Wolf Pack

‘Before considering the actual U-boat campaigns, a brief examination of the tactics employed may be useful to understanding the operations. At the onset of war, Hitler had insisted that U-boats, and indeed surface ships also, should operate within the terms of the Prize Ordinance. The German rules, or to give them their correct title, ‘Article 74 of the German Prize Ordinance’, was based on an agreement which became effective in 1936, the Procès Verbal to the Rules of Submarine Warfare set forth in Part IV of the Treaty of London of 22 April 1930. This stated: Except in the case of persistent refusal to stop on being duly summoned, or of active resistance to visit or search, a warship, whether surface vessel or submarine, may not sink or render incapable of navigation a merchant vessel without having first placed passengers, crew and ship’s papers in a place of safety. For this purpose the ship’s boats are not regarded as a place of safety unless the safety of the passengers and crew is assured, in the existing sea and weather conditions, by the proximity of land, or the presence of another vessel which is in a position to take them on board.’ 272 pages PB