1940: The British freighter Davisian was sunk by the German commerce raider Widder. The 6,433 ton freighter's captain, T.J. Harrison had no idea the innocent looking ship coming at him was a German raider. No warning was given by Widder's commander, Helmuth von Rucktescheel to the oncoming ship. He opened fire destroying the ship's antenna. This prevented her from sending a distress call. The order to abandon ship was given, the crew of the Widder could see the boats being lowered into the sea. Widder stopped firing but, soon after this three men were seen running toward the stern gun on Davisian and von Rucktescheel opened fire once again, killing the three men on Davisian. Fifty of the crew were picked up by Widder, six were wounded. What perishable goods that could be removed from Davisian were taken by the crew of Widder and she was sunk with a single torpedo.

After the war von Rucktescheel was charged with war crimes and sentenced to 10 years in prison. One of the charges stemmed from this action. The British claimed a signal was sent alerting Widder that they were surrendering however, the German's claim they received no such signal. (Because the aerial was knocked out early in the battle it is possible a signal was sent but not received) The British claimed that the crew of Widder fired a further eight minuets after the signal was sent. Because of this and the other charges von Rucktescheel spent the rest of his life in Hamburg-Fuhlbuettel prison. The 10 year sentence was reduced to 7 because one of the charges could not be proven but, on June 24, 1948 von Rucktescheel died in prison from a heart condition. Helmuth von Rucktescheel was the only captain of a German commerce raider ever charged with war crimes.

HSK Widder
(Photo courtesy www.bismarck-class.dk)