In July 11, 1918 the US Newspaper "Western Kansas World"
complained detailed about german war ships who attacked and torpedoed
red cross ships without warning. The first world war was not over yet
and still many people lost their lifes on both sides. Of
course, today some parts of this article can be seen as propaganda. But
for me its still an interesting view into another time. and if you are
interested in history this may be also something for you. Here is the
full text:
WARRING on the RED CROSS
Recently we have had another record of German barbarity in the
torpedoing of the hospital ship Rewa, made dramatic because the missile
of destruction struck her where the red cross of mercy was painted on
her side, as If it were a bull's-eye for just such murderous shots. I
was speaking to a merchant ship captain about It and asked him why he
had given up the command of a certain British hospital ship, a berth
which to my landsman's eyes had seemed to be the easiest on the sea
today in spite of instances like the Kewa. He didn't look at me as he
answered. He looked far out through his cabin port at the tower of the
Wool-worth building.
He finally told me that in spite of the danger it
was easier on him to take a merchant ship or a transport through the war
zone than to have his heart torn asunder by the suffering of humanity
he had seen on hospital ships; men gassed and writhing in agony; men
wounded or mutilated out of sheer deviltry. Frightfulness waste of
manhood because the kaiser wanted to dominated the world that's what he
saw on a hos pital ship; and when his ship of mercy, like the Kewa, was
torpedoed without warning and he managed to beach her before she sank he
simply went to pieces, as have many hospital ship commanders before
him.
Every hospital ship sunk means that the allies must
replace It with a ship which has been carrying food and munitions. That
is Germany's game. Finding her submarine warfare was not succeeding as
she had hoped, she lessens the tonnage of her enemies by fouler means
still and covers up her dastardly motives by officially saying:
"The German government can no longer suffer that the British
government should forward troops and munitions to the main theater of
war undercover of the Red Cross, and it therefore declares that from now
on no enemy hospital ship will be allowed in the sea zone comprised
between a line drawn from Flamborough Head to Terschelling on the one
hand and Ushant and Land's End on the other. If In this sea zone after
the expiry of the stated time any enemy hospital ship is encountered It
will be considered as a vessel of war and it will be attacked without
further ceremony."
And knowing full well that no allied hospital ships
were carrying either troops, munitions or anything which they shouldn't
in their garb of mercy, Germany has lessened tonnage by sinking the
hospital ship Britannic (50,000 tons), Asturias (11.400 tons),
Gloucester Castle (7.999 tons), Donegal (1,997 tons), Salta (7,284
tons), Lanfranc (6,275 tons), Dover Castle (860 tons), Kewa (7,267
tons), Glenart Castle (9,000 tons), Llandovey Castle (10.000 tons), and
others amounting to over 200,000 tons.
Germany has already begun paving the way to lessen
American tonnage by sinking our hospital ships whenever we get any. On
May 1, 1918, she officially notified the world that "American aviators
are crossing to Europe as members of the Red Cross on hospital ships.
This misuse of the Red Cross appears from documentary evidence found on
American aviators who have been shot down. An American brought down in
the region of the army of General von Hutier carried a pass which
referred to him as a member of the American ambulance for France.
"Prisoners openly admit that it is the general
practice for aviators to enter American ambulance service for their
passage to Europe and to cross on hospital ships. After they are landed
in France they immediately transfer to the automobile corps and then
into the air service. "The captured aviator referred to had, however,
transferred directly from the ambulance service into the air service.
Except for the naval hospital ship Solace and
hospital yacht Surf attached to our fleet, and two Ward liners being
converted into the hospital ships Comfort and Mercy, solely for the use
of the navy and at this writing not yet in service, the United States
has had no hospital ships at all. Consequently it would be impossible
for American aviators to cross on such ships as Germany states they
have. The aviators which Germany refers to as having crossed to France
for Red Cross work crossed at their own expense on regular passenger
ships before we entered the war and were driving neutral ambulances.
When we entered the war, naturally they weren't
going to return to the United States to enlist when they could enlist In
their country's military forces in France and get at punishing the Hun
earlier than the fellows at home. These captured American aviators
Germany speaks about apparently had on them certificates of service they
had rendered while driving American neutral ambulances. As usual,
Germany has distorted the truth. In this instance she simply wishes to
give a semblance of excuse for the attempts she is going to make to
lessen the number of ships available to transport our boys overseas,
because every hospital ship sunk has to be replaced with some ship in
military or civil Service.
The first hospital ship the Huns sank was the
Portugal, flying the Russian flag. She was anchored off Rizek, a Black
sea port, when at about eight o'clock on the morning of March 17, 1916, a
periscope was seen approaching. The Portugal had no wounded on board
simply her hospital staff, which included many nuns and her full crew.
The Russian government had notified the central powers that the Portugal
was a hospital ship and had obtained from them a recognition of her
status. She was properly marked under the ruling of both the Hague and
Geneva conventions.
Of course, nobody thought for one instant that the
submarine would attack the Portugal, and there was no panic until, when
about 200 feet away, the submarine fired a torpedo which missed its
mark. Then the beast circled arom.d the anchored ship of mercy and fired
a second torpedo at close range. The second missile struck the Portugal
in the engine room. There was a terrific explosion within her and the
hu'i broke in two. The loss of life on the Portugal was 21 nuns, who
were acting as nurses; 24 others of the Red Cross staff, as well as 21
of the Russian crew and 19 of the French, totaling 85, all of whom were
ruthlessly murdered without any reason whatso ever. The next torpedoing
of note was that of the new White Starliner Britannic, the largest
British ship afloat and one which the Germans wished to remove from
competing with their ships. The Britannic was sunk In the Egean sea, and
that but 50 lives were lost out of the 1,100 wounded and large crew she
had aboard is remarkable, considering she went down in 53 minutes.
A German newspaper, the Kieler Zeitung, was the
first to admit publicly that a torpedo and not a mine had caused the
disaster, and further stated: "The Britannic was transporting fresh
troops for our enemies. If she had not been doing so our submarine would
never, of course, have torpedoed November 24, 1916, shortly after the
Britannic was sunk, the British admiralty published a complete list of
all persons on board. There were no troops. Germany continued her
propaganda to dull the mind of the world as to her real Intent In
sinking hospital ships by asserting that she had conclusive proof that
in several instances enemy hospital ships had often been misused for the
transport of troops and munitions. Under the principles of the Geneva
convention governing maritime war belligerents have the right to stop
and search hospital ships. Germany never utilized this right. Evidently
It was easier to sink the ship outright and trust the world to believe
the Imperial German word.
The big Asturias, commanded by Captain Laws, known
to many Americans who traveled to Bermuda, had her first experience with
a U-boat on February 1, 1915. She was the star hospital ship of the
fleet, for at that time neither the Britannic nor Aquitania was doing
hospital work. Only the prompt action of the second officer In turning
the ship as he saw the torpedo saved her and the scores of wounded she
had on board. Having made one miss at the Asturias, the Germans kept at
It till they finally got her. The British admiralty announced the
following: "The British hospital ship Asturias, while steaming with all
navigating lights end with all the proper distinguishing Red Cross signs
brilliantly illuminated, was torpedoed without warning on the this
hospital ship is Included in the list of achievements claimed by U-boats
as reported in the Ger man wireless press message yesterday."
The Asturias didn't sink, although 43 died in the
tragedy. Including two women, and 89 were Injured. The torpedo rendered
her helpless, as her rudder had been carried away. Captain Laws drove
the sinking ship for shoal water. As she was off the rocky shore of
Cornwall, if he did succeed in beaching her the chances of saving the
ship would be slight. All Captain Laws thought of was to get her
somewhere where she wouldn't sink and where her wounded had been
removed.
As luck would have it, the Asturias took matters
Into her own hands and in the darkness missed a reef, rounded a headland
and brought up on one of the few sandy beaches to be found along the
Cornwall shore line. After three years in command of her, several times a
week crossing the Channel and running the risk of mines, as well as
seeing the agony of human beings he transported, Captain 'Laws, like
many other hospital ship skippers, collapsed. He's made several attempts
to go to sea again, but his nerve is gone. The nation responsible for
the murder of Nurse Cavell "accepted the Asturias Incident with
composure, if not with satisfaction. For the Germans stated blandly "It
would, moreover, be remarkable that the English In the case of the
Asturias should have abstained from the customary procedure of using
hospitai ships for the transport of troops and munitions."
The Asturias was returning from France. That Is a
sufficient answer to Germany. Ten days later the Gloucester Castle was
tor pedoed without warning in midchannel. All the wounded were
successfully removed from the ship and the casualties were five medical
officers, nine nursing sisters and 38 Royal Army Medical corps men. On
April 11 the Berlin official wireless again cynically published a
notification that the Gloucester Castle was torpedoed by a U-boat, thus
removing any possible doubt in the matter. Then on April 17 the hospital
shins Donegal and Lanfranc were sunk by U-boats. The British admiralty
announced "The Donegal carried slightly wounded cases, all British. Of
these 29 men, as well as 12 of the crew, are missing and presumed
drowned. The Lanfranc, in addition to 234 wounded British officers and
men, carried 167 wounded German prisoners, a medical personnel of 52 and
a crew of 123. Of these the following are missing and presumed drowned:
Two wounded British officers, Eleven wounded
British, other ranks, One R. A. M. C staff, Five crew, Two wounded
German officers, Thirteen wounded German, other ranks."One hundred and
fifty-two wounded German prisoners were rescued by British patrol boats
at the Imminent risk of being themselves torpedoed. And then on the 26th
of February they sank the Glenart Castle, bound from France to England.
Yes, she carried troops, but they lay in white cots within the Glenart
Castle's white sides. Nice chap, Fritz, for he'd agreed to respect
hospital ships if they carried a Spanish officer to guarantee their Red
Cross mission. The Glenart had her Spaniard and he too was nearly
drowned in the catastrophe. One pleasing thing about the tragedy was
that it gave an American destroyer, at the risk of being herself
torpedoed, a chance to do a rescue work which makes the blood run faster
in one's veins.
The sea was vile and the destroyer couldn't launch a
boat. Tet as she passed men clinging to wreckage men too weak to catch
the life-lines thrown to them American seamen Jumped overboard into icy
water, swam to the poor devils and held them up till they could be
rescued. Mr. Daniels. I'm glad to say. has fittingly rewarded such
gallantry. And shortly after the Glenart Castle the big Uandovey Castle,
on mercy bent, was torpedoed. She also carried a Spanish officer. I
have a letter from an officer on the hospital ship Araguaya which has
been transferred from passenger and food service to the work of mercy to
replace lost hospital ships, and he tells me his ship is most
particular about living up to the Geneva convention No nurses are
carried except those who make the round trip between England and Canada.
For 11 Canadian nurses worked their passage home Germany might say they
were troops.
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