THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Kranzbühler, the defendant has already told us of the losses and of the reason for the losses. What is the good of giving us details of the fact that U-boats were fighting aircraft?
FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: I wanted to show, Mr. President, that the testimony of Admiral Dönitz is confirmed by the entries in his diary of that time. But if the Tribunal...
THE PRESIDENT: That’s a matter of common knowledge. We can read it. Anyhow, if you just draw our attention to the document we will read it. We don’t need you to read the details of it.
FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: Yes, Mr. President. I will do it that way.
DÖNITZ: That is a typical and characteristic entry in my war diary of those weeks and days just before the issuance of my order; but I wanted to add the following: The aircraft were very dangerous especially for psychological reasons: when no aircraft is on the scene, the commander of the U-boat views his situation as perfectly clear but the next moment when the aircraft comes into sight, his situation is completely hopeless. And that happened not only to young commanders, but to old experienced commanders who remembered the good old times. Perhaps I may, quite briefly, give a clear-cut example. A U-boat needs one minute for the crew to come in through the hatch before it can submerge at all. An airplane flies on the average 6,000 meters in one minute. The U-boat, therefore, in order to be able to submerge at all—and not to be bombed while it is still on the surface—must sight the aircraft from a distance of at least 6,000 meters. But that also is not sufficient, for even if the U-boat has submerged it still has not reached a safe depth. The U-boat, therefore, must sight the airplane even earlier, namely, at the extreme boundary of the field of vision. Therefore, it is an absolute condition of success that the U-boat is in a state of constant alert, that above all it proceeds at maximum speed, because the greater the speed the faster the U-boat submerges; and, secondly, that as few men as possible are on the tower so that they can come into the U-boat as quickly as possible which means that there should be no men on the upper deck at all, and so on. Now, rescue work, which necessitates being on the upper deck in order to bring help and take care of more people and which may even mean taking in tow a number of lifeboats, naturally completely interrupts the submarine’s state of alert, and the U-boat is, as a consequence, hopelessly exposed to any attack from the air.
FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: Mr. President, I wish now to take up the Laconia matter itself which I would be reluctant to have interrupted. If it is agreeable to the Tribunal, I would suggest that we have a recess now.
[A recess was taken.]
FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: Admiral, you have just described the enemy’s supremacy in the air in September 1942. During these September days you received the report about the sinking of the British transport Laconia. I submit to the Tribunal the war diaries concerning that incident under Numbers Dönitz-18, 20, 21, and 22. These are the war diaries of the commanders of U-boats and of the commanders of the submarines which took part in this action, Kapitänleutnants Hartenstein, Schacht and Würdemann. They are reproduced in the document book on Page 34 and the following pages. I shall read to you the report which you received. That is on Page 35 of the document book, 13 September, 0125 hours. I read:
“Wireless message sent on America circuit:
“Sunk by Hartenstein British ship Laconia.”