Black boats

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Gentlemen,

Were black boats U-boats without numbers and were used for top secret missions carrying German agents to sabotage areas in the world especially the United States? There were reports of black boats operating off the coasts of South America. Sometimes black boats would carry mines to mine a particular enemy harbor. I know they carry torpedoes. Black boats were still active even after WWII in Europe had ended in 1945. The names of the Back boat commanders were not reviewed. I tried finding more information about black boats by Google but without results. I wonder if black boats carried rockets for shore bombardments? I wonder if this topic was being discussed before?

Edward L. Hsiao

[Peter]

I think black u-boats is fiction.

Normal combat u-boats carried out these type of operations, there were no specific ocean going "special operations" u-boats. U-boats were at sea to sink Allied tonnage but could rarely have a combined purpose of dropping an agent/saboteur or laying mines. Sometimes combat u-boats were also used to transport technical equipment for Axis partners (jet engines, mercury, gold, rubber, etc). U-boat trials were carried out with rockets using normal combat u-boats

There is a lot of nonsense written about u-boats off South America and u-boat operations after May 1945, by that time u-boats were a near extinct prey needing to hide from a massively sophisticated and very professional specialised hunter force backed by radio interception and location services. The reason why Nazis did not try to flee aboard u-boats is that they would not survive, the Nazis did not have the courage to go to sea where they sent their u-boat sailors.

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Gentlemen,

Argentine newspapers reported unknown U-boats off the South America coast as late as 1946.

Edward L. Hsiao

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Edward,

This is another fiction except in so far as U-boats all removed the numbers from their conning towers at the outbreak of war and all operated without them thereafter. Thus in that sense all U-boats were "black boats".

Apart from the two U-boats that surrendered in Argentina after the end of the war, no U-boats operated further south in Latin America than southern Brazil. Any wartime reports from Uruguay, Argentina or anywhere on the Pacific coast are entirely imaginary.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Peter]

The media are very happy to keep recycling this sort of nonsense as it makes endless opportunity for some TV companies and others to earn money out of the industry of "hunting Hitler", "hunting Borman", "u-boats off South America", etc, etc

[Sid Guttridge]

So true.