Friends Forums
Virtual Friends Forum
Thursday, October 23rd, 2025.
7:00 – 9:00 pm EDT
“Atrocity on the Atlantic: Attack on a Canadian Hospital Ship During The Great War”
Guest Speaker – Nate Hendley
On the evening of June 27, 1918, the Llandovery Castle — an unarmed, clearly marked hospital ship used by the Canadian military — was torpedoed off the Irish Coast by U-Boat 86, a German submarine. There were 258 people on board at the time: a British crew and 94 members of the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC).
Sinking hospital ships violated international law. To conceal his actions, the U-86 commander directed the submarine deck gun to shell survivors huddled in lifeboats. Only one lifeboat containing two dozen people escaped the massacre. Global outrage ensued.
The sinking of the Llandovery Castle was adjudicated at the Leipzig War Crimes Trials, an attempt to establish justice after hostilities ceased. The Llandovery Castle case resulted in an epochal ruling that guided subsequent war crime prosecutions, including the Nuremberg Trials.
Atrocity on the Atlantic explores the Llandovery Castle sinking, the people impacted by the attack, and the reasons why this wartime atrocity was largely forgotten.
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