U-boats operando na ARGENTINA, 1943-1945
Enviado: Qui Mai 12, 2005 6:28 am
fonte:forum axishistory.com
Evidence from Argentine naval, intelligence and police archives, and from Brazilian naval archives, is strong that at least two U-boats broke through the Freetown-Natal Narrows in early July 1945, and unloaded later that month on the coast near Necochea, Buenos Aires province.
A document from the Argentine Naval Intelligence archives (CF-OP-2315) confirms that in the latter part of the war a U-boat freight run existed between Cadiz in Spain and several points on the coast of Buenos Aires province, the operational centre being a German owned ranch near San Clemente del Tuyu. The unloading was supervised by two former "Admiral Graf Spee" officers, FKpt Paul Ascher and Lt Heinrich Kummer.
The acadamic historian Professor Ronald Newton states in his book "El Cuarto Lado del Triangulo", originallly published by a US University in English, that in 1943 the Argentine Navy applied to Berlin to purchase six U-boats. Hitler was in favour, but caved in to German Foreign Office pressure on the grounds that the repurcussions of discovery of the deal would outweigh the benefits. Argentina then advised Berlin that they would use the "extra-diplomatic" track for the purchase. There is substantial official archive documentation supporting this report.
If Argentina did purchase a small number of U-boats from producing yards uninvoiced for cash, it might explain the U-boat activity immediately postwar, and why no record of the submarines exists in Allied files.
There is an interesting footnote. In her investigation into the laundering of German gold, money and valuables in Argentina postwar, Gaby Weber in her recent book "La Conexion Alemana" alleges that nearly all the money which arrived in Argentina from Nazi sources, ($69 million), was handled by Mercedes Benz S.A. of Argentina.
She goes on to say that when the Mercedes-Benz plant was first set up at Gonzalez Catan near Buenos Aires in 1955, electrical power was supplied by "four U-boat engines wired up together." Two long serving plant workers have signed depositions regarding these engines. The plant owner, a long serving Argentine friend of Germany, when asked about the engines confirmed that they were from U-boats but would not provide any further information. West Germany was not at liberty to build or export U-boat engines in the postwar period and the suspicion arises that they may have come from U-boats in Argentine-German possession from 1943 or 1944 onwards.