In this episode, Graeme Hill is joined by John McCrystal for a powerful account of the sinking of the RMS Laconia in 1942. A wartime disaster that became one of the most morally complex episodes in the Battle of the Atlantic. What begins as the story of a British troopship torpedoed by a German U-boat quickly becomes something far more complicated. Thousands of survivors in the water, prisoners of war trapped below decks, acts of cruelty and courage, and a German submarine commander who attempts a rescue under the Red Cross, only to come under attack himself. Through survivor testimony and historical context, Hill and McCrystal explore how the Laconia incident reshaped the rules of submarine warfare, exposed the brutal ambiguities of war at sea, and left behind enduring questions about duty, compassion, and survival.