Talk:German submarine U-530

Uncited/speculative material

Uncited/speculative material as follows removed here this day:

Ultramar Sur

In 2002 the book Ultramar Sur: La Fuga En Submarinos De Mas De 50 Jerarcas Nazis (roughly, "Overseas South: The Flight by Submarine of more than 50 Ranking Nazis") by Carlos de Nápoli and Juan Salinas provided further information on U-530's voyage to Argentina, allegedly based on photocopies of the declassified interrogation of Oberleutnant Otto Wermuth which was held at Mar del Plata between 13 and 15 July 1945.

Upon entering Mar del Plata submarine base on 10 July 1945, U-530 had a "calamitous aspect". The hull was rusting, the conning tower was splitting apart and the corroded casing bore traces of a recent serious fire. A determined attempt had been made to sabotage the diesels. The commander, described as tall and blond in newspaper reports, identified himself as Otto Wermuth. The commander and most of his crew were unable to produce identity documents. The commander told reporters that U-530 sailed from Horten, Norway on 3 March 1945 and observed radio silence as from 24 April when entering US coastal waters. He described having been very close to New York City, and saw trains and automobiles through the periscope. Allegedly the boat had no further radio contact with anybody until 12 May, when the crew finally learned of Germany's surrender the previous week.

The Argentine Navy investigators were of the opinion that there had been a mutiny aboard U-530, and that Oberleutnant Otto Wermuth had not always been in command of the boat. Since none of the logs or war diary had been retained, the actual details of the voyage remain unknown. Otto Wermuth was short and dark-haired, and it was therefore suspected that the tall, blond Otto Wermuth who sailed the boat into Mar del Plata was an impostor who had come aboard very recently, probably from some place on the Argentine coast. To support this theory it may be noted that he was vague as to details of the voyage and stated that "the deck gun was unshipped in Germany and left on the quayside" while the crew all remember having manhandled it overboard into the Atlantic. Type IXC/40 boats like U-530 had the deck gun deleted from 1943 onwards like most U-boat types. U-530 began her first war patrol on 1 March 1943.

From the declassified documents it is not clear which Otto Wermuth underwent the naval interrogation on 13 July 1945. The officer refused to answer most questions, except to state that he had been given a "mission of reconnaissance and attack directly from Berlin". He had decided to head for Argentina when "1000 miles north east of Puerto Rico", and crossed the Equator near the St. Peter and Paul Rocks. To avoid the coastal patrols he sailed 200 miles offshore. He arrived at Punta Mogotes light, Mar del Plata, at 0300 on 9 July 1945, and then went down the coast to Miramar, where he arrived at 0600 and spent the day there. He returned to Mar del Plata at 0700 on 10 July 1945. He was unable to explain the absence of one of the U-boat's six inflatable dinghies. He admitted to having jettisoned overboard all the torpedoes bar one dud, all the hand weapons, light machine guns and all the ammunition, the radars and Metox and the pressure gauges. He also destroyed all the books, diaries, charts, 53 code books and other books of "a secret character". Nearly all the crew arrived without identity documents, and so it was impossible to know who was who.

Wikiuser100 (talk) 03:27, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

References

Register article

Anyone know anything more about this? The last few paragraphs specifically? I notice that our article on the U-977 has a quick reference to its supposed detour to Antarctica, but this article does not. Thoughts? --^Despay_re (^tal_k) 02:10, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

Range Surfaced In Error

It is obvious that the specified range "138,500 nmi (256,500 km; 159,400 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h) surfaced" is incorrect. The Wikipedia article for the German Type IX submarine class lists the range as: 13,850 nmi (25,650 km; 15,940 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h) surfaced. The 13,850 figure concurs with the information about the class on UBoat.Net.