This forum is euro-centeric. The sinking of Australian Hospital Ship the Centaur on the 14th of May 1943 by a Japanese submarine could be considered a warcrime. She was torpedoed without warning at approx 4am and sank rapidly. The only blessing was she was heading from Sydney back up to the Islands, so had no wounded on board. She was fully lit up at the time of her sinking.
The Centaur
During the Battle of Milne Bay in 1942, an Australian Hospital ship was trapped in the bay by the Japanese Naval Fleet. It was allowed to sail with its wounded through the Japanese fleet to safety. There is good and bad on every side.
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Bombing of hospital ships
Re: Bombing of hospital ships
Who discovered we could get milk from a cow? and come to think of it what did they think they were doing at the time? Billy Connolly
Re: Bombing of hospital ships
Reading these comments I was struck by the fact that the writers missed the obvious point in debating high level bombing runs on ships might result in identification error and accidental bombing of the 2 hospital ships off Gela. Clearly stated these ships were not only white painted and red crossed, but all four were lighted, AT Night! Combatant and even merchant ships were never lighted, even off New York Harbor! This eliminates mistaken identity, ONLY hospital ships were lighted up. It leaves open two more likely possibilities, that the pilot assumed the British would cheat the Convention and were faking a hospital ship as cover for similar sized supply ships, (But then why the heck would they be 40 miles off shore), or that the pilot did not care and just wanted to sink an unprotected ship and kill women and wounded to demoralize the enemy, similar to German bombers raiding Poland, Rotterdam and later England, or British bombing of Hamburg and Berlin.