Hello Geoffrey,

I suppose I am one of those contributors to this thread that

“… stand on one or other side of the fence as to which version they believe.”

I tend to disregard speculation and sensationalism in favour of old fashioned research. So much of what appeared earlier in this thread was demonstrated to be from unreliable sources that there is no reason to go over the same ground again. However, I have read with interest what you have said and I have a problem with some of your conclusions. The Argentine interrogations of Wermuth and Schäffer are a case in point: have you read them yourself? I am sure many on this forum would be most interested if you could say how to gain access to these declassified documents. You say Schäffer's original book “…until now has remained unseen by Northern eyes.” On what do you base this statement? It seems to be at the heart of your message that Schäffer's FIRST book is sacred and that it has been kept somewhere safe from prying historians. You haven’t said whether his Argentine interrogation reconciles in all respects with this book. If Schäffer produced different versions of his story at different times then, with the greatest of respect for his wartime accomplishments, we come back to the hard work of looking for verifiable facts.

“…the problem here is that in accepting the South version, a person is forced to believe that the naval history provided by the Allies and its historians is not reliable.”

Far from it. This is not a problem to any serious researcher, especially those who set out to make accurate records of complicated subjects like ship movements and losses at sea. Of course the various Official Histories written by the Allies are not reliable in matters that would have compromised Official Secrets at the time of publication, nor are they infallible. Many important details still emerge by the patient work of researchers laboriously reconciling the location of craft with known events (or other craft). Wartime memoirs are a source of verifying facts, or a starting point for research: they are not gospel.

Please produce references and quote these South American sources more specifically, as I am sure they will be of great interest to many people and will add some weight to your argument.

Regards,

Bruce Dennis