; thanks Lethl215 
. A little more..............................The Brazilian Navy in World War II.
A/S Warfare.
The Brazilian Navy Department reports that their vessels alone had 38 separate contacts with U-boats in 1943 (a contact being anything from a propeller sound to a torpedo attack), 14 in 1944, and 24 in 1945. The air forces did much to keep the number down, of course, but some credit for their work must in turn be given to the Brazilian Navy, for supplying those bases from which the planes operated.
The accompanying map shows the locations of these contacts as well as the spots where Brazilian ships were sunk off South America. It well illustrates the fact that Brazil was far from being "on the side lines" during the conflict. She had ship losses in other areas, too, with four of them being off New York, and one even in the Normandy landing. Her naval warfare death list totals over 500 men.
Although but three warships and one auxiliary went down, one of them tops Brazilian naval tragedies., This was the cruiser Bahia, blown up 5 July 1945, nearly 2 months after Germany surrendered. The Brazilian destroyer Babitonga reported sound contacts in the same location a few days later, and after making six attacks with "mouse trap" and depth bombs reported that a dark object identified by some as a metal hull came to the surface momentarily, to be followed by air bubbles and a large slick.
Of the 375 persons aboard the Bahia, over half (including four United States naval technicians) were lost. Many of the survivors were fortunate enough to be picked up from rafts after days of tropic exposure so rigorous that many of their comrades had jumped overboard to welcome death by drowning.
Sources: Military Review. January 1951.
Cheers. Raúl M
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