The Sinking of the Laconia
Encyclopedia
The Sinking of the Laconia is a two-part TV film, first aired on 6 and 7 January 2011 on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

, about the Laconia incident
Laconia incident
The Laconia incident was an abortive naval rescue attempt in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. On 12 September 1942, , carrying some 80 civilians, 268 British Army soldiers, about 1,800 Italian prisoners of war, and 160 Polish soldiers , was struck and sunk by a torpedo from Kriegsmarine...

; the sinking of the former British ocean liner
Ocean liner
An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...

 RMS Laconia
RMS Laconia (1921)
The second RMS Laconia was a Cunard ocean liner built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson as a successor to the Laconia of 1911 to 1917...

 during World War II by a German U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

, which then, together with three other U-boats and an Italian submarine, rescued the passengers but was in turn attacked by an American bomber.

The film is a British-German co-production, written by Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale is an English television dramatist, best known for writing several social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people.The Bleasdales live in prescot,liverpool,wales and london.-Early life:Bleasdale is an only child; his father worked in a food factory and his mother...

, directed by Uwe Janson
Uwe Janson
Uwe Janson is a German screenwriter, director and producer. He has worked in Germany and the United Kingdom, including Business with Friends for the British Film Institute and the BBC and the British-German co-production The Sinking of the Laconia .-External...

, and with Andrew Buchan
Andrew Buchan
-Early life:Buchan was born in Stockport, Greater Manchester, and brought up in the suburb of Lostock in Bolton. He attended the nearby Rivington and Blackrod High School in Horwich....

, Brian Cox, Ken Duken
Ken Duken
Ken Duken is a German actor.Ken Duken is the third child of film and stage actress Christina Loeb; his father is a doctor. Duken never attended a drama school but took courses in drama, including under James Reynold...

, Morven Christie
Morven Christie
-Life and career:Morven Christie grew up in Glasgow and Aviemore. She studied acting at the Drama Centre London, under Reuven Adiv, an associate of Lee Strasberg. She graduated in 2003. Christie has worked on stage, film and television drama since...

, Lindsay Duncan
Lindsay Duncan
Lindsay Vere Duncan, CBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actress. On stage she won two Olivier Awards and a Tony Award for her performance in Les Liaisons dangereuses and Private Lives , and she starred in several plays by Harold Pinter. Her most famous roles on television include:...

, Thomas Kretschmann
Thomas Kretschmann
Thomas Kretschmann is a German actor best known for playing Leutnant Hans Von Witzland in the 1993 film Stalingrad, Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in The Pianist, Hermann Fegelein in Der Untergang, and Captain Englehorn in the 2005 remake of King Kong.-Early life:Kretschmann was born in Dessau, former...

 and Franka Potente
Franka Potente
Franka Potente is a German film actress and singer. She first appeared in the comedy After Five in the Forest Primeval and gained critical recognition in the action thriller Lola rennt . Potente received Germany's highest film and television awards for her performances in Run Lola Run and...

 in the leading roles.

Story

Six hundred miles from the coast of Africa, in September 1942, a German U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

, , sinks the British troopship
Troopship
A troopship is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime...

 Laconia which is en route from Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

 to United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Laconia carries 1,800 Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 POWs
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

, some 80 British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 women and children, 103 Free Poles
Polish Armed Forces in the West
Polish Armed Forces in the West refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies...

 and 268 British soldiers guarding the prisoners, and a 136-man crew; in total some 2,700 people.

When realising that there are POWs and civilians on-board, and that they are facing certain death without rescue, U-Boat Commander Werner Hartenstein
Werner Hartenstein
Gustav Julius Werner Hartenstein was a Korvettenkapitän with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and commander of . He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military...

 (Duken) makes a decision goes against the orders of German high command. The U-boat surfaces and Hartenstein instructs his men to save as many of the shipwrecked survivors as they can. U-156 crams some 200 people on board the surface-level submarine, takes another 200 in tow in four lifeboats, and tries to give relief to the remaining shipwrecked who surround the U-boat in some 20 lifeboats and a number of small rafts. Hartenstein also attempts to dive with all the survivors on board and, though this puts the submarine into a crash dive
Crash dive
A crash dive is a maneuver performed by a submarine to submerge as quickly as possible to avoid attack. Crash diving from the surface to avoid attack has been largely rendered obsolete with the advent of nuclear-powered submarines as they operate constantly submerged and are unlikely to be found on...

, control is regained and it resurfaces. He also has a Red Cross flag displayed and a message sent to the Allies to organise a rescue of the survivors. The Italian prisoners are taken off U-156 by another U-boat.
Sierra Leone had informed the Americans to look for Laconia survivors but not of the submarine's rescue efforts. Soon after the attack U-156 resumes her hunting duties, leaving behind the lifeboats with the British survivors to be picked up by a Vichy
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...

 naval surface ship sent by admiral Karl Dönitz
Karl Dönitz
Karl Dönitz was a German naval commander during World War II. He started his career in the German Navy during World War I. In 1918, while he was in command of , the submarine was sunk by British forces and Dönitz was taken prisoner...

 - whilst admiring Hartenstein's actions, Dönitz also reluctantly composes the Laconia Order
Laconia Order
The Laconia Order was issued by German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz during World War II as a result of the Laconia incident....

 to other U-boat commanders not to rescue survivors in future. The French ship arrives, whilst one lifeboat leaves the others to make for the coast of west Africa, which it eventually reaches. One British merchant seaman is injured in the American attack and remains with U-156 until it reaches port, where he is taken into captivity. Dönitz awards Hartenstein the Ritterkreuz and offers him a desk job at naval command. Preferring to remain with his men, Hartenstein refuses it and a final onscreen message reports U-156's later sinking with no survivors.

Production

The production is a cooperation of the British BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 with the German ARD Degeto
ARD (broadcaster)
ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...

 and SWR Fernsehen
SWR Fernsehen
SWR Fernsehen is a German regional television channel targeting the states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. It is produced by Südwestrundfunk and is one of eight regional "third channels" broadcast by the ARD members....

, executed by TalkbackThames
TalkbackTHAMES
Talkback Thames is a British television production company, a division of FremantleMedia . It was formed by the merger of Talkback Productions and Thames Television, the former ITV network franchisee for London on weekdays between 1968 and 1992...

 and Teamworx.
The idea to bring the story of the Laconia to screen was conceived in 2004 by Talkback Thames Head of Drama Johnathan Young
Johnathan Young
Johnathan Young is a British television producer. His credits include EastEnders, Casualty, Holby City, The Bill and The Sinking of the Laconia....

.

Laconia

  • Andrew Buchan
    Andrew Buchan
    -Early life:Buchan was born in Stockport, Greater Manchester, and brought up in the suburb of Lostock in Bolton. He attended the nearby Rivington and Blackrod High School in Horwich....

     - Junior Third Officer Thomas Mortimer, RMS Laconia
  • Franka Potente
    Franka Potente
    Franka Potente is a German film actress and singer. She first appeared in the comedy After Five in the Forest Primeval and gained critical recognition in the action thriller Lola rennt . Potente received Germany's highest film and television awards for her performances in Run Lola Run and...

     - Hilda Smith, passenger, RMS Laconia
  • Lindsay Duncan
    Lindsay Duncan
    Lindsay Vere Duncan, CBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actress. On stage she won two Olivier Awards and a Tony Award for her performance in Les Liaisons dangereuses and Private Lives , and she starred in several plays by Harold Pinter. Her most famous roles on television include:...

     - Elisabeth Fullwood, passenger, RMS Laconia
  • Brian Cox - Captain Sharp, RMS Laconia
  • David Butler
    David Butler
    David Butler may refer to:*David Butler , first governor of Nebraska*David Butler , UNLV Runnin' Rebels basketball player...

     - First Officer Steel, RMS Laconia
  • Morven Christie
    Morven Christie
    -Life and career:Morven Christie grew up in Glasgow and Aviemore. She studied acting at the Drama Centre London, under Reuven Adiv, an associate of Lee Strasberg. She graduated in 2003. Christie has worked on stage, film and television drama since...

     - Laura Ferguson, passenger, RMS Laconia
  • Jodi Balfour - Sarah Fullwood, passenger, RMS Laconia
  • Nicholas Burns - Captain Benjamin Coutts, British Army
  • Ciarán McMenamin
    Ciarán McMenamin
    Ciarán McMenamin is an Irish actor who is now living in South London. He is best known for playing Matt Anderson, replacing Jason Flemyng as lead on Primeval.- Early life :...

     - Declan McDermott, wine steward, RMS Laconia
  • Lenny Wood - Billy Hardacre, trimmer, RMS Laconia
  • Ben Crompton
    Ben Crompton
    Ben Crompton is an English actor, best known as one of the stars of the BBC sketch show Man Stroke Woman. In addition he appears as Colin in the BBC Three sitcom Ideal with Johnny Vegas. He also appeared in the 2002 film All or Nothing , the TV series Clocking Off, and the TV movie Housewife, 49...

     - Harry Townes, acting leading seaman, RMS Laconia
  • Matthew Aubrey - Corporal William Williams, cook, British Army
  • Ludovico Fremont - Di Giovanni, Italian POW
  • Paul Hilton
    Paul Hilton (actor)
    Paul Hilton , is a British actor on stage and TV.He has appeared in TV programmes including The Bill, Silent Witness, Wire in the Blood and Robin Hood, and has had regular character roles in True Dare Kiss and Casualty 1909 .Hilton also appeared in the film Klimt, which starred John...

     - Henry Bates, passenger, RMS Laconia
  • Louise Barnes - Mary Bates, passenger, RMS Laconia
  • Josef du Plessis - Anthony Bates, passenger, RMS Laconia
  • Rebekah Nathan - Charlotte Bates, passenger, RMS Laconia
  • Richard Firth - Quartermaster, RMS Laconia
  • Tom Fairfoot - Wireless Operator, RMS Laconia
  • Lawrence Joffe - Sergeant Rudzinski, Free Polish Army

U-156

  • Ken Duken
    Ken Duken
    Ken Duken is a German actor.Ken Duken is the third child of film and stage actress Christina Loeb; his father is a doctor. Duken never attended a drama school but took courses in drama, including under James Reynold...

     - Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartenstein
    Werner Hartenstein
    Gustav Julius Werner Hartenstein was a Korvettenkapitän with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and commander of . He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military...

    , captain, U-156
  • Jacob Matschenz
    Jacob Matschenz
    Jacob Matschenz is a German actor. He is notable for film and television work including The Wave , 12 Paces Without a Head and The Sinking of the Laconia . He won the Adolf Grimme Award in 2008 for his appearance in An die Grenze.-Sources:*http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0559326/...

     - Oberleutnant zur See Mannesmann, first officer, U-156
  • Matthias Koeberlin
    Matthias Koeberlin
    Matthias Koeberlin is a German actor and reciter. His work includes the British-German co-production The Sinking of the Laconia .-External links:*http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0462706/...

     - Oberleutnant zur See (Ing) Rostau, chief engineer, U-156
  • Oskar Brown - Waldemar, U-156
  • Frederick Lau
    Frederick Lau
    Frederick Lau is a German actor. He grew up and still lives in Berlin-Steglitz. He was awarded with the Deutscher Filmpreis for portraying the student Tim on the film Die Welle based on the novel by Dennis Gansel...

     - Fiedler, wireless operator, U-156
  • Jörg Malkow - Weber, wireless operator, U-156
  • Stefan Rudolf - Remmert, U-156
  • Hermanus Pieters - Dengler, U-156

Sierra Leone

  • Danny Keogh - Captain Hathaway, Royal Navy
  • James Alexander - Lieutenant Lincoln, Royal Navy
  • Ian van der Heyden - Lieutenant Jackson, Royal Navy

U-boat command

  • Thomas Kretschmann
    Thomas Kretschmann
    Thomas Kretschmann is a German actor best known for playing Leutnant Hans Von Witzland in the 1993 film Stalingrad, Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in The Pianist, Hermann Fegelein in Der Untergang, and Captain Englehorn in the 2005 remake of King Kong.-Early life:Kretschmann was born in Dessau, former...

     - Admiral Karl Dönitz
    Karl Dönitz
    Karl Dönitz was a German naval commander during World War II. He started his career in the German Navy during World War I. In 1918, while he was in command of , the submarine was sunk by British forces and Dönitz was taken prisoner...

    , Commander of U-Boats
  • Nikolai Kinski
    Nikolai Kinski
    Nanhoï Nikolai Kinski is a film actor, and the only acknowledged son of the prolific actor Klaus Kinski and his third wife, Minhoi Geneviève Loanic. He is the half-brother of actresses Nastassja Kinski and Pola Kinski. Nikolai was born in France, but was raised in California, United States...

     - Korvettenkapitän Walter Drexler, Dönitz's aide

Ascension Island

  • Jannes Eiselen - Captain Robert C. Richardson III
    Robert C. Richardson III
    Robert Charlwood Richardson III was an officer, first of the United States Army Air Corps, then with the United States Air Force, eventually attaining the rank of Brigadier General. A leader in the early days of the U.S. Air Force, he was a renowned expert in tactical nuclear warfare, NATO, and...

    , USAAF
  • Grant Swanby - Colonel Ronin, USAAF
  • Darron Meyer - Harrower, pilot, USAAF Liberator
  • Nicholas Pauling - Perlman, navigator, USAAF Liberator
  • Charlie Keegan - Ches, gunner, USAAF Liberator
  • Justin Shaw - Chuck Bannister, gunner, USAAF Liberator
  • Marius Botha - Coleman, bombardier, USAAF Liberator

Other

  • Simon Verhoeven
    Simon Verhoeven
    Simon Verhoeven is a German actor, screenwriter and film director. He is the son of the actor Senta Berger and the director Michael Verhoeven. His filmography as an actor includes Bride of the Wind and The Sinking of the Laconia .-Sources:*http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0894207/...

     - Korvettenkapitän Harro Schacht
    Harro Schacht
    Harro Schacht was a German U-boat commander in World War II and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...

    , captain, U-507
  • Paul Savage - Egyptian Customs Officer

Follow-up programme

On 9 January 2011, BBC Two broadcast a half-hour documentary, The Sinking of the Laconia: Survivors' Stories, featuring testimonies from the actual survivors of the Laconia.
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