Almost 70 years have passed since the Second World War died down, but even today we do not know everything about some episodes of its final stage. That is why, again and again in the press and literature, old stories about the mysterious submarines of the Third Reich that surfaced off the coast of Latin America come to life. Argentina turned out to be especially attractive to them.
GET FROM THE BOTTOM
There were reasons for such stories, real or fictional. Everyone knows the role of German submarines in the war at sea: 1,162 submarines left the stocks of Germany during the Second World War. But not only this record number of boats could be rightfully proud of the German Navy.
German submarines of that time were distinguished by the highest technical characteristics - speed, immersion depth, unsurpassed cruising range. It is no coincidence that the most massive Soviet submarines of the pre-war period (Series C) were built under a German license.
And when in July 1944 the German U-250 boat was sunk at a shallow depth in Vyborg Bay, the Soviet command demanded that the fleet raise it at any cost and deliver it to Kronstadt, which was done, despite stubborn enemy opposition. And although the boats of the VII series, to which the U-250 belonged, in 1944 were no longer considered the last word in German technology, there were many new products for Soviet designers in its design.
Suffice it to say that after its capture, a special order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Kuznetsov appeared to suspend the work begun on the project of a new submarine until a detailed study of the U-250. In the future, many elements of the "German" were transferred to Soviet boats of project 608, and later project 613, of which more than a hundred were built in the post-war years. The boats of the XXI series had especially high performance, one after the other going into the ocean since 1943.
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Doubtful Neutrality
Argentina, having chosen neutrality in the world war, nevertheless took a clearly pro-German position. The large German diaspora was very influential in this southern country and provided all possible assistance to their belligerent compatriots. The Germans owned many industrial enterprises in Argentina, huge land holdings, and fishing vessels.
German submarines operating in the Atlantic regularly approached the shores of Argentina, where they were supplied with food, medicine and spare parts. Nazi submariners were accepted as heroes by the owners of German estates, scattered in large numbers along the Argentine coast. Eyewitnesses said that real feasts were held for bearded men in sea uniform - lamb and piglets were roasted, the best wines and barrels of beer were exhibited.
But the local press did not get any reports about it. It is no wonder that after the defeat of the Third Reich, it was in this country that many prominent Nazis and their henchmen, such as Eichmann, Pribke, sadist doctor Mengele, the fascist dictator of Croatia Pavelic and others, found refuge and escaped from retaliation in this country.
It was rumored that they all ended up in South America aboard submarines, a special squadron of 35 submarines (the so-called "Fuehrer's Convoy") had a base in the Canaries. To this day, dubious versions have not been refuted that Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun and Bormann found salvation in the same way, as well as about the secret German colony New Swabia allegedly created with the help of the submarine fleet in Antarctica.
In August 1942, Brazil joined the warring countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, taking part in battles on land, in the air and at sea. She suffered the greatest loss when the war in Europe had already ended, and in the Pacific it was burning down. On July 4, 1945, the Brazilian cruiser "Baia" exploded 900 miles from its native shores and almost instantly went to the bottom. Most experts believe that his death (along with 330 crew members) was the work of German submariners.
SWASTIKA ON THE HEAD?
After waiting out the troubled times, making good money on supplies to both warring coalitions, at the very end of the war, when its end was clear to everyone, on March 27, 1945, Argentina declared war on Germany. But after that the flow of German boats, it seems, only increased. Dozens of residents of coastal villages, as well as fishermen in the sea, according to them, more than once observed submarines on the surface, almost in wake formation moving in a southerly direction.
The most eagle-eyed eyewitnesses even saw a swastika on their cabin, which, by the way, the Germans never put on the cabin of their boats. Coastal waters and coasts of Argentina were now patrolled by the army and navy. There is an episode when in June 1945, in the vicinity of the city of Mardel Plata, a patrol stumbled upon a cave in which various products were in sealed packaging. Who they were intended for remained unclear. It is also difficult to understand where this endless stream of submarines allegedly observed by the population after May 1945 came from.
After all, on April 30, the commander-in-chief of the German Navy, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, ordered the operation "Rainbow", during which all the remaining submarines of the Reich (several hundred) were subject to flooding. It is quite realistic that the commander-in-chief's directive did not reach some of these ships, which were in the ocean or in ports of different countries, and some crews simply refused to carry it out.
Historians agree that in most cases for the submarines observed in the ocean, various boats dangling on the waves, including fishing ones, were taken, or eyewitness reports were simply a figment of their imagination against the background of general hysteria in anticipation of a retaliatory strike from Germany.
CAPTAIN CHINZANO
Still, at least two German submarines turned out to be not phantoms, but quite real ships with live crews on board. They were U-530 and U-977, which entered the port of Mardel Plata in the summer of 1945 and surrendered to the Argentine authorities. When an Argentine officer boarded U-530 in the early morning of July 10, he saw the crew lined up on the deck and their commander, a very young lieutenant, who introduced himself as Otto Vermouth (later the Argentine sailors called him Captain Cinzano) and stated that U- 530 and her team of 54 people surrender to the mercy of the Argentine authorities.
After that, the submarine's flag was lowered and handed over to the Argentine authorities along with the list of the crew.
A group of officers from the Mardel-Plata naval base, which examined U-530, noted that the submarine did not have a deck cannon and two anti-aircraft machine guns (they were dropped into the sea before surrender), as well as not a single torpedo. All ship's documents were destroyed, as was the encryption machine. The absence of an inflatable rescue boat on the submarine was especially noted, which suggested that it was not used for landing some Nazi leaders (possibly Hitler himself).
During interrogations, Otto Vermouth said that U-530 left Kiel in February, hid in the Norwegian fjords for 10 days, then cruised along the US coast, and on April 24 moved south. Otto Vermouth could not give any intelligible explanations about the absence of the bot. Searches for the missing bot were organized using ships, aircraft and marines, but they did not yield any results. On July 21, the ships participating in this operation were ordered to return to their bases. From that moment on, no one was looking for German submarines in the waters of Argentina.
THE TALE OF THE PIRATE
Concluding the story about the adventures of German submarines in the southern seas, one cannot fail to mention a certain corvette captain Paul von Rettel, who, thanks to journalists, became widely known as the commander of U-2670. He, allegedly being in the Atlantic in May 1945, refused to sink his submarine or surrender and simply began to pirate off the coast of Africa and Southeast Asia. The newly-minted filibuster seemed to have amassed a huge fortune for himself. He replenished fuel for his diesels, water and food at the expense of his victims.
He practically did not use weapons, since few people dared to resist his formidable submarine. How this story ended is unknown to journalists. But it is known for certain that the submarine numbered U-2670 was not included in the German fleet, and von Rettel himself was not on the list of commanders. So, to the disappointment of lovers of sea romance, his story turned out to be a newspaper duck.
Constantin RICHES