The question of whether this "dispersal" order explicitly or implicitly encouraged the killing of the sailors in the water, or whether this was an unfortunate example of collateral damage was the subject of a post-war trial.

The German crew's report stated, however, that they had fired several short machine gun bursts into the wreckage and were unable to see their targets in the dark.

The men shooting were later proven to be the ship's engineering officer, Hans Lenz (who claimed he had done so under protest to spare an enlisted man from having to do it), Walter Weisspfennig (the ship's doctor who was not supposed to be handling firearms), the second in command August Hoffmann and an enlisted engineer, Wolfgang Schwender (who was under direct orders and fired very few rounds).

A few weeks later on 30 April the boat was spotted by a Vickers Wellington bomber flying from Aden, which managed to damage her with depth charges, thus preventing her from diving.

Eck and Hoffmann were executed because in their roles as the boat's senior officers, responsibility for the actions of their crew, as well as their own, fell directly on their shoulders.

Allied submarines (such as HMS Torbay and USS Wahoo) were also recorded as committing similar actions, though such instances were quietly hushed up at the time and years after the war ended; no legal proceedings were ever carried out against their crews.

Naval Institute came to the conclusion, that "regardless of whether or not Heinz Eck and the others were guilty of war crimes, poor judgment, or of just following orders, the outcome of the trial was Siegerjustiz (victor's justice)".