I should like to read to the Tribunal from an English document, to show that the boats were really acting according to these orders. It is Exhibit Number GB-191. It is in the original on Page 5, Mr. President. That sentence is not in the English excerpt, and that is why I will read it in English from the original:
“Thus the Germans started with the Ordinance which was, at any rate, a clear, reasonable, and not inhuman document.
“German submarine commanders, with some exceptions, behaved in accordance with its provisions during the first months of the war. Indeed, in one case, a submarine had ordered the crew of a trawler to take to their boat as the ship was to be sunk. But when the commander saw the state of the boat, he said: ‘Thirteen men in that boat! You English are no good, sending a ship to sea with a boat like that.’ And the skipper was told to re-embark his crew on the trawler and make for home at full speed, with a bottle of German gin and the submarine commander’s compliments.”
That is an English opinion taken out of a document of the Prosecution.
My next document is Dönitz-56, an excerpt from the War Diary of the Naval Operations Staff of 9 September 1939, on Page 141.
“English information office disseminates the news through Reuters that Germany has opened total U-boat warfare.”
Then, as Dönitz-57, on Page 143, I should like to submit to the Tribunal an account of the experiences which the Naval Operations Staff had in U-boat warfare up to that date. It is an entry of 21 September 1939 in the War Diary of the Naval Operations Staff. I read under Figure 2:
“The commanders of U-boats which have returned report the following valuable experiences:
“...(b) English, partly also neutral steamers, sharp zigzags, partly blacked-out. English steamers, when stopped, immediately radio SOS with exact position. Thereupon English planes come in to fight U-boats.
“(c) English steamers have repeatedly tried to escape. Some steamers are armed, one steamer returned fire.