MOC: The Laconia Incident

[nebraska]

On September 12th, 1942 the German U-Boat U-156 commanded by Warner Hartenstein torpedoed the RMS Laconia off the coast of Africa as they thought she was an armed troop transport. Upon surfacing he discovered women, children, Italian POW's, and British soldiers struggling to survive in shark infested waters.

Hartenstein began rescue operations and draped a make shift red cross across his deck gun. Lifeboats from Laconia were daisy chained together. He sent a message on all frequencies: If any ship will assist the ship-wrecked Laconia crew, I will not attack providing I am not being attacked by ship or air forces. 4, 53 South, 11, 26 West. ― German submarine.

Other U-Boats came to assist the rescue after receiving the message from U-156

Upon discovering Hartenstein's transmission; the British forwarded it to the American's who were operating a secret base on Ascension Island. They dispatched a B-24 to investigate. No mention of the German rescue was included in the message.

The crew of the B-24 discovered the U-156 and reportedly never saw the red cross and attacked. The U-156 escaped with only minor damage but a life boat and its survivors were destroyed.

Hartenstein was forced to abandon the rescue operation and forced the survivors into the remaining lifeboats or into the ocean. Of Laconia’s original complement of 2,732, only 1,113 survived

The German Admiral Donitz subsequently issued the 'Laconia Order' which meant that no U-Boat should assist any shipwrecked survivors.

Hartenstein and his crew continued to render aid regardless of the order and were killed in action four months later from depth charges.

Laconia Incident 3 by Nebraska's MOC, on Flickr

Laconia Incident 1 by Nebraska's MOC, on Flickr

Laconia Incident 6 by Nebraska's MOC, on Flickr

Laconia Incident 8 by Nebraska's MOC, on Flickr

Laconia Incident 10 by Nebraska's MOC, on Flickr

Edited April 24, 2014 by nebraska

[Hobbythom]

Wow! What a great build of a sad episode in history. The b24 is very recognizable. Well done.

[Ridge Montante]

Holy crap that's an awesome build. I love the water. How many blue tiles did you use?

[Gottsfritz]

Excellent job with the U-boat. Do you wich scale it is? 1:36?

[nebraska]

It has about 5 cases of trans blue and aqua 1x1 round plates. (3 cases blue/2 cases aqua). Scale is on par with minifigs - probably between 1/36 and 1/40. The U-156 was a type ixc and was the larger of the u-boats with an elongated conning tower. My type viic u-boat has the typical conning tower - which is posted here somewheres...

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Fantastic work nebraska, this looks amazing and I learned something! The plane and U-boat look amazing. Very well done

[TheLegoDr]

Always interesting to see this again. I'd hate to imagine the dismantling/setting up if you brought it to one of our LUG shows.

I like the viewpoint picture from the plane.

[Lady K]

A very sad event. Impressive MOC, well done on all accounts.