Atrocity on the Atlantic - by Nate Hendley (Paperback)

About the Book

On June 27, 1918, a Canadian military hospital ship was torpedoed by U-Boat 86, a German submarine. The sub commander tried to kill all the survivors -- but failed. The attack was adjudicated at the Leipzig War Crimes Trials resulting in a historic legal precedent that guided subsequent war crime prosecutions.

Book Synopsis

FINALIST, 2025 Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book

How a German submarine sank a Canadian military hospital ship during the First World War and sparked outrage.

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.

Sinking a hospital ship violated international law. To conceal his actions, the U-86 commander had a submarine deck gun fire on survivors. One lifeboat escaped with witnesses to the atrocity. Global outrage over the attack ensued.

The incident became a pivotal case at the Leipzig War Crimes Trials, an attempt to establish justice after the Great War ended. The Llandovery Castle trial resulted in a historic legal precedent that guided subsequent war crimes prosecutions at Nuremberg and elsewhere.

Atrocity on the Atlantic explores the ship's sinking, the people impacted by the attack, and the reasons why this wartime atrocity was largely forgotten.

Review Quotes

A tragic and deplorable incident...the sinking of the Llandovery Castle had immediate and lasting consequences, as Mr. Hendley so ably describes throughout the balance of the book, which is filled with survivor stories, memorials to their legacy, and the resulting trials which were pivotal in instituting the "I was just following orders" defence as a non-defence in subsequent war crimes trials.

A useful addition to the literature on the impact of the First World War on society, specifically international law.

Engaging and illuminating, Hendley's book brings this forgotten loss to life, detailing the people at the heart of it, their lives leading up to the fateful voyage ... Meticulously researched, this book pulls together the details from innumerable first-hand accounts, letters, military records, court documents, and newspaper articles of the time - a huge amount of work that has paid off in an authoritative telling of the Llandovery Castle's fate and the aftermath that resounded for decades before fading from popular memory. Hendley's writing is sympathetic, moving, but never maudlin. He crisply tells this story, takes the reader right onto the deck of the doomed ship and into the ice-cold waters of the Atlantic. Scattered through the pages, the faces of those who were killed and those who survived peep out across the more than 100 years since the Llandovery Castle sank. This is a must-read for anyone interested in Canadian history, particularly of both the wars the country found itself in.

Hendley, a true-crime writer, has here taken on a moral crime. He provides readers with vivid descriptions of the chaos as the vessel. The account is captivating: men and nursing sisters fighting to avoid being drawn into the whirlpool as their craft sank beneath the sea. Hendley provides an arresting portrayal of how hopelessness and peril shrouded the scene, already a panorama of death.

The sinking of the Llandovery Castle was the worst war crime committed against Canadians in the First World War. The prosecution of this case set the stage for the Nuremberg war crimes trials a generation later. Nate Hendley has done a great job of telling this important story. It's a part of our history that needs to be remembered.

A tragic and deplorable incident...the sinking of the Llandovery Castle had immediate and lasting consequences, as Mr. Hendley so ably describes throughout the balance of the book, which is filled with survivor stories, memorials to their legacy, and the resulting trials which were pivotal in instituting the "I was just following orders" defence as a non-defence in subsequent war crimes trials.-- "The Seaboard Review"

A useful addition to the literature on the impact of the First World War on society, specifically international law.-- "Canadian Military History, vol. 33"

Engaging and illuminating, Hendley's book brings this forgotten loss to life, detailing the people at the heart of it, their lives leading up to the fateful voyage ... Meticulously researched, this book pulls together the details from innumerable first-hand accounts, letters, military records, court documents, and newspaper articles of the time -- a huge amount of work that has paid off in an authoritative telling of the Llandovery Castle's fate and the aftermath that resounded for decades before fading from popular memory. Hendley's writing is sympathetic, moving, but never maudlin. He crisply tells this story, takes the reader right onto the deck of the doomed ship and into the ice-cold waters of the Atlantic. Scattered through the pages, the faces of those who were killed and those who survived peep out across the more than 100 years since the Llandovery Castle sank. This is a must-read for anyone interested in Canadian history, particularly of both the wars the country found itself in.-- "The Miramichi Reader"

Hendley, a true-crime writer, has here taken on a moral crime. He provides readers with vivid descriptions of the chaos as the vessel. The account is captivating: men and nursing sisters fighting to avoid being drawn into the whirlpool as their craft sank beneath the sea. Hendley provides an arresting portrayal of how hopelessness and peril shrouded the scene, already a panorama of death.-- "Literary Review of Canada"

The sinking of the Llandovery Castle was the worst war crime committed against Canadians in the First World War. The prosecution of this case set the stage for the Nuremberg war crimes trials a generation later. Nate Hendley has done a great job of telling this important story. It's a part of our history that needs to be remembered.-- "Mark Bourrie, author of Big Men Fear Me and Bush Runner"

About the Author

Nate Hendley is a journalist and author of several books, primarily on crime-related subjects. His book The Beatle Bandit (about a murderous 1964 bank heist) won the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Non-Fiction in 2022. He lives in Toronto.