HMS Laconia (RMS-1922, AMC-1939)

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On 4 September 1939, Laconia was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted into an armed merchant cruiser. By January 1940 she had been fitted with eight six-inch guns and two three-inch high-angle guns. After trials off the Isle of Wight, she embarked gold bullion and sailed for Portland, Maine and Halifax, Nova Scotia on 23 January. She spent the next few months escorting convoys to Bermuda and to points in the mid-Atlantic, where they would join up with other convoys.

On 9 June, she ran aground in the Bedford Basin at Halifax, suffering considerable damage, and repairs were not completed till the end of July. In October her passenger accommodation was dismantled and some areas filled with oil drums to provide extra buoyancy so that she would stay afloat longer if torpedoed.

During the period June–August 1941 Laconia returned to St John, New Brunswick and was refitted, then returned to Liverpool to be used as a troop transport for the rest of the war. On 12 September 1941, she arrived at Bidston Dock, Birkenhead and was taken over by Cammell Laird and Company to be converted. By early 1942 the work was complete, and for the next six months she made trooping voyages to the Middle East. On one such voyage the ship was used to carry prisoners of war, mainly Italian. She travelled to Cape Town and then set a course for Freetown, following a zigzag course and undertaking evasive steering during the night.

On 12 September 1942, at 8:10 pm, 130 miles (210 km) north-northeast of Ascension Island, Laconia was hit on the starboard side by a torpedo fired by U-boat U-156. There was an explosion in the hold and many of the Italian prisoners aboard were killed instantly. The vessel immediately took a list to starboard and settled heavily by the stern. Captain Rudolph Sharp, who had also commanded another Cunard liner, RMS Lancastria when she was sunk by enemy action, was gaining control over the situation when a second torpedo hit Number Two hold. At the time of the attack, the Laconia was carrying 268 British soldiers, 160 Polish soldiers (who were on guard), 80 civilians, and 1,800 Italian prisoners of war.

Captain Sharp ordered the ship abandoned and the women, children and injured taken into the lifeboats first. By this time, the ship's stern deck was awash. Some of the 32 lifeboats had been destroyed by the explosions and some surviving Italian prisoners tried to rush the lowering of the ones that remained. The efforts of the Polish guards were instrumental in controlling the chaotic situation on board and saved many lives. According to Italian survivors, many of the POWs were left locked in the holds, and those who escaped and tried to board lifeboats and liferafts were shot or bayoneted by British and Polish soldiers. While most British and Polish troops and crew survived, only 415 Italians were rescued, out of 1,809 who had been onboard.

Laconia in happier times.

At 9:11 pm Laconia sank, stern first, her bow rising to be vertical, with Sharp himself and many of the Italian prisoners still on board. The prospects for those who escaped the ship were only slightly better; sharks were common in the area and the lifeboats were adrift in the mid-Atlantic with little hope of rescue.

However, before Laconia went down, U-156 surfaced. The U-boat's efforts to rescue survivors of its own attack began what came to be known as the Laconia Incident.

When Kapitänleutnant Werner Hartenstein, commanding officer of U-156, realized civilians and prisoners of war were on board, he surfaced to rescue survivors, and asked BdU (the U-Boat Command in Germany) for help. Several U-Boats were dispatched; all flew Red Cross flags, and signalled by radio that a rescue operation was underway.

The next morning, a U.S. B-24 Liberator plane sighted the rescue efforts. Hartenstein signaled the pilot for assistance, who then notified the American base on Ascension Island of the situation. The senior officer on duty there, Robert C. Richardson III, unaware  of the Germans' radio message, ordered that the U-boats be attacked. Despite the Red Cross flags, the survivors crowded on the submarines' decks and the towed lifeboats, the B-24 then started making attack runs on U-156. The Germans ordered their submarines to dive, abandoning many survivors. After the incident, Admiral Karl Dönitz issued the Laconia Order, henceforth ordering his commanders not to rescue survivors after attacks. Vichy French ships rescued 1,083 persons from the lifeboats and took aboard those picked up by the four submarines, and in all around 1,500 survived the sinking. Other sources state that only 1,083 survived and an estimated 1,658 persons died (98 crew members, 133 passengers, 33 Polish guards and 1,394 Italian prisoners).

Amongst the French ships involved in the rescue were Annamite, Dumont-d'Urville and Gloire.

Many more AMC's than just Laconia were used by the Royal Navy during World War Two, but the Laconia Incident made the ship one of the most famous.
 

Displacement	20,000 tons standard, 24,200 tons full load
Length	601 ft
Breadth	74 ft
Draught	32 ft
Machinery	2shaft , steam turbines, 20,000shp
Speed	16 knots
Range	6000 miles at 14 knots, 3,500 @ 20 knots
Armour	1" gun shields
Armament	8 x 6" (8x1) 3 x 4.7" (3x1) 6 x 20mm (6x1)
Complement	520 as AMC
Notes	Australian troops man one of the 6" guns mounted on Laconia.

Royal Australian Navy

• Manoora
• Westralia

Royal New Zealand Navy

• Monowai

Royal Canadian Navy

• Prince David
• Prince Henry
• Prince Robert

French auxiliary cruisers were armed with 138 mm, 152 mm or 150 mm guns, 75 mm and 37 mm AA guns and 13.2 mm or 8 mm AA HMG

• Aramis (X01)
• Ville D'Alger (X03)
• Cap des Palmes (X03)
• Ville d'Oran (X05)
• El Mansour (X06)
• Victor Scoelcher (X07) (lost on 6 May 1942)
• Colombie (X10)
• Charles Plumier (X11)
• Djenné (X13)
• El Kantara (X16)
• El Djezair (X17)
• Eridan (X18)
• Barfleur (X19)
• Quercy (X20)
• Esterel (X21)
• Mexique (X22) (hit a mine and sunk on 19 June 1940)

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