The.Sinking.of.the.Laconia.Survivors.Stories.

As a moving footnote to Alan Bleasdale’s excellent drama mini-series, shown last week, this short but illuminating documentary tells the story of the Laconia’s demise through the personal testimonies of six survivors. In September 1942, the Cunard liner was sunk by a German U-156 submarine 600 miles off the coast of West Africa. The U-boat’s commander, Captain Werner Hartenstein, mistakenly believed the ship to be an Allied troop carrier. Upon realising that he’d torpedoed civilians in a tragic error, Hartenstein went against the orders of Nazi high command and launched an extraordinary rescue operation. However, the Americans intercepted a German message for help and began dropping bombs, scuppering the rescue. The stranded Laconia survivors then endured five days in a lifeboat, drifting in the shark-infested mid-Atlantic with dwindling rations, until they were finally picked up by Vichy French cruiser Le Gloire. The accounts of the half-dozen heroic survivors are supplemented with archive footage, photographs and clips from Bleasdale’s version – all adding up to another powerful retelling of this incident. It’s narrated by Lindsay Duncan, who starred in the drama.

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