UBoat sunk by Cuban Navy?

Discussions on all (non-biographical) aspects of the submarine forces of the Kriegsmarine.
Post Reply
User avatar
Andy H
Forum Staff
Posts: 15326
Joined: 12 Mar 2002, 21:51
Location: UK and USA

UBoat sunk by Cuban Navy?

#1

Post by Andy H » 24 May 2004, 02:25

Can someone please tell me which UBoat was sunk by the Cuban Navy during WW2

Andy H

varjag
Member
Posts: 4431
Joined: 01 May 2002, 02:44
Location: Australia

#2

Post by varjag » 24 May 2004, 12:45

No Andy - but I'll hold my breath to find out. The Cuban Navy wasn't exactly a first rate force - then and now.


User avatar
MAX_theHitMan
Member
Posts: 965
Joined: 19 Apr 2004, 01:28
Location: Planet*Portugal

#3

Post by MAX_theHitMan » 24 May 2004, 15:44

I am quite sorry Andy-H. I haven´t found anything on the Cuban-Navy sinking any U-boats off it´s coast. But I have found some articles pertaining to U-boat operations near the Island...

http://www.pastfoundation.org/U166/U-166Patrol.htm
Two days later bigger game appeared, the 2,309-tom U.S. steam freighter Oneida, off the eastern tip of Cuba. Kuhlmann sent her to the bottom...On the evening of July 16, 1942, about thirty miles northeast of Havana, U-166 encountered an ancient and tiny motorized fishing vessel called Gertrude...and undoubtedly caused a few chuckles, especially when readers learned that the trawler's cargo consisted of twenty tons of onions !

http://www.navalships.org/u166.html

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ETO/Ult ... 008-7.html

http://reference.allrefer.com/country-g ... ds238.html
German U-boat threat in the Caribbean during World War II clearly demonstrated the vulnerability of the Caribbean sea-lanes to interdiction and of the refineries to attack. The Nazi submarines wreaked havoc on shipping even though they were few in number, never totaling more than a dozen, and operated in the area without benefit of friendly regional ports or air cover. Moreover, during the war the United States could avail itself fully of Cuba as a naval base and source of supply

http://www.lajiribilla.cu/2002/n78_novi ... 24_78.html
The German submarines began appearing in the Romano Key starting in 1942. In one night alone they sank the tanker Texan and the cargo ship Olga. They sank these ships in a strait between the Lobo lighthouse and Confites Key, in a place where the channel was just twelve miles wide. The submariners began their hunt March 12, 1942.

A few months later Hemingway found himself preparing his yacht, the Pilar, for one of the most surprising adventures undertaken by any writer in this century: to catch a German submarine when it surfaced, tie it to his yacht, board it, and seize it with grenades, small arms and machine gun fire, in order to learn any valuable information possible from the capture. As soon as he learned the Germans had sunk two ships in Romano Key, Hemingway embarked on his yacht, with his fearless companions, armed with anti-tank guns, hand grenades, explosives, machine guns and pistols, from the west coast of Cuba to those channels he had explored in the company of Jane Mason and Carlos Gutiérrez years before.

Upon arriving at Romano Key, Hemingway knew all the details about what had happened: the ships had been sailing at night, and had been surprised by the torpedo strikes. The submarines were indeed in the zone; it wasn't just the imagination of old fishermen in the area. The turtle fishermen said that on some nights they had seen submarines close to the bluffs, and sometimes during the day submarines had even been seen above water. The locals had sometimes seen the sailors leave the submarines and go ashore looking for notable water: on the island of Turiguanó, Sabinal, and Paredón Grande. Early one morning the Germans had docked at Coco Key. The reports were almost paralyzing: how could it he that German submarines were sinking boats right off the coast of Camagüey?

Kirill
Member
Posts: 68
Joined: 16 Jun 2003, 07:46
Location: Murmansk, Russia

#4

Post by Kirill » 25 May 2004, 13:27

15 May 1943 U-176 was sunk by the Cuban subchaser CS-13 north-east of Havana.

http://www.uboat.net/boats/u176.htm

http://www.ubootwaffe.net/ops/boat.cgi?boat=176

varjag
Member
Posts: 4431
Joined: 01 May 2002, 02:44
Location: Australia

#5

Post by varjag » 30 May 2004, 12:37

Well done Kirill - we live and learn....Varjag

User avatar
Kurt_Steiner
Member
Posts: 3980
Joined: 14 Feb 2004, 14:52
Location: Barcelona, Catalunya

#6

Post by Kurt_Steiner » 30 May 2004, 13:30

Many thanks for the link, Kirill

Panzermahn
Member
Posts: 3639
Joined: 13 Jul 2002, 04:51
Location: Malaysia

#7

Post by Panzermahn » 30 May 2004, 15:16

Is the Cuban government declared war against Germany?

User avatar
DrG
Member
Posts: 1408
Joined: 21 Oct 2003, 23:23
Location: Italia

#8

Post by DrG » 30 May 2004, 16:38

Joachim Chan wrote:Is the Cuban government declared war against Germany?
Cuba declared war on Germany on 11 December 1941.

Panzermahn
Member
Posts: 3639
Joined: 13 Jul 2002, 04:51
Location: Malaysia

#9

Post by Panzermahn » 30 May 2004, 16:49

Thanks DrG!!

User avatar
Andy H
Forum Staff
Posts: 15326
Joined: 12 Mar 2002, 21:51
Location: UK and USA

#10

Post by Andy H » 02 Jun 2004, 17:00

Thank you Kirill for your answer

Andy H

U-176.COM
New member
Posts: 1
Joined: 04 Jun 2022, 18:06
Location: Miami, FL. USA

Re: UBoat sunk by Cuban Navy?

#11

Post by U-176.COM » 04 Jun 2022, 18:17

The Cuban Navy SubChaser SC-13 actions on May 15th, 1943 ended up with the sinking of u-176. Cuba was the only latinamerican country that was able to sink an uboat. *Other countries claimed having sunk uboats (Brasil, Colombia, etc) , but after the allies got hands on the Unterseeboot operations documents and archives, the only one proven was the case of the u-176.

This is a not very known story. Cuban navy participated in search & rescue operations, convoy escorts, anti-submarine warfare actions, and was described as the most valuable-helpful country in for the Allies in America, just beside Canada.

English version of two books of project reports about the investigation of the actions on May 15, 1943, will be available soon. Stay tuned to our website u-176.com , and our facebook page U-176 MUSEUM-INSTITUTE FOR WAR STUDIES, here you will get the information on when the books comes out., and several other details.

Thanks.
Osvaldo L. Cangas
Dir.
U-176 MUSEUM-INSTITUTE FOR WAR STUDIES.
Screenshot_20220512-202856_Instagram.jpg

Post Reply

Return to “U-Boats”