“. . . pursuant to the Führer’s consent on principle (see minutes of report of Commander-in-Chief Navy of 30 December) to authorize firing without warning while maintaining the pretence of mine hits in certain parts of the American blockade zone. . . .”
Well, then the order is given to Flag Officer U-boats carrying out that decision.
The next extract, dated the 18th of January 1940, adds to some extent, and if I may read it:
“The High Command of the Armed Forces has issued the following directive dated 17th of January, cancelling the previous order concerning intensified measures of warfare against merchantmen.
“The Navy is authorized, with immediate effect, to sink by U-boats without warning all ships in those waters near the enemy coasts in which the use of mines is possible.”—My Lord, that is an extension of the area.—“U-boats must adapt their behavior and employment of weapons to the pretence, which is to be maintained in these cases, that the hits were caused by mines. Ships of the United States, Italy, Japan, and Russia are exempted from these attacks.”
Well, then there is a note emphasizing the point about maintaining the pretense of mine hits and the last extract is, I think, purely cumulative.
The next document, C-118, I put in as Exhibit GB-195. This is an extract from the B.d.U. War Diary, that is to say the defendant’s war diary. It is dated the 18th of July 1941, and it consists of a further extension of that order by the cutting down of the protected categories.
“Supplementary to the order forbidding, for the time being, attacks on U.S. warships and merchant vessels in the operational area of the North Atlantic, the Führer has ordered the following: