Exactly 80 years ago today German U-Boat Commander Heinz Wilhelm Eck was executed by firing squad, along with two other officers under his command.
In 1944, Eck’s submarine torpedoed the Greek merchant ship Peleus. Eck ordered the U-852 to surface. Over the next 5 hours the U-852 circled, as crew shot survivors in the water and threw hand grenades at life rafts. Eck’s defense was “operational necessity.” Captain Eck claimed he had to kill survivors, and destroy debris, to prevent Allied planes from spotting the wreckage and pursuing the submarine.
The officers of U-852 were tried by the British in Hamburg after the war. Captain Eck, the second-in-command, and ship’s doctor were sentenced to death. They were all executed by firing squad November 30, 1945. The chief engineer received a life sentence, and a crew member involved in shooting helpless sailors in the water got 15 years.
In 2025, the United States struck an alleged drug running speedboat in international waters. The attack disabled the boat and killed most those onboard. However, some inconveniently survived, and Secretary of Defense Hegseth had ordered that there be no survivors. The United States military attacked again, killing the wounded and helpless survivors clinging to the side of the crippled boat.
Hegseth says the “operational necessity” was simply the desire to kill all the alleged drug runners. Perhaps the officers and crew of U-852 should have tried that argument. They simply desired to kill all those running war supplies for the allies.
The reality for the Trump Regime’s “operational necessity” is a bit more involved. In a prior incident (as required by international law) our military actually rescued two survivors. Alas, we had no evidence against them and no basis to prosecute them. So we returned them to their native countries, “for prosecution,” or so the Trump Regime said.
But they were not prosecuted by their native countries. Their native countries stated they were not drug smugglers, just fishermen, and let them go free.
The Trump Regime has effectively issued illegal* “no quarter” orders to preclude such embarrassing survivors from living to contradict the Regime’s narrative . The mafia is also well known for directives to leave no witnesses.
When the Trump presidential immunity case was argued before the Supreme Court, justices scoffed at arguments that granting Trump immunity could allow him to order our military to commit murders. And yet, here we are.
*See, Hague Conventions, Article 23
