Enjoy!

In his new book "Puerto Seguro" (Norma Editorial, Buenos Aires, 2006), Argentine author Jorge Camarasa provides further information regarding the provision of facilities for U-boats along the Argentine shoreline in the period 1943-1945.


The area of Buenos Aires province in question lies between Cape San Antonio and the town of Necochea. We begin at Cape San Antonio which has a lighthouse. The headland marks the division between the River Plate and the South Atlantic. Running south from the lighthouse are the towns of San Clemente del Tuyu, Mar del Tuyu and Mar del Ajo. Numerous sightings of U-boats were made here from the shore during July 1945, although it is believed that the area was most active during the war. The beaches between Mar del Ajo and the town and naval base at Mar del Plata were undeveloped in the 1940s. The important locality halfway between the headland and Mar del Plata is Villa Gesell.


In 1945, Villa Gesell, now a populous holiday resort, was no more than a plot of land with a few houses under construction amongst the sand dunes. The entrepreneur was a person of German origin, Carlos Gesell. The first residents of Villa Gesell were Germans. Numbered amongst them were three former "Admiral Graf Spee" internees, Stock, Negus and Schwalbe.


The existence of a secret U-boat Etappendienst stage near the Cape San Antonio light was suspected by the Americans from 1943. On 12 August that year their naval and military attaches went to the Cape in the hope of gathering evidence of a U-boat arrival, but none came.


In August 1945 an FBI radiogram from Buenos Aires stated: "Local Press reports indicate provincial police department raided German colony located Villa Gesell looking for individuals who possibly entered Argentina clandestinely by U-boat and during search a short-wave transmitter/receiver was discovered. Other premises near beach were searched by authorities but no arrests made."


The reason for American interest is only gradually coming to light.


(1) In the late 1960s a beach development near the Calle Buenos Aires at Villa Gesell uncovered a railway track leading from the sea through a 50-metre long shed alongside the house of Carlos Gesell. According to architect Jorge Castro, the track ended at the back garden of a German mechanic who specialized in diesels. Castro was of the opinion that the purpose of the railway was as a kind of "dry dock" for U-boats.

In his autobiographical text published in the journal "Yacht Club Argentino" (No 87, June 1998) Argentine naval captain Atilio Porretti stated: "On 2 June 1910 the freighter "Victoria" transporting a cargo of rails sank in the mouth of the Tres Arroyos river near the abandoned village of Cristiano Muerto. During the Second World War a German company acquired the rights to the cargo and laid the rails along a low mole they had built. A large radio mast was erected and they began to buy in huge quantities of provisions. It became common gossip what they were up to. The centre of the activities was a large farm owned by Germans. It was patrolled by an armed guard day and night. Occasionally lights would be seen from the sea and small boats would make trips to and from the mole. Near the San Antonio lighthouse are the remains of four wireless masts similar to that at Cristiano Muerto."


(2) Journalist Martin Malharro reported the discovery of a fuel dump under sand dunes at Villa Gesell. "At the end of the 1960s during the removal of sand dunes for development work a kind of "bunker" was found containing 200-litre barrels of fuel and submarine parts".


(3) Six kms south of the Quarandi lighthouse, 100 metres inshore amongst the dunes, are the remains of a 4-metre square concrete box with a tin roof. The only access to it is up from the beach. Until a few years ago evidence existed indicating that this had been some kind of clandestine signals station for signalling to vessels at sea."


(4) Six kms further south of this bunker and 80 metres inshore amongst the dunes are two platforms made from a smooth stone not local to the region. Their purpose is unknown but they might have been used as unloading platforms for boats.


1) On 10 July 1945, U-530 (Wermuth) surrendered at Mar del Plata naval base.


(2) DECLASSIFIED ARGENTINE DOCUMENT
"From Torpedo Boat Squadron
1105 - C3211 - GR83
17 July 1945
INFORMATION: EXPECTED BEFORE 22 JULY ANOTHER SUBMARINE WILL DOCK OR DISEMBARK PERSONNEL ALONG OUR COAST.
RIVER SQUADRON EXPLORE BETWEEN NECOCHEA AND QUARANDI.
SEA SQUADRON EXPLORE FROM NECOCHEA TO CABO BLANCO.
SUSPICION: GERMAN SUBMARINE IS OPERATING BETWEEN RIO PLARA AND CABO BLANCO.
GENERAL PLAN: FORCE WILL CLOSE IN ON SUBMARINE AND MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR THEM TO DISEMBARK CREW OR PASSENGERS: TRAP SUBMARINE BETWEEN QUARANDI AND CABO BLANCO AND ATTACK IF THEY RESIST".

(3) DECLASSIFIED ARGENTINE DOCUMENT
For encoding. 17 July 1945
To: C-inCs, River and Sea Squadrons
From: Vice-almirante Hector Vernengo Lima
Chief of Naval General Staff
"TODAY SEVENTEENTH JULY AT NINE HOURS CIVILIANS SIGHTED SUBMARINE THREE KILOMETRES OFF SAN CLEMENTE BEACH, SUBMERGED ON APPROACH OF AIRCRAFT. SEEN AGAIN AT TEN HOURS, FURTHER TO SOUTH, DIVING."


In mid-July 1945, San Clemente del Tuyu was a village situated just south of Cape San Antonio which marks the division between the River Plate and the South Atlantic. It is 300 miles from Buenos Aires.

The midwinter morning of Tuesday 17 July 1945 dawned misty. Shortly after eight o'clock about twenty villagers observed two submarines travelling close inshore in a southerly direction. Pedro Longhi was the police officer for the area, attached to Mar de Ajó police station. Upon receiving the report, he set off with mayor Mariano Gonzalez and arrived at San Clemente at nine o´clock. He noticed that many of the villagers were on the roofs of their houses or on the terraces of the two hotels, looking out to sea. According to their account, the two submarines had turned offshore and submerged. The witnesses imcluded reliable people known to Longhi.

At ten o'clock Mariano Gonzalez sighted a vessel which had suddenly surfaced three kilometres offshore, and now Longhi saw it too. For reasons explained shortly, Longhi was never intervewed officially, and we do not have his account. After taking names and addresses and a brief note of what each witness had seen, Longhi telephoned his police superiors at La Plata, who advised the Navy Ministry. At one o'clock that afternoon, Longhi made his report to capitán de navío Isaac Rojas, adjutant to vicealmirante Lima, chief of the Naval General Staff.

He reported that "two vessels were seen near the San Antonio light, difficult to make out because of the fog. When the sun broke through, the witnesses were able to ascertain that the craft did not resemble the usual traffic of the region and, when shown the published photographs of U-530, identified them as similar to that submarine. In their estimation they were 3 kilometres offshore. They saw cables extending to prow and stern from the turret amidships. Unlike Argentine submarines, the vessels had no chimney. An aircraft appeared and the submarines submerged. Later, around ten o'clock with others, Longhi saw one submarine heading south. The sea was calm. Then it submerged and he did not see it again." (Report 17.7.1945, Navy General Staff, General Archive (EMGA-AG).


At eleven o'clock that night, the La Plata Prefecture reported a submarine aground close inshore 8 kilometres south of San Clemente. The Navy was requested to attend (but did not arrive for 48 hours). According to an unidentified source reported in the "El Tribuno" newspaper of Dolores, the stranding occurred about 15 kilometres south of San Clemente on a sandbank 200 metres from the beach. The submarine floated free as the tide made.

The Sub-Prefect of La Plata, Emilio Cabrera, arrived on the afternoon of 19 July to investigate. He saw 12 witnesses. He was particularly impressed by:
Jose Casibe, who was a naval veteran of the First World War and described the boats closely:
Roy Gibson, of the Los Yngleses ranch, whose evidence coincided exactly with that Casibe, and who had been watching the submarines through binoculars from the top of a sand dune:
Domingo Talpone, "a frequent visitor to the Mar del Plata submarine base" and also Adela Caneto, Celina and Herminia Pereyra, postman Roberto Bonomi and municipal employee Luis Pesce.

All twelve witnesses were unanimous that after one submerged and the other submarine was still surfaced, a light aircraft began to circle it "making signals with a handkerchief or something similar": the fog then closed in suddenly and it was not possible to see what happened next.

On the morning of 19 July, officer Longhi was taken to La Plata Police HQ by aircraft. He had arrested two German ladies, one of them named Maximiliana Oschatz, who had admitted flashing lamp signals to the two submarines from an isolated beach. Since the last thing the Argentine authorities wanted was a trial in which the facts came to light, they took the easy way out and Longhi was dismissed from the police service for "false arrest".


There now occurred the most mysterious events ever recorded in Argentine naval history.


(5) On the afternoon of 18 July 1945, 1000 kilometres to the south of San Clemente, the torpedo boat "Mendoza" was within sight of San Antonio Oeste in the Bay of San Matías. In those days, San Antonio Oeste was a village whose only claim to fame besides being a port was that the Lahusen wool empire had its headquarters there. The Lahusen organisation, originally from Bremen, controlled the Nazi espionage system throughout Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay in both World Wars. Every town and village in Patagonia had its Lahusen store and agent. This was the reason for the standing joke in diplomatic circles that Hitler knew more about Patagonia than the Argentine Government did.


(6) The log of the torpedo boat "Mendoza" states: "At 1730 on 18 July 1945 saw submarine periscope at buoy Av140 of San Antonio outer anchorage (grey stick type), leaving long trail, bearing 160º. Hydrophone contact, anti-submarine alarm, maximum speed (23 knots), commenced depth charge attack. Patrolled area 1 hr 40 mins until nightfall, dropped eight charges. 1910 hrs headed 170º to patrol to north."


Post subject: U-boat Sightings and Unloadings, 2-Buenos Aires Coast
A new book by Jorge Camarasa ("Puerto Seguro", Norma Ed. Buenos Aires, 2006) gives clearer information regarding the movement of German U-boats along the coast of Argentina in July 1945, and how the Argentine Government actively assisted in the endeavour. I have used a diary format for clarity.


10 July 1945.
Type IXC/40 boat U-530 (ObltzS Wermuth) surrendered at Mar del Plata.


17 July 1945
"Informativo No 17. From Torpedo boat Squadron.
1105 - C3211 -GR 83.
Information: IT IS EXPECTED THAT ANOTHER SUBMARINE WILL BERTH OR DISEMBARK PERSONNEL ON OUR COAST BEFORE 22ND INST.

ESCU-RIOS (River Squadron) EXPLORE AREA AS FAR AS NECOCHEA AND SURFACE TOWARDS QUARANDI.
ESCU-MAR (Sea Squadron) EXPLORE AREA BETWEEN NECOCHEA AND CABO BLANCO.

Supposition: GERMAN SUBMARINE IS SOMEWHERE BETWEEN RIO PLARA AND CABO BLANCO.

General Plan Paragraph: THIS FORCE WILL SQUEEZE SUBMARINE AND PREVENT POSSIBLE DISEMBARCATION CREW OR PASSENGERS, TRACK DOWN BETWEEN QUARANDI AND CABO BLANCO, ATTACK IF THEY RESIST.

Additional:
(1) AT 2000 HRS GOVT MIN. PROVINCIA DE BUENOS AIRES REPORTED TO NAVY MINISTER'S PRIVATE SECRETARY THAT AT 1300 HRS TWO POLICE PATROL AIRCRAFT SAW A SUBMARINE BETWEEN QUARANDI AND OSTENDE (i.e. near Villa Gesell).
(2) ASKED CAPT. MASSA AT 2010 HRS IF HE HAD ANY NEWS AND HE SAID NO. IT WAS HE WHO TRANSMITTED REPORT AT (1) ABOVE.


17 July 1945
For Encoding. To C-in-C River and Sea Squadrons.
TODAY 17TH AT 0900 CIVILIANS SAW SUBMARINE 3 KMS OFF SAN CLEMENTE BEACH, SUBMERGED ON APPROACH OF AIRCRAFT, SEEN AGAIN 1000 HRS, MORE TO SOUTH, SUBMERGING.
Signed: Hector Vernengo Lima, Vice-Adm. Chief of Naval General Staff.


Twenty townspeople of San Clemente saw two submarines heading south close inshore. The first sightings were made at 0800 when conditions were hazy. Upon receiving reports, Police Agent Pedro Longhi proceeded from Mar del Ajo police station in company with local citizen Mariano Gonzalez to San Clemente where he found people on roofs and terraces of two local hotels looking out to sea.

At 1000 hrs Longhi and Gonzalez saw a submarine 3 kms offshore near the Cape San Antonio lighthouse. After having informed his superiors at La Plata, at 1400 hrs Longhi telephoned Capt. Isaac Rojas, secretary to Vice-Adm Lima, Chief of the Navy General Staff, that an unidentified vessel had been seen close to the San Antonio light, difficult to identify because of the mist. Shortly afterwards when the sun broke through, he saw that it resembled the photos of U-530. It had cables leading fore and aft from the conning tower and unlike Argentine submarines had no chimneys. Upon the approach of an aircraft the vessel submerged. Later, at about 1000 hrs, Longhi saw it himself, a little more to the south, heading towards Mar del Plata, sea calm. (Informativo, 17.7.1945, Navy General Staff).

At 1100 hrs the Governor of Buenos Aires province received information that a submarine had run aground 8 kms south of San Clemente. He ordered the Navy to send forces to the area, but these failed to arrive until 20 July, two days later.

Señora Celina Pereyra, who had been staying at one of the two hotels at San Clemente, saw the stranded submarine. "There were two submarines, not far from shore. Afterwards we were told that the second one had gone aground while trying to get inshore at Mar del Tuyu." According to the newspaper "El Tribuno" of Dolores, the stranding occurred well south of San Clemente on a sandbank 200 metres offshore.

Various reliable witnesses were found: Jose Casibe, a naval combatant in WW1: Roy Gibson of the Los Yngleses farm, who watched from the top of a sand dune through a telescope: Domingo Jalpone, a regular visitor to the Argentine submarine base ar Mar del Plata. All twelve witnesses interviewed by Sub-Prefect Emilio Cabrera concurred that there were two submarines, and that after the stranding a small aircraft flew over making signals with a handkerchief, after which it became misty and the proceedings could no longer be followed.

Agent Longhi was flown to La Plata on the morning of 19 July and was dismissed from the force for "alarmism" and having arrested two German ladies signalling to the submarine with a lantern. The two ladies were released without charge and the arrests denied subsequently.

Neither of these two submarines, in company on 17 July 1945, could have been depth-charged 1000 kms to the south next day, and so there were three German U-boats off the coast of Argentina on 17 July 1945.


18 July 1945
"Informativo. From ESCUMAR for Chief of General Staff
No 811 - Relaying signal from torpedo boat "Mendoza" which states: "EGA - PERISCOPE SAN ANTONIO OESTE (Bahia de San Matias, Rio Negro Province) INTEND REINFORCE SEARCH THERE."


"Informativo, ESCUMAR to ESCUMAR ships. Received 2300 hrs 18 July:
"HYDROPHONE PURSUIT, INFORMS DEPTH-CHARGING UNTIL NIGHTFALL. NOTHING TO REPORT. POSITION NEAR EL FUERTE MOUNTAIN (on 41st parallel)."

It is probable that this submarine was Schaeffer's U-977.

21 July 1945
From Navy Ministry. For encoding.
To C-in-C, ESCURIOS and ESCUMAR:
"CALL OFF ALL COASTAL PATROLS."
Hector Lima, Vice-Adm, Chief of Naval General Staff.


The activities of German submarines near Necochea (south of Mar del Plata) is well documented and shows the degree of suspected official support given to U-boats. Two German U-boats unloaded near Necochea on the night of 27 July 1945.

The first reference to the disembarcation location appeared in a UP report in London on
28 July which reported several men coming ashore in a rubber dinghy at Punta Negra near Necochea.

On 30 July 1945 Capitan de Fregata Matias Lopez, Prefect for the Rio de la Plata Zone, reported:
"The undersigned, in company with the Commissioner of Police for Necochea, don Luis Mariotti, attended at Punta Negra for the purpose of verifying the exactitude of information which the Commissioner received yesterday afternoon, 29 July, from police agent Ricardo Montero (badge no. 9179).
"Accordingly I report that the said agent avers that yesterday at 0930 hrs, he saw at an estimated distance of 4 kms offshore a black shape appearing to him to be the conning tower of a submarine which remained on the surface for a period of 30 minutes and then disappeared. After reporting this sighting to the sergeant at Necochea police station yesterday afternoon, he resumed his duties."

After Mariotti and Lopez had spoken to him, agent Montero saw the error of his ways and withdrew his report. Mariotti explained: "The agent mistook a fishing vessel for a submarine, most of the fishing vessels which sailed yesterday were heading south."
(EMGA-AG Memorandum, N.S. No 246, 30.7.1945)

During the official investigation by CEANA, the congressional committee looking into Nazi activities in Argentina, which included the alleged unloading by U-boats at Necochea on 27/28 July 1945, the following letter was admitted into evidence:

"In 1945 the undersigned was 18 years of age and the son of an officer of the provincial police at Necochea. At 1800 hrs approx. on 27 July 1945, a sub-official called at our house to advise my father that the Commissioner required to see him urgently.
"My father returned an hour later to change his clothing and told my mother not to expect him for supper since information had been received that there was an unidentified vessel offshore making morse signals in code towards the beach and that somebody was signalling back.
"My father allowed me to come along, and we went to the beach in three private cars. We saw the exchange of light signals. Agents were sent out to arrest those responsible and a German artesan was taken into custody.
"After an exhaustive interrogation at Necochea police station, the man eventually admitted that the vessel in question was a German submarine which had been damaged and wanted to put ashore at a safe place on the coast to unload. Next morning it was decided to comb several kilomteres of beach, north and south, and eventually my father's group (4 agents, a corporal and a senior corporal of police) found a spot with many tracks between the shore and the sea made by launches or rubber dinghies. These tracks led to the tree-lined entrance (many tamarisks) of a large farm estate called Moromar whose proprietors were Germans.
"With this proof that heavy boxes had been dragged towards lorry tyre tracks, my father sent for the Commissioner urgently and decided to enter the farm without waiting for orders. He had gone a couple of kilometres along the drive when he came to some low hills which hid the main building. At this point he was challenged by four Germans carrying sub-machine guns. He had no search warrant, the situation looked nasty and fraught with peril, and so he decided to withdraw forthwith to Necochea.
"Upon his arrival, the Commissioner telephoned the Chief of Police at La Plata, the call was taken by the latter's secretary who told him to do nothing and remain by the telephone. Two hours later he was ordered to forget the matter."

The CEANA enquiry of 1952 took depositions from two former "Admiral Graf Spee" internees who had absconded from internment in 1941 and had worked secretly for the German secret service subsequently. These men were Rudolf Dettelmann and Alfred Schultz. They stated that on or about 28 July 1945 two U-boats unloaded. On the orders of FKpt Kay, First Officer of "Admiral Graf Spee", they had been taken previously to a ranch owned by the Lahusen company. They were present at the unloading of many boxes taken into the same ranch and shipped out in eight lorries. Later 80 persons came ashore in rubber dinghies. A third CEANA witness, former "Admiral Graf Spee" man Will Brennecke stated that the ranch was near Necochea, one of the Lahusen chain which was not monitored by the Commission of Vigilance over Enemy Property.

"Moromar" Ranch is today a privately run complex catering for the tourist trade.


30 July 1945
Memorandum for attention of H.E. the Navy Minister.
From: General Naval Prefecture.
Buenos Aires 30 July 1945.
Re: SUBMIT INFORMATION FROM PREFECTURE ZONE RIO DE LA PLATA ON REPORTED APPEARANCE OF SUBMARINE IN NECOCHEA JURISDICTION. HEREWITH IN TWO COPIES. Illegible signature, Rear-Adm.


17 August 1945
Mar del Plata submarine base. U-977 (Kplt Schaeffer) surrendered to Argentine Navy.






(7) DECLASSIFIED ARGENTINE DOCUMENT
From Sea Squadron for Naval General Staff
No 811, 18 July
RELAYING SIGNAL FROM "MENDOZA" SAYING: EGA, PERISCOPE SAN Post subject: The Mystery of U-235
In a new book by Jorge Camarasa ("Puerto Seguro", Norma Editorial, Buenos Aires, 2006, ISBN 987-545-370-6), the author quotes from a declassified Argentine Government Memorandum originating from the Direccion de Coordinacion Federal, document DAE 568 dated 14 October 1952 in which the Head of Cordoba Delegation writes to the Head of the Division of Foreign Affairs in a memorandum classified "strictly confidential and secret".

The document refers to transfers of gold to Argentina by Bormann and then continues:

"Movements by foreigners. I bring to your attention that our agents (names deleted) have detected at Ascochinga, in the mountainous region of Cordoba province, a farm located on the Cerro Negro which has been acquired by a former officer who disembarked from U-235 at the Mar del Plata submarine base.

"This boat, together with other German submarines, came to Patagonia from Germany after the conclusion of hostilities. For some time in the same place, regular meetings have been held between high ranking Nazis such as financiers Ricardo Leute and Heinrich Dörge in an apparent attempt to organize, or perhaps re-organize, under the swastika."

According to the official history, U-235 commanded by Friedrich Huisgen was depth charged and sunk in error on 14 April 1945 by the German torpedo boat T-17 in the northern Kattegat. The wreck has never been located, and we only have the word of the Kriegsmarine that the tragedy ever happened.

In an interview with various inhabitants of Ascochinga in July 2003, author Camarasa established that the house in question is situated on the highest ridge of Cerro Negro. The "former officer" called himself "Otto Rehklau" or "Otto Freider" and appeared to have no family or personal history. He arrived at Cerro Negro in 1950 and died there of a heart attack in 1984. Nobody could remember where he was buried and nobody came to enquire about him subsequently.

Camarasa provides further evidence that one and possibly two German U-boats unloaded along the coast near Mar del Plata in late July 1945 and that the Argentine Government probably collaborated in the endeavour.


ANTONIO ESTE, RECOMMEND REINFORCEMENTS EXPLORE THERE.


(8) DECLASSIFIED ARGENTINE DOCUMENT
From Sea Squadron to all boats
2300 hrs, 18 July 1945
HYDROPHONE WATCH REPORTS SUBMARINE DEPTH CHARGED UNTIL NIGHTFALL. NOTHING TO REPORT. MY POSITION NEAR EL FUERTE (coastal mountain 40 miles south of San Antonio Oeste)


(9) Did this submarine eventually contact the Lahusen organisation at San Antonio Oeste later? Was a deal put into place between the Argentine Navy and the Germans in Argentina whereby U-boats were allowed to land passengers and materials unmolested? Why should one even think such a thing?


(10) DECLASSIFIED ARGENTINE DOCUMENT
Republic of Argentina, Navy Ministry.
C-in-C River and Sea Squadrons
21 July 1945
CALL OFF ALL COASTAL PATROLS
Hector Vernengo Lima, Vicealmirante
Chief of Naval General Staff


In Part II - The Disembarkation of 27 July 1945 at Necochea.

1) DECLASSIFIED ARGENTINE DOCUMENT

Coordinación Federal document CF-OP-2315
"GERMAN DISEMBARKATION AT SAN CLEMENTE DEL TUYU"
From Central de Reunión to Argentine Navy Ministry
18 April 1945
(Facsimile appears in Ladislav Farago: "Aftermath, Martin Borman and the Fourth Reich, Avon, New York, 1974).

This long document states that shipments from Spain to Argentina by U-boat began in August 1942 and were continued at six-to-eight week intervals during 1943 and 1944. The rendezvous point was off Punta Norte near the Cabo San Antonio lighthouse, this headland being the demarcation point between the River Plate and the South Atlantic. The nearest town to Punta Norte is San Clemente del Tuyu. It seems that a single submarine made the trip each time having sailed from Rota near Cadiz. Former "Admiral Graf Spee" officer Fregattenkapitän Ascher arranged the meet in Argentina. The report continues:

"By the mediation of our agents monitoring the operations of Ludwig Freude, agent of the Third Reich, it is known that he has made very substantial deposits in various credit banks in the name of the well-known radio-theatrical actress María Eva Duarte Ibarguen. Freude stated to our agent "Natalio" that on 7 February 1945 a U-boat (a submarine of Admiral Dönitz' Fleet) effected transport 1.744 bringing to Argentina huge funds to help in the reconstruction of the Nazi empire. Subsequent investigations have revealed that the cases disembarked were consigned to a Lahusen ranch, bore the stencil "Geheime Reichssache" and arrived in various lorries on the night of 28 March 1945. The deposits were made in Banco Alemán, Banco Transatlántico Alemán, Banco Germánico and Banco Tornquist, all in the name of the lady named above. The investigation is continuing. Signed: Niceforo Alarcón, Principal Officer".


The French journalist and former Deuxieme Bureau agent Alain Pujol published a long article in the newspaper "Le Figaro" on 1 September 1970 reporting on his investigation into the above document. The recipient is better known as Eva Peron of course. The amounts involved (Pujol gives it to the nearest million, I have rounded it up) are:
German RM 187 mn
US dollars 17.5 mn
Pounds sterling 4.6 mn
Swiss francs 24.9 mn
Dutch florins 8.39 mn
Belgian francs 17.2 mn
French francs 54.9 mn
Platinum 87 kilos
Gold 2511 kilos
Diamonds 4638 carats


(2) THE U-BOAT LANDING AT NECOCHEA, BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE, 27/28 JULY 1945

At 0930 hrs on 28 July 1945 at Punta Negra, Necochea, police agent Ricardo Montero (badge no. 9179) saw offshore at an estimated distance of 4 kilometres a black shape which appeared to him to be the conning tower of a German submarine. He kept it under observation for a period of 30 minutes before it submerged.

On 30 July 1945, capitán de fragata Matias Lopez, Prefect for the Rio de la Plata region reported:
"In company with the Necochea City Commissioner don Luis Mariotti, I went to Punta Negra for the purpose of verifying the exactitude of information which the Commissioner received yesterday from police agent Montero (badge no. 9179). After speaking with said agent, the latter retracted his report and agreed with don Luis Mariotti that he must have mistaken a fishing boat for a submarine. Most of the fishing vessels which sailed for the grounds yesterday were heading south, and that was not unusual."
(EMGA-AG Memorandum, N.S. No 246, 30.7.1945)


In 1952, a congressional judicial committe of enquiry was set up to investigate official collaboration with the Nazis. CEANA (Comisión de Esclarecimiento de las Actividades Nazis en la Argentina) took depositions from three former "Admiral Graf Spee" crewmen then living in Argentina and who had absconded from internment in 1941 to assist German naval intelligence in Argentina during the Second World War.

Rudolf Dettelmann (d. 2.3.1991 Nuremberg, radio telgraphist) and Alfred Schultz (d. 18.2.1987 Berlin, engineer officer aspirant) stated on oath that on 28 July 1945 two U-boats arrived on the coast to unload. They received their orders from FregKapt Kay, former First Officer, "Admiral Graf Spee", who administered a naval discipline office sub-let by the Banco Germánico in central Buenos Aires, and were taken to a ranch owned by the Lahusen corporation. They assisted in unloading many heavy boxes from the U-boats. The boxes were taken to the same ranch in eight lorries. Later 80 persons came ashore in rubber dinghies".

A third ex-Admiral Graf Spee deponent, Willi Brennecke, stated that the ranch was near Necochea, one of the Lahusen estates not monitored by the Comisión de Vigilancia de Propiedad Enemiga. (Although one of the principal German conglomerates in Argentina with seven floors of offices in the centre of Buenos Aires, 100,000 hectares of property in Patagonia and a thousand employees, the Lahusen corporation was never subjected to control by the commission set up after the declaration of war on Germany in March 1945.)

In the absence of declassified files and papers, and the intimidation of police witnesses (agent Longhi, see Part I, and agent Montero, see above), after due investigation CEANA admitted into evidence the following statement while protecting the identity of the author:

"In 1945 I was aged 18. I was the son of an officer of the provincial police attached to Necochea police station.
At 1800 hrs on Saturday 27 July 1945 a police sub-officer called at our house to advise my father that the Commissioner, don Luis Mariotti, needed to see him urgently.
My father returned an hour later to change, telling my mother that he would not be dining at home that evening, and that according to information received a vessel had been detected offshore making morse signals in code towards the beach at Necochea, and that these signals were being answered from a sector of the beach.
Upon hearing this I urged my father to allow me to accompany him. We went to the beach in three private cars and saw the alleged exchange of light signals. Police agents were sent out to various sectors of the beach to arrest those signalling, and a German artesan who made tourist articles was found and taken into custody.
After an exhaustive interrogation at Necochea police station the man confessed that the vessel in question was a German submarine which had been damaged and wanted to put ashore at some safe place on the coast to unload.
Late next morning it was decided to comb several kilometres of beach, both north and south, and eventually the group accompanying my father (four agents, a corporal and a corporal 1º class) found a place where there were many tracks leading from the sea to the shore made by launches or rubber dinghies. We followed the tracks through the sand to the entrance to a ranch lined with many tamarind trees. This was a large farm called Moromar whose proprietors at that time were Germans.
Having found proof, and also signs of heavy boxes having been dragged towards lorry tyre tracks, my father sent for the Commissioner urgently since he was intending to enter the farm without a warrant.
He had gone a couple of kilometres inside when he came to a rise in the terrain which surrounded the main building. At this point he was challenged by four Germans armed with sub-machine guns who menaced the officers violently. Lacking a warrant he decided to retire with the group to Necochea.
Upon his arrival the Commissioner don Luis Mariotti telephoned the Chief of Police at La Plata. The call was taken by the Chief's secretary who told him to take no action and wait by the telephone. Two hours later he was ordered to stand down and return to normal duties."


Main sources for text and facsimile documents: Salinas and De Napol: "ULTRAMAR SUR", Norma Ed. Buenos Aires 2002, and Camarasa, Jorge: "PUERTO SEGURO", Norma Ed., Buenos Aires, 2006.

I Have been following this for some time! The only thing it does throw up is yet more questions? I have copys of newspaper reports of the time and they are quite clear in what they say about unidentified U-boats appearing off the coast.

Terry Andrews.
Author of: "Bury the Wolves Deep"