minelayer Hannonia, a violation of Geneva Convention?

[bertamingo]

Hello people, I come across a picture of the minelayer schiff 11/111 on Ebay, which was the ex-Estonian cargo ship Hanonia. The ship bore fully civilian appearance, and still bore the 'Estonian' symbols. The ship later slipped into Netherlands and Norway to secretly lay mines under the disguise. To my understanding, this is a kind of violation to Geneva convention, right?



The German merchant raiders were different, though they also pretended to be allied or neutral ships, they would raise KM flag and showed their guns before a battle. But schiff 11/111, as well as others in a similar function: Passat, Doggerbank, Adjucant, would continue to pretend as an allied or neutral ship while they laid the mines.




Thanks!!!

[Atrevida]

As I understand the Convention, a warship must show her true flag when challenged and before she opens fire. I do not believe that the Hanonia was in breach of the Convention by wearing false colours merely to lay mines.

You do not state the dates when this occurred and if Hanonia was in neutral waters, where minelaying would be in breach of the Convention, although the British ignored the Convention by mining, or setting out with intention to mine, the Norwegian Indreled in April 1940.

[bertamingo]

Thanks for the reminder, I think a better form of the question is: were those minelayers under civilian disguise (Hanonia in Norway, Passat, Doggerbank and Adjutant in Southern and Pacific oceans) in violation of the GC when they started mining operations in open and legal combat zones? Mining is, imo, basically the same like opening fire, because the action will lead to damage to enemy vessels and casualties to enemy personnel.

For Hanonia's operations in the NL, when she was mining in NL, NL was still neutral, so she would have been in violation of the GC even if she were not under disguise.

[stril]

Is the picture still for sale ?
regards
Stril

[bertamingo]

Is the picture still for sale ?
regards
Stril

Unfortunately no. It was listed for sale at the beginning of the month, and I only found it thru google image search after the auction was expired.

[stril]

Unfortunately no. It was listed for sale at the beginning of the month, and I only found it thru google image search after the auction was expired

Ok, thank you for your reply
Regards
Stril