Dear Paul

It was essential to discover

(1) if Schäffer sank the Bahía by a freak accident, and it was covered up in order to protect US liability or
(2) it was deliberate (4 July) to prove a certain point.

The easiest way to obtain an answer to complicated questions is to provide a theory for somebody to destroy, since everybody loves an Aunt Sally, and you provided the necessary pointer, for which I am indebted to you. Therefore (2) is the answer.

What I cannot understand is this insistence that the Argentine and Brazilian documents must be suspect in the absence of a U-boat hull. The circumstantial evidence is strong but all that we can done at the present moment is recite it. Few people have read "Ultamar Sur" and all I have done is offer in English various passages which may be of interest.

If you read my reply to Dan of 23 December, you will see how the overall situation developed before my involvement in it. I will provide you with a continuation of the story here. I became involved in 2003 when I was contacted through my publisher by Terry Neilson, the owner of the yacht "Ice Maiden". The Technical University of Trondheim had purchased some alleged Kriegsmarine signals which suggested that a U-boat for Argentina had been badly damaged and sank in the southern part of the Bay of San Matías. Everybody got ashore but the cargo was lost in 300 metres. This cargo included 8 tonnes of gold bars and was the principal interest of the researchers. An American foundation put up some finance and the Argentine Finance Ministry and Navy also participated. Divers and an ROV were called in, a BBC team came down to film the proceedings but ultimately nothing was found.

My role had been to write the story for Terry Neilson's book if the U-boat were discovered. The TV people were also very interested before the end result and ran an interview with Frau Schäffer about the book. In this interview, which was suppressed but of which we have the recording, Schäffer's widow confirms the provenance of the 1950 book and spilled the beans about the real mission of U-977. There is a full manuscript written by Schäffer in the hands of his daughter but this seems well guarded and I have not seen it.

The Argentine Navy obviously has its own knowledge and mounted Operation Calipso to identify the locations where they knew U-boats were scuttled. I have seen the evidence for two of them, and know exactly where they are, the other four are in the south but on these I have no actual information.

There is nothing more to be done but await further developments which I believe may come to the surface in 2009. The 1950 Schäffer book is an historical document of importance now that we know some of the circumstances. We have to consider whether the time is ripe now to bring it out or await future events. I have nothing more to offer at present except that I will comment on parts of "Ultrmar Sur" if people request it, there are a couple more minor items which may be of interest in that area.

I regret it if people think there has been any underhandedness on my part. My interest is not in personal gain in writing books, but only in this interesting subject of U-boats.