Before Behar was intercepted, Admiral Somerville warned Allied shipping between 80 and 100 degrees east to divert south or west, but not every vessel received the message or could leave quickly. The steamer was carrying zinc across the Indian Ocean when three Japanese heavy cruisers found her in March 1944. Her master transmitted the raider code and continued to flee, buying time for other ships even though Behar could not outrun the cruisers. Gunfire killed three crew members before the ship was abandoned and more than a hundred survivors were taken aboard Tone. The captives were stripped of valuables, bound in painful positions, beaten, and confined below in a space that was too hot and crowded, with inadequate water and sanitation. Behar's warning was heard by only one merchant ship, which did not report it until reaching Fremantle because transmitting sooner could expose that vessel. The episode shows the courage behind a merchant distress signal and the severe communications limits surrounding independent wartime shipping.
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SS Behar's distress call and the captivity of survivors
Behar's master kept fleeing and transmitted a raider warning to buy other ships time, but the captured survivors then faced robbery, beatings, restraint, heat, and inadequate water.