Gentlemen, This was war, remember? Many allied ships were decoys disguised as merchant ships. When the sub would surface, out popped the big guns hidden on the deck, often in, or under, or around life boats. Who would take the chance on this fact, especially at night? I would have run to the other side of the ship that wasn't being fired upon had I been there. Then I would grab something that floats and jumped.

We can only speculate as to why things happened.
50 years later we learned that the Lutsatnia(sp)was indeed carring arms for use against Germany. Perhaps we will find out more later but I doubt it.

Gary

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