The next document I submit is Dönitz-84, Page 238, the War Log of U-boat 48, which sank the City of Benares. I read the entry of 17 September 1940:
“Time 1002. Convoy sighted. Course about 240 degrees, speed 7 nautical miles. Contact maintained, since underwater attack is no longer possible because of the heavy swell. No escort can be seen with the convoy.”
I will summarize the entry of 18 September 1940.
It describes the firing of a torpedo on a ship belonging to that convoy—the City of Benares.
A few minutes later, at 0007 hours, the submarine attacked a second ship in the convoy, the British steamer Marina. Both ships sent wireless messages. Twenty minutes later the submarine again had an artillery combat with a tanker from the convoy. That is the true story of the City of Benares.
I reproduce the Prosecution’s Exhibit GB-192 again on Page 240. It concerns the sinking of the Sheaf Mead. In this connection I should like to point out that that ship was heavily armed and that it probably was no merchant vessel but a submarine trap. The Prosecution’s Exhibit GB-195, which was dealt with in yesterday’s hearing, contains an order issued by the Führer in July 1941 concerning attacks on United States merchant vessels in the blockade zone which had been declared around England. On the basis of this document, the Prosecution charges Dönitz with conducting a cynical and opportunistic warfare against neutrals.
My next document is Donitz-86, Page 243. It shows the efforts which were made to avoid a conflict with the United States. I read the entry, dated 5 March 1940, from the War Diary of the Naval Operations Staff:
“With reference to the conduct of economic warfare, orders are given to the Naval Forces that U.S. ships are not to be stopped, seized, or sunk. The reason is the assurance given by the Commander-in-Chief to the American Naval Attaché, whom he received on 20 February, that German submarines had orders not to stop any American ships whatsoever. All possibility of difficulties arising between the U.S.A. and Germany as a result of economic warfare are thereby to be eliminated from the start.”
This order means, therefore, that prize law measures were renounced.
The next document, Dönitz-87, Page 244, shows the practical recognition of the American zone of neutrality. It reads: