British sailors present. Oberleutnant zur See Iwan Crompton later reported on the incident after he returned from a British prisoner of war camp, reporting that the Baralong had run down the lifeboat he was in; he leapt clear and was shortly after taken aboard the Baralong. The British crew denied that they had run down the lifeboat.Crompton later published an account of U-41s exploits in 1917, "U-41: der zweite Baralong-Fall", which called the sinking of U-41 a "second Baralong case".
The event was also commemorated in a propaganda medal designed by the German Engraver Karl Goetz. This was one of many medals that were popular in Germany from around 1910 to 1940.
Modern views of the incidents
It was a controversial event and many historians agree it was a violation of protocolWar crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
to order sailors attacked. Other historians debate this analysis (such as if the order was a violation) or debate aspects of the records, and have been either harsher or more lenient. Widely available German, British, and American records agree on certain facts, but a number of details of the incident may or may not have been fabricated based upon a less notable or extensive violation.
Disputed facts mostly center on the number of German sailors who escaped the sinking sub, to be killed later. This dispute undermines the justification of the British captain's order to attack the German survivors, on the grounds of protecting the freighter and her cargo. It is not known to what extent escaping German sailors attempted to surrender.
See also
- Unrestricted submarine warfareUnrestricted submarine warfareUnrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchantmen without warning, as opposed to attacks per prize rules...
- Merchant raiders
- Commerce raidingCommerce raidingCommerce raiding or guerre de course is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt the logistics of an enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging the combatants themselves or enforcing a blockade against them.Commerce raiding was heavily criticised by...
- Tonnage warTonnage warA tonnage war is a military strategy aimed at merchant shipping. The premise is that an enemy has only a finite number of ships, and a finite capacity to build replacements for them. The concept was made famous by U-boat commander Karl Dönitz, who wrote: The shipping of the enemy powers is one...