Fallout from "Below" (2002): WWII American Submarine sinks British hospital ship?

Below is a mystery/horror film from 2002, set on an American submarine during the Second World War, where the crew experiences apparent supernatural occurrences caused by the vengeful ghost of the ship's captain, who'd stuck his head and fallen overboard while confirming the sinking of a German warship. In the final third, its revealed that the captain was murdered by his senior officers to cover up, and conceal from the rest of the crew, the fact that they'd actually mis-identified and sunk a British hospital ship.

During the final scene, one of the surviving Americans wonders how he is going to explain all of the supernatural events from the film. However, I suspect that British and American authorities are going to be far more concerned with the fact that an American submarine torpedoed and sank a British hospital ship, loaded with more than 300 wounded soldiers, refused to give aid to survivors, and attempted to cover it up.

If this actually happened, what would be the fallout?
 
Below is a mystery/horror film from 2002, set on an American submarine during the Second World War, where the crew experiences apparent supernatural occurrences caused by the vengeful ghost of the ship's captain, who'd stuck his head and fallen overboard while confirming the sinking of a German warship. In the final third, its revealed that the captain was murdered by his senior officers to cover up, and conceal from the rest of the crew, the fact that they'd actually mis-identified and sunk a British hospital ship.

During the final scene, one of the surviving Americans wonders how he is going to explain all of the supernatural events from the film. However, I suspect that British and American authorities are going to be far more concerned with the fact that an American submarine torpedoed and sank a British hospital ship, loaded with more than 300 wounded soldiers, refused to give aid to survivors, and attempted to cover it up.

If this actually happened, what would be the fallout?

The sinking of the actual hospital ship? Mistakes happen, and I suspect the British are not going to protest overly hard in this case. The senior officers will absolutely be put up for court martial though, and probably hung.

If it includes the bit with ghosts and and all that, no one will believe the survivors testimony and probably blame it on drinking salt water or exposure to gas fumes or something.
 
Well, for the crew once caught? Court martials for all, and a very serious sentence, death for all the officers, and maybe the crew as well. Between the UK and US? Probably not much, blue on blue happens.

Edit: Ninja'd!
 
Well, for the crew once caught? Court martials for all, and a very serious sentence, death for all the officers, and maybe the crew as well. Between the UK and US? Probably not much, blue on blue happens, even discounting that the crew went rogue.

I'm not sure the enlisted in general would get anything more severe then a term in the brig really. It's not like they knew the officers were covering the whole thing up. Obviously, anyone who took part in helping the officers is equally fucked, but John the Machinist's Mate, who didn't even go above deck during the attack is pretty innocent in the grand scheme of things.
 
I'm not sure the enlisted in general would get anything more severe then a term in the brig really. It's not like they knew the officers were covering the whole thing up. Obviously, anyone who took part in helping the officers is equally fucked, but John the Machinist's Mate, who didn't even go above deck during the attack is pretty innocent in the grand scheme of things.

I haven't seen the movie, so I was speculating that the crew were in on covering it up. These sorts of things are hard to conceal in the close quarters of a submarine
 
Why would the officers cover it up? I would have though only the captain (and maybe XO) would have looked through the periscope and had the opportunity to identify the ship? Everybody else is clear of anything unless they do something stupid like cover it up, even the captain and XO would be unlikely to be executed if they had a reasonable excuse and fired in a patrol area that could be filled by German ships? (unlikely considering the likely areas of operation of RN hospital ships and KM surface ships? Maybe a blockade runner off Biscay?)

what would be the fallout?
Nothing a U boat sank a hospital ship.... until at least the 1970s.
 
I haven't seen the movie, so I was speculating that the crew were in on covering it up. These sorts of things are hard to conceal in the close quarters of a submarine

Apparently the Captain gets murdered by three of the officers while they're the only ones above deck, and his body is 'lost' over the side, which seems about as plausible a method for getting away scot-free as can be done in the, as you mentioned, close quarters of a submarine. Well unless you're Sean Connery.

Why would the officers cover it up? I would have though only the captain (and maybe XO) would have looked through the periscope and had the opportunity to identify the ship? Everybody else is clear of anything unless they do something stupid like cover it up, even the captain and XO would be unlikely to be executed if they had a reasonable excuse and fired in a patrol area that could be filled by German ships? (unlikely considering the likely areas of operation of RN hospital ships and KM surface ships? Maybe a blockade runner off Biscay?)

It seems they were worried about a black mark on their records.
 
Apparently the Captain gets murdered by three of the officers while they're the only ones above deck, and his body is 'lost' over the side, which seems about as plausible a method for getting away scot-free as can be done in the, as you mentioned, close quarters of a submarine. Well unless you're Sean Connery.

Okay, that makes sense. I'm sure plenty of people on deck were lost off the deck in the course of things



It seems they were worried about a black mark on their records.

Yes, no one wants to be scolded for murdering a superior officer, and torpedoing an ally
 
If it includes the bit with ghosts and and all that, no one will believe the survivors testimony and probably blame it on drinking salt water or exposure to gas fumes or something.

The film leaves it up to the viewer as to whether there actually were supernatural goings on or whether the crew were experiencing a collective hallucination due to a gas leak. I imagine the latter would have become the official explanation.

The friendly fire incident in itself could have potentially been forgiven as a horrific mistake, it's pointed out that the silhouette of the hospital ship was very similar to the German ship they thought they were firing at. The refusal to help the survivors and the murder of the captain in the name of covering up the mistake? Probably a very quiet execution.
 
If the event tooks place during WW2, it would have been hushed up, blamed to a German Uboat and then forgotten, until some journalist digged it up. Then there would be some mess around until some other more pressing/polemic question replaced it.

If it's discovered now, more or less the same question. There would be some films about it, some kind of homage by the United States as public penance and then quietly forgotten.

In both cases, the officers responsible for the mistake and the cover up would be burnt at the stake in internet and the press. There would be some horrified indignation about it and then... nothing.
 

Tyr Anazasi

Banned
BTW a small compendium of misuse/attacks on hospital ships during ww2 (from http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/kriegsrecht.htm)

1. The Italians used hospital ships to transfer supplies to Tobruk and thus violating the rules. Therefore Arno and Città di Trapani were sunk.

2. US submarines sink Japanese Takachio Maru and Buenos Aires Maru. No justification. In return Australian Centaur was sunk by a Japanese submarine.

3. German Konstanz was taken prize and not released as being former Greek.

4. German Erlangen attacked by Allied planes and severely damaged.

5. HMS Lemerton took German Bonn as prize. Until March 1945 the ship is confiscated. Only by Swiss interference the ship can finally depart.

6. German Tübingen sunk by British Beaufighters.

7. Tachiabana Maru taken as prize after weapons were revealed.

Attacks only on ships on open sea.
 
A German site not listing hospital ships sunk by Germans.

The Newfoundland, Talamba, St. David, Paris were all bombed by German aircraft and either sunk or damaged so heavily they had to be scuttled. That's not an exhaustive list.
 

Tyr Anazasi

Banned
HMHS Newfoundland was sunk in error, Talamba and St. David were sunk after Konstanz being taken as prize. Only Paris should be added.
 
HMHS Newfoundland was sunk in error, Talamba and St. David were sunk after Konstanz being taken as prize. Only Paris should be added.

Sorry, are you arguing that the sinking of the Talamba and St. David were not mistakes, or deliberate acts, that, albeit obviously criminal, were the responsibility of just one officer - but rather that they were part of an official policy of reprisal? And, what's worse, aren't you by any chance trying to justify such a typically Nazi disproportionate reprisal (you know, "kill 10 subhumans for every Aryan soldier killed"?). I'll remind you that seizing the Konstanz caused no loss of life. OTOH, if the attacks on those two hospital ships were carried out intentionally, they amounted to murdering the wounded, the medical personnel including the nurses, and the defenseless ship crews. Please tell me you are not arguing this was justified.

That said, OK, Talamba and St. David were sunk after the seizure of the Konstanz. In turn the Konstanz was seized after the sinking of the Paris, so it should be removed from the list too, right?

And, assuming violations of the Hague X 1907 were acceptable if they were in reprisal of the other side's violations, and as such they should not make it to the list, why are the Italian hospital ships on the list? Apparently, the site authors think that they were sunk in reprisal for their carrying supplies, so according to your logic they shouldn't be on the list, right?

Now, what about the Greek hospital ships Sokratis and Esperos? The British Ramb IV?

I also find it interesting that you claim that Newfoundland was sunk in error, Talamba and St. David in a Nazi-style reprisal, but that "Paris should be added". So Paris wasn't sunk in error? It was a deliberate war crime?
 
On a more general note, I think the actual inspiration for the movie isn't from a WWII sinking of a hospital ship, but from a WWI sinking. The story has eerily resemblances with the well-known naval German war crime, the deliberate sinking of the Llandowery Castle and the subsequent gunning of the lifeboats. Indeed, only a handful of the personnel, all officers or NCOs, remained on deck for the criminal cover-up of the previous crime, and the other crewmen would only know that the deck gun was being fired. It's a war crime that fortunately did not go unpunished, and it's worth noting that it was a German court that sentenced the scum.
 
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