Hi Marco,

You are correct. 'Ultramar Sur' or 'Overseas South: The Ultimate secret operation of the Third Reich' contains a bit of fact (about U-530 & U-977), but is mostly fantasy.

Authors Juan Salinas and Carlos DeNapoli claim that a fleet of U-boats (including 530 & 977) departed Norway at the end of the war, and ferried treasure and high ranking German officials to South America. Though it is true that some German officials did make it to South America following the war, there is no evidence that they had been ferried there by U-boats, much less that any of those un-accounted-for U-boats lie where they had allegedly been scuttled, in shallow waters off the coast of Argentina.

Salinas and DeNapoli make the completely false claim that U-977 (a medium range Type VIIC) traveled from Norway to the Gulf of Maine, with less than a full load of fuel, then torpedoed and sank the U.S. Navy sub-chaser USS Eagle PE-56 on 23 April 1945. The PE-56 had actually been sunk by the Type IXC/40 U-853 (KL Froemsdorf). They (Salinas & DeNapoli) then claim that U-977 headed South where it torpedoed and sank the Brazilian cruiser Bahia, before she (977) surrendered at Mar del Plata, Argentina in August of '45. To the best of my recollection, the Bahia Court of Inquiry concluded, through testimony of many survivirs, that an aft 20mm battery taking part in aerial target practice, accidentally discharged several HE shells, while the battery was fully depressed, into her (Bahia's) aft depth-charge racks, setting them off. Bahia sank by the stern in just minutes, with (I believe) about 340 Officers and crewmen lost.

Though U-977's KL Heinz Schaeffer may not have been fully truthful about his last patrol while under interrogation, the PE-56 and Bahia attacks were not of his doing. It is actually hard to believe that U-977 could have made the long trip from Norway to Argentina with the limited fuel he allegedly bunkered before she departed on her last voyage.

Clearly, however, Salinas' and DeNapoli's account is simply fiction, based loosely on some underlying facts, which make their book that much more offensive. If you want to simply make up a 'hard-to-believe' story, then also make up the boats involved. This was also the basis of my poor account for the ridiculous movie U-571.

Ragards,

Paul