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Axis submarines off the brazilian coast
Great part of the second world war history is
totally unknown by the biggest part of the brazilian people.It is very common
to hear comments of people saying that Brazil has never seen action during the
war. These people are wrong.
Off the brazilian coast, several conflicts
between nations occur. And the most recent of them was the second world war. With the purpouse to sunk the biggest number of
ships and crippled the alied forces, the axis country, Italy and specially
Germany send to ours waters theirs submarines.
The major quantidity of this kind of vessel was
send by Germany and they are known as U-boats. This is abreviation to
"Unterseebooten".
The Germans use a great know-how in
construction, trainning and tactical of the underwater warfare. This excellence caused a great damage to the
allied merchant navy and it was no secret that a pay back must be done. From 1943, the process to attack this
"Silent Hunters" begin in all Atlantic Ocean.
The Germans use a great know-how in
construction, trainning and tactical of the underwater warfare. This excellence caused a great damage to the
allied merchant navy and it was no secret that a pay back must be done. From 1943, the process to attack this
"Silent Hunters" begin in all Atlantic Ocean.
In the South Atlantic, especially off the
coast of Brazil, this occur as well with the american help that provided to
the brazilian armed forces airplanes, trainning to soldiers, ships and the
creation of the military base of Parnamirim Field in Natal. The Parnamirim field was inicially created to
facilitate an allied invasion to Africa but it was also used in the coastline
patrol of Brazil. Off the Brazilian coast, hundreds of ships was torpedoed.
Some of this ships has been localized and are visited by divers. They
are: the Campos, the Elihu B. Washburne and the Itapagé.
Some of the submarines that attack and sunk
ships off brazilian coast, some find here their final fate. They were destroyed
by depht charges from airplanes and ships. One of these submarines, the U-199
was attacked and sunk by a brazilian crew, fact that caused great joy in the
local population. The airplane that realized this great act was later named
"Arará" and the entire crew was condecorated. The subs sunk on Brazilian waters are:
U-128,
U-161, U-164, U-199,
U-507, U-513,
U-590, U-598,
U-662 and the italian
sub Arquimede.
The U-boat have a hunter breed and it is a rare
vessel and because of this kind of wreckage are the dream of the wreckdivers.
In Brazil, the anxiety to localized a u-boat
has produced a lot of "false alarms" but until today, any of the
u-boats has been found. Some researchers when announcing the
discovering of a u-boat wreckage states: "I found an U-boat but it could
be a ship capsized" !
The truth is that any person who spend a little
more time on research will be able to know the difference of a U-boat and a
capsized ship. In the US and Europe, submarines has been
located and are visited by divers.
Nowadays, the most famous of all is the U-869
wich history are tell in the book "The Last dive".
We wish that soon the false leed stop and the
localization of a U-boat be confirm off the coast of Brazil.
Photos authorized by: Captain
Jerry Mason, USN
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