Caribbean battle
The West Indies, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.
| date | 1941 to 1945 |
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| place | West Indies , Caribbean Sea , Gulf of Mexico |
| output | Allied victory |
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The Battle of the Caribbean was fought during World War II , between 1941 and 1945, and was part of the Battle of the Atlantic . German and Italian submarines tried to stop the American supply of oil and other materials. Ships were sunk in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico , but coastal targets in the Antilles were also attacked. An improved Allied submarine hunt ultimately drove the Axis powers out of the Caribbean and led to an Allied victory.
Operations of the Axis Powers
Attack on Aruba
On February 16, 1942, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Werner Hartenstein , seven German and Italian submarines began a coordinated attack against a refinery of the Lago Company on the Dutch- occupied Aruba . Allied oil tankers in the region were also attacked. The Axis powers sank six tankers using pack tactics , and others were damaged. A large storage tank was also damaged, which led the Americans to greater occupation in order to protect the island and make it safer.
During the attack there was an accident on the deck of the lead boat, which forced the Germans to retreat. Then the survivors were several torpedoed ships using the Venezuelan gunboat General Urbaneta recovered, while an American Douglas A-20 Havoc Bomber a skirmish with a German U-boats returned, but not destroyed. The Dutch coastal guns stationed on the coast also opened fire on the submarines of the Kriegsmarine, but could not land any hits.
Other operations
On March 3, 1942, a German submarine attacked the American island of Mona , about 60 km west of Puerto Rico , with neither damage nor losses.
On April 19, 1942, Commander Ernst Kals attacked a refinery on Curaçao with U 130 . Kals ordered the attack on various oil storage tanks, but had to break off the attack after five shots, as a Dutch coastal gun returned fire. Later, a German submarine attacked a merchant ship off Curaçao, which also led to shelling by coastal and ship artillery . Here, too, no damage could be done to the German ship.
Attacks on Allied shipping
The Norlantic was a 3,860-ton cargo ship sailing under the American flag , which was sunk by a German submarine in the Caribbean on the morning of May 13, 1942. The Norlantic was carrying mixed cargo from Pensacola , Florida , to Venezuela when it was attacked by U 69 , 170 km east of Bonaire . At 03:38, U 69, under the command of Commander Ulrich Graf, fired two torpedoes while it was above the surface of the water. Since both torpedoes missed their target, Graf ordered his crew to approach at 2,000 meters and to open fire on the fleeing ship using the on-board cannon at 03:47. After several hits, the American ship gave the navy submarine the signal to stop firing so that the crew could escape via the lifeboats. However, the Germans did not stop their fire, not even when two lifeboats were launched. At 4:11 am, a coup de grace was fired at the Norlantic's boiler room . Then the ship and ripped six men sank into the death . Two crew members were killed in the torpedo attack, four in the subsequent fire from the on-board gun. The survivors of the Norlantic stayed at sea for several days until they were rescued by Allied ships.
Two Mexican tankers were sunk by German submarines:
- May 14, 1942: the Potrero del Llano is sunk by Reinhard Suhrens U 564 off Florida .
- May 21, 1942: the Faja de Oro is sunk by Hermann Rasch's U 106 off Key West .
16 men died in the two attacks. This prompted Mexico to declare war on Germany on June 1, 1942.
The Sylvan Arrow was during World War II, a cargo ship of the Standard Oil and Transportation Company , as they of U 155 was torpedoed. The attack happened on May 20, 1942 south of Grenada in the Caribbean Sea. Attempts to tow the ship failed, which is why the Sylvan Arrow sank on May 28 at position 12 ° 50 'North, 67 ° 32' West.
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On June 11, 1942, the tanker Hagan was sunk by U 157 about eight kilometers north of the Cuban coast . The American ship had loaded thousands of barrels of molasses and was hit in the engine room. The torpedo destroyed the engines and caused a boiler to explode just before another torpedo hit the ship. Two days later, U 157 by a cutter of the United States Coast Guard sunk.
On September 4, 1942, the 6,511 ton Mexican tanker SS Amaltan was attacked by U 171 . The Amaltan dodged three attacks of two torpedoes each before it was hit. She sank with ten sailors, 24 were able to save themselves.
On September 11, 1942, U 514 , under Lieutenant Captain Hans-Jürgen Auffermann, attacked the armed, steam-powered merchant ship Cornwallis off the coast of Bridgetown . After a brief exchange of fire, the ship sank in shallow waters, but was raised again and towed to Trinidad in December 1942 . It was later taken to Mobile , Alabama , where it arrived on January 24, 1943. The ship was repaired and resumed service in August 1943, but was torpedoed a second time, this time by U 1230 on December 3, 1944 in the Gulf of Maine , and sank.
Commander Rudolf Friedrich drove through the Mona Passage in the U 759 and reached the Caribbean on June 29th. On June 30th, he sank a sailing ship by shelling it with the deck cannon. On July 5, 1943, about 100 km west of Port-Salut , Haiti , U 759 attacked the steamship Maltran sailing under the American flag , which was part of the GTMO-134 convoy . At least one of the torpedoes fired by U 759 hit the ship. The Maltran sank within 15 minutes of the impact, but her crew was able to get to safety on lifeboats. They were later rescued by the USS SC-1279 .
On July 7, U 759 attacked the Dutch cargo ship Poelau Roebiah and sank it east of Jamaica . Two of its crew members went down with the ship, the other 86 were rescued. As a result of this event, the US Navy began tracking U 759 on the following day, July 8, 1943 . The first attack came from a Martin PBM , which dropped bombs on the ship. American ships then searched the area, but U 759 escaped without damage.
Sunk warships
Axis Ships
The U-157 was sunk by the United States Coast Guard on June 13, 1942 . The submarine was on the surface, southwest of Key West , when it was sighted by USCGC Thetis . The German submarine went into hiding and tried to escape, but the Thetis managed to position itself over the U 157 and drop depth charges. It was only after several minutes of bombardment and when the coast guard team discovered fragments and oil on the surface of the water that the attack was ended and the U 157 with its 52-man crew was declared sunk.
Seven days after the U 759 escaped from Allied ships on July 8, 1943, it was reported sunk. However, post-war investigations revealed that the boat was not destroyed until an attack on July 23. This happened through a bombardment by an American Martin PBM, who sank the ship with its 47-man crew.
The freighter SS Robert E. Lee was escorted by the American USS PC-556 , some 70 km south of the Mississippi Delta , on July 30, 1942 , when the Robert E. Lee was hit by a torpedo. Thereupon the U 166 was discovered by the PC-566 , attacked with depth charges and sunk. 52 German crew members died.
On August 28, 1942, U 94 was in action against an Allied convoy off Haiti when it was attacked by American and Canadian escort ships. First an American Consolidated PBY bombed the ship, then the Canadian corvettes HMCS Halifax and HMCS Snowberry attacked . The Oakville dropped depth charges, which forced the submarine to the surface. One of the corvettes then rammed the U 94 twice before it finally stopped. After that, a group of eleven sailors were dispatched to capture the crew of the submarine. When two of the men entered the interior of the U-94 , two Germans came running towards them. Because they did not obey the order to stop, they were shot. The rest of the team surrendered. After they were captured, the Canadian soldiers realized that the German crew had already started sinking their own ship and that water was pooling in the boat. Ultimately, the U 94 sank , 19 of the 45 crew members died in combat, and 26 others, including the frigate captain, were rescued by the Oakville .
U 162 wasdiscovered and sunkby the Royal Navy on September 3, 1942, northeast of Trinidad . Three British destroyers, the HMS Vimy , HMS Pathfinder and HMS Quentin , attacked U 162 with depth charges and sank the ship, including two crew members. 49 others survived the incident and became prisoners of war in the United States. The crew was interrogated and provided useful information about the German submarines and their base at Lorient . German captain Jürgen Wattenberg fled his incarceration in late 1944 but was caught again about a month later.
The German auxiliary cruiser Stier was sunk in the Caribbean on September 27, 1942, after it had sunk the American Liberty freighter Stephen Hopkins .
On May 15, 1943, the Cuban freighters Camaguey and Honduran Hanks were escorted from Sagua la Grande to Havana by three small submarine fighters of the Cuban Navy . The convoy was approaching Havana in the Gulf of Mexico when an American reconnaissance aircraft spotted the German U 176 . The aircraft fired a smoke bullet at the ship and the CS-13, under the command of Lieutenant Alférez Delgado, began tracking using sonar. Next came depth charges from the CS-13 , which sank the submarine and its crew.
Allied ships
The George Calvert was a Liberty freighter armed with a cannon, which was sunk by U 753 east of Cuba on May 20, 1942 . Ten men were killed when three torpedoes hit the George Calvert and it sank within minutes. The survivors were captured and interrogated by the Germans before they were released in lifeboats and later reached the Cuban coast.
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The unarmed Major General Henry Gibbins was driving alone when she was attacked by U 158 on July 23, 1942, about 650 km from Key West, Florida . After being hit by two torpedoes on the port side, the Henry Gibbins sank twenty minutes later. 47 crew members and 21 United States Army guards survived the attack and were rescued a day later.
On September 27, 1942, the SS Stephen Hopkins , an armed Liberty freighter, was on its way back from Dutch Guiana to Cape Town when it was attacked by the German auxiliary cruiser Stier . When the German instructions to stop were not followed, the ship was shot at by the bull's main gun. After a short but intense fight, the American ship was sunk at 10:00 a.m., but there were also losses on the part of the bull . This was so badly damaged that it could no longer move, which is why its captain sank it two hours after defeating the Stephen Hopkins .
In November 1942, the American escorted gunboat USS Erie the convoy TAG-20 between Trinidad and Guantánamo Bay , as they of U 163 was attacked. The German submarine under the command of Karl-Eduard Engelmann appeared and fired three torpedoes at the Erie . The Americans spotted the submarine and the torpedoes and began an evasive maneuver. The Erie escaped two torpedoes but was badly damaged by the third. The ship burned for several hours before the fire could be brought under control. Seven Americans were killed and eleven injured in this attack. The Erie was later towed to Willemstad Harbor, Aruba, but capsized and sank on December 5, 1942.
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Shells at Aruba" , Time Magazine , February 23 1942nd
- ↑ Robert L. Schenia, Latin America: A Naval History 1810-1987 , Annapolis, Annapolis , Maryland , United States Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870212958 , OCLC 15696006
- ^ "Puerto Rican Isle Shelled by Enemy," The New York Times , March 4, 1942.
- ↑ The United States Coast Artillery Command on Aruba and Curaçao in World War II . The Coast Defenfes Study Group Journal, Volume 11, Issue 2
- ↑ Caribbean wars untold . University of West Indies , 2007. ISBN 9766402035 .
- ↑ Cornwallis (Steam merchant)
- ↑ The U-boat was in the Caribbean . Naval Institute Press. 1994. ISBN 1557504520 .