Talk:Heinz-Wilhelm Eck

Comment

I’ve edited these pages ( Heinz-Wilhelm Eck, U-852, SS Peleus), as they can’t stay as they are.

Eck and U-852 are largely identical; as it is, they’ll be merged, or one will be deleted.

The U-852 page should be about the boat, and the Eck page about the man, so I’ve trimmed the boat page.

And there’s nothing at all on Peleus, so I’ve created that, and used a different source for perspective.

(copy to all three talk pages) Xyl 54 (talk) 14:37, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Sources

I’ve removed the reference to Tony Bridgland’s book as a source; including it here suggests the content of this article is derived from his book, or that it endorses the viewpoint here, which is definitely not the case. Xyl 54 (talk) 10:13, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

I’ve also moved this one:
"Sharpe, Peter, U-Boat Fact File, Midland Publishing, Great Britain: 1998. ISBN 1-85780-072-9".
for the same reason; I’d be surprised if Sharpe corroborated this viewpoint, but I’m unable to check it. Can anyone with access to a copy say one way or the other? Xyl 54 (talk) 10:17, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Sources, again

If you’re going to use Blair as a source here, it’s worth pointing out that it’s only to confirm the claim that Eck was the only U boat commander to be tried for war crimes; Blair certainly doesn’t endorse the rest of the whitewash that appears on this page.
Of the action itself Blair says “Eck ‘lost his nerve’…He decided that to absolutely conceal evidence of the sinking, the big pieces of debris-and the life rafts-should be destroyed, even though, as he said later, the acts of destruction might cost the lives of some of they survivors, and, if successful, would certainly deprive the seamen of their only means of survival";
While of Eck’s trial he says “Asked later if it was not clear to him ‘that though sinking the wreckage and rafts you would also sink the survivors’ Eck responded ‘it was clear to me the possibility of their survival disappeared".
So let’s get it straight.Xyl 54 (talk) 13:08, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Also the claim that it was the "only case in which U-Boat personnel were convicted of war crimes" is disingenuous; Eck and the others may have been the only ones convicted, but they certainly weren’t the only ones who committed war crimes; Bridgland lists at least half a dozen incidents by U-boat commanders in WW II, but also points out that most of them escaped trial after the war. Xyl 54 (talk) 13:11, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

And "thousands"? Xyl 54 (talk) 13:13, 19 August 2008 (UTC)