FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: With the permission of the Tribunal I would like to submit my remaining documents, and then call Admiral Wagner as my first witness.
The next document I come to is Dönitz-37. It is an extract from Dokumente der Deutschen Politik on the Altmark case. I do not propose to read it. It concerns a report of the captain of the Altmark, which shows how the sailors of the Altmark were shot at while trying to escape by water and across the ice. There were seven dead. It can be found, Mr. President, on Page 78 of Volume II; from Page 79 it can be seen that this action on the whole found full recognition in spite of the casualties which, no doubt were regretted by the Admiralty too.
The next document, Dönitz-39, has partly been read by Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe during cross-examination. It can be found on Page 81 and the following pages. It deals with the question of reprisals following a report received regarding the shooting of survivors of the German mine-layer Ulm.
On Page 83 there is a summary regarding the incidents which had been reported to the Naval Operations Staff at that time and which contained examples dealing with cases where survivors were shot at by Allied naval forces. I am not so much interested in these 12 actual examples as in the attitude adopted by the Naval Operations Staff in transmitting these examples to the OKW. It is so important that I would like to read the three sentences. They are on Page 83, at the top.
“The following accounts deal with incidents which have already been reported, and in making use of them it must also be considered that:
“a) some of these incidents occurred while fighting was still going on;
“b) shipwrecked persons swimming about in the water easily think that shots which missed their real target are directed against them;
“c) so far no evidence whatsoever has been found that a written or oral order for the shooting of shipwrecked persons has been issued.”
The idea of reprisals did not only occur to the Command, but it also occurred to the personnel serving on the ships at the front.
Now, we come to Document Dönitz-41, which is on Page 87 and deals with a conversation between Admiral Dönitz and a commander. The conversation took place in June 1943, and it is dealt with in an affidavit made by Korvettenkapitän Witt. Following descriptions of attacks made by British fliers on shipwrecked German submarine crews, the opinion was expressed by the crews that in reprisal the survivors of enemy ships should also be shot at.