Hi Larry,

Certainly German surface craft could easily have made it to Cuba before Cuba declared war on Germany. It’s not likely they would have bothered to try once the war got started in that area though as there were all sorts of ways for them to get there by sea. They could also have traveled to some other part of the Caribbean and taken a plane or small boat from there or simply booked passage with a false passport on any ship from another country directly from Europe. Procuring a false passport in those days was simple if you had a government’s backing. Cuba has several important sea ports too so coming in on a merchant ship of any nationality would have been an option as well. Additionally they already had agents in the Caribbean that could simply have traveled to Cuba from there. They probably already had agents in Cuba for that matter.

Additionally it wasn’t just Batista that was corrupt. In those days almost any Cuban official could be bribed so even having a false passport wasn’t necessary. Getting a German agent into Cuba would have been a no brainer back then.

Coming in on a U-boat would be the last way they would have tried to get there.

Regards,

Ken Dunn