U BOATS IN ACTION SOUTH ATLANTIC - U BOATS IN ACTION

1)U BOATS IN ACTION

We often think of the Battle of the Atlantic primarily as the conflict pitting Axis submarines against American and British convoys in the North Atlantic. However, the Kriegsmarine’s submarines also ravaged shipping off the coast of South America. A spate of attacks on Brazil’s then-neutral shipping proved to be ill judged, however, as Brazil’s entry into World War II as a U.S. ally led to the defeat of the U-boat campaign in the South Atlantic in just twelve months.

79 Uboats operated In the south Atlantic, and sent to the bottom 422 merchants from 11 countries such as Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, England, France, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Sweden, South Africa and United States.

The first ship to be sunk in the south Atlantic was the Norwegian Sarita on 14 Jul 1940 by U-A with 0 dead  and 29 survivors. She was sailing on ballast from St. Vincent to Trinidad.

The last ship was the British Baron Jedburg on 10 Mar 1945 by U-532 with 1 dead and 58 survivors. She was loaded with 4,000 tons of general cargo, 3,000 tons of tinplates and lubricating oil.

The most successful uboat was U 68 with a total of 23 ships including one British Corvette, with 114,573 GRT. The amount of cargo lost was immense, with a total of 104,583 tons adding 70,000 barrels of precious diesel oil and a miscellaneous of cargo as BEER, CASTOR OIL, COPRA, COFFE, COTTON, CASTOR SEEDS, CHROME ORE, COPPER INGOTS, DATES, HEMP, GOVERNMENT STORES, GENERAL CARGO, JUTE, KERNELS, MAIZE, MANGANESE ORE, MILITARY STORES, PALM KERNELS, PALM OIL, PIG IRON, RICE, RUBBER, RUM, SUGAR, SISAL, TIMBER, TEA, TRUCKS, WOOL  and 2000 boxes with Silver coins from British City of Cairo.