On February 24, 1941 a plane carrying Vizeadmiral Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière crashed on take off from Le Bourget Airport in Paris killing the U-boat "Ace of Aces". Von Arnauld in his career as a U-boat commander in the Great War sank over 450,000 tons of shipping, almost 200 ships, making him the leading submarine commander of all time. Most of his encounters were conducted under the accepted rules of war, he stopped the ships, allowed the crews to abandon and then dispatched the vessel with his deck gun. This was not always the case however, when he torpedoed and sank the French transports La Provence (Provence II) (Feb. 26, 1916) and Gallia (Oct. 4, 1916), without warning, over 2,000 troops went with them.

After the war he was named as a defendant in the Leipzig War Crimes trials, but appears not to have been charged or tried. He remained in the German Navy until 1931 when he retired and went to Turkey to teach in the Naval Academy, in 1938 he returned to Germany. In 1940 he was placed in active service in the Kriegsmarine and was ultimately promoted to Vizeadmiral. His commands were now shore based, but included the whole French coast.

After his death Grossadmiral Erich Raeder said of von Arnauld "He was honored by friend and foe alike and wrote his name in letters of iron in the book of naval history".