Athenia

The Oxford Companion to World War II | 2001 | 602 words | Copyright

Athenia, 13,500-ton liner, the first British ship of the war to be sunk when it was torpedoed on 3 September 1939 near the Hebrides off Scotland's west coast. The ship was attacked without warning despite Hitler's orders that U-boats were to obey the Hague Conventions. Out of the 128 who lost their lives, 28 were Americans, which greatly exacerbated anti-Nazi feeling in the USA. German newspapers accused Churchill of deliberately arranging the incident to create bad German–US relations, but it later transpired that the U-boat had mistaken the liner for a Q-ship or auxiliary cruiser.

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I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. " Athenia." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. " Athenia." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-Athenia.html

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. " Athenia." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-Athenia.html

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