General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
RE: Oil Targets
Posted by:
Fin Bonset
()
Date: December 06, 2000 12:25PM
<HTML>Hi Romulo, Captain D., Rich, and all,
Romulo, your account from Aruba is correct. I actually grew up as a teenager in that part of Aruba. My house there actually over-looks the site of the batlle. My parents are there right now. Some additional facts. Two shells did land in the refinery. One missed and just created a small crater and the other actually hit a very large fuel tank but it did not blow-up! It instead left a huge ding in the side of it which can still be seen today. If that shell had detonated, there would have been a chain reaction because there are about 20 other huge oil tanks in close proximity to that one.
In addition, the account in that book \"Uboat War in the Caribbean\" is not entirely accurate in terms of the sinking of the ships and the location of their sinking. The Oranjestad actually sank right in the harbor and the Pedernales partially sank right off the docks. The large 155 mm shells were not fired at the u-boat. The reason being that the location of those guns were in a direct line with the refinery houses and that would have been unsafe. I have spoken with a witness and he said that smaller shells were fired from within the harbor where the U.S. had set up several guns. They were definitely not 155 mm.
When I go back for Christmas, I\'m going to do more research on the incident as I didn\'t get much of a chance the last time I was there.
Best to all,
Fin Bonset</HTML>
Romulo, your account from Aruba is correct. I actually grew up as a teenager in that part of Aruba. My house there actually over-looks the site of the batlle. My parents are there right now. Some additional facts. Two shells did land in the refinery. One missed and just created a small crater and the other actually hit a very large fuel tank but it did not blow-up! It instead left a huge ding in the side of it which can still be seen today. If that shell had detonated, there would have been a chain reaction because there are about 20 other huge oil tanks in close proximity to that one.
In addition, the account in that book \"Uboat War in the Caribbean\" is not entirely accurate in terms of the sinking of the ships and the location of their sinking. The Oranjestad actually sank right in the harbor and the Pedernales partially sank right off the docks. The large 155 mm shells were not fired at the u-boat. The reason being that the location of those guns were in a direct line with the refinery houses and that would have been unsafe. I have spoken with a witness and he said that smaller shells were fired from within the harbor where the U.S. had set up several guns. They were definitely not 155 mm.
When I go back for Christmas, I\'m going to do more research on the incident as I didn\'t get much of a chance the last time I was there.
Best to all,
Fin Bonset</HTML>
Subject | Written By | Posted |
---|---|---|
Oil Targets | Craig McLean | 12/05/2000 02:06PM |
RE: Oil Targets | Anders Wingren | 12/05/2000 02:35PM |
RE: Oil Targets | Fin Bonset | 12/05/2000 02:49PM |
RE: Oil Targets | Fin Bonset | 12/05/2000 02:46PM |
RE: Oil Targets | TL | 12/05/2000 03:14PM |
RE: Oil Targets | kurt | 12/05/2000 05:41PM |
RE: Oil Targets | TL | 12/06/2000 01:27PM |
RE: Oil Targets | kurt | 12/06/2000 11:49PM |
RE: Oil Targets | Rich Mickle | 12/05/2000 11:15PM |
RE: Oil Targets | Fin Bonset | 12/06/2000 12:25PM |
RE: Oil Targets | Capt. George W. Duffy | 12/06/2000 12:17AM |
RE: Oil Targets | Romulo Figueiredo | 12/06/2000 02:03AM |