German submarine U-530

<th colspan="2" >Service record

U-530 after her surrender at Mar del Plata Naval Base
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German submarine U-530 was a Type IXC/40 U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down at the Deutsche Werft in Hamburg on 8 December 1941 as yard number 345, launched on 28 July 1942 and commissioned on 14 October 1942 with Kapitänleutnant Kurt Lange in command, who led her in six patrols. Lange was replaced in January 1945 by Oberleutnant zur See Otto Wermuth, who led her to surrender in Argentina on 10 July 1945, two months after the end of WWII in Europe.

The submarine's voyage to Argentina led to various legends, apocryphal stories and conspiracy theories. These allege that it and/or Template:GS, which surrendered on 17 August 1945, might have sank the Brazilian cruiser Bahia, transported escaping Nazi leaders (such as Adolf Hitler, somehow alive) and/or Nazi gold to South America, and/or voyaged to Antarctica. The U-boat and its crew were transported to the United States, where the former was sunk by torpedo on 28 November 1947.

Design

German Type IXC/40 submarines were slightly larger than the original Type IXCs. U-530 was powered by two MAN M 9 V 40/46 supercharged four-stroke, nine-cylinder diesel engines for surface propulsion and two Siemens-Schuckert 2 GU 345/34 double-acting electric motors for submerged propulsion. She had two shafts and two propellers.

The boat had 48 crew.Template:Sfn

Sensors

Radar

U-530 was one of the few U-boats that was fitted with a FuMO 61 Hohentwiel U Radar Transmitter. It was installed on the starboard side of the conning tower.

• FuMO-61 Hohentwiel U Radar Transmitter
  FuMO-61 Hohentwiel U Radar Transmitter

Radar detection

U-530 was fixed with the FuMB-26 Tunis antenne. The FuMB 26 Tunis combined the FuMB Ant. 24 Fliege and FuMB Ant. 25 Cuba II antennas. It could be mounted in either a direction finder antenna loop or separately on the bridge.

• FuMB-26 Tunis Radar Detection.
  FuMB-26 Tunis Radar Detection.

Service history

She served with the 4th U-boat Flotilla while training, then the 10th flotilla from 1 March 1943 to 30 September 1944 and the 33rd flotilla from 1 October 1944 to 8 May 1945. U-530 completed seven war patrols, sinking two ships totalling Template:GRT and damaging another of Template:GRT. She surrendered in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, on 10 July 1945.

First patrol

The submarine left Kiel on her first patrol on 20 February 1943. Her route to the Atlantic took her through the gap between Iceland and the Faeroe Islands. On 9 March she sank the Swedish ship Milos in mid-Atlantic, at a point roughly equidistant from the southern tip of Greenland, Iceland and northwest Scotland. She also sank the American Sunoil on 5 April after the tanker had already been hit by Template:GS. She then made her way to the port of Lorient in occupied France, arriving on 22 April.

Second, third and fourth patrols

These three forays were relatively uneventful, apart from her home port being moved to Bordeaux and then La Pallice.

Fifth patrol

Her fifth patrol took her to the Caribbean Sea where she attacked and damaged the American tanker Chapultepec on 26 December 1943. She was forced to return to France when she was rammed by the tanker Esso Buffalo on 29 December. She arrived at Lorient on 22 February 1944.

Sixth patrol

For her sixth sortie, U-530 departed Lorient on 22 May 1944 ultimately for operations in the Trinidad area. On her outward voyage she was to rendezvous with the and supply the larger boat with a Naxos radar detector, a radar operator and a German navigator to help I-52 complete her journey.

The two submarines rendezvoused on 23 June in mid-Atlantic, west of the Cape Verde Islands. The Allies had been informed of the rendezvous and directed the escort carrier to the scene; her aircraft managed to sink I-52 with an acoustic torpedo. U-530 returned to base, this time Flensburg, after 133 days at sea.

A short journey from Kiel to Horten Naval Base in southern Norway on from 19 to 23 February was her recorded next move, but it did not count as a patrol.

Seventh patrol and surrender

File:Otto Wermuth (cropped).jpg

Wermuth after his surrender in Argentina

U-530 departed Horten on 3 March 1945 to operate off New York, operating as close as two or three miles off Long Island. On about 4 May, the submarine sighted a convoy and attacked with three torpedoes: two missed while the third had a battery explosion and did not leave the tube. U-530 attacked a second convoy 6 May with five torpedoes and a third the next day with two more, all of which missed.Template:Refn When Germany surrendered on 8 May, U-530 was reputedly east-northeast of Puerto Rico. Germany ordered its U-boats to surrender at the nearest United Nations port, but the captain of U-530, Oberleutnant Otto Wermuth, said he thought this was an enemy trick. He headed for Argentina, thinking his crew would receive better treatment there (as had many fleeing Nazis), unaware that the country had also declared war on Germany. The crew dumped the five remaining torpedoes,Template:Refn anti-aircraft gun ammunition, secret books, and the ship's log overboard. The submarine passed east of Bermuda, reputedly crossing the equator in mid-June 1945. Wermuth said he thought about surrendering at Miramar, Buenos Aires, prior to proceeding to Mar del Plata.

U-530 finally surrendered to the Argentine Navy on 10 July 1945. Wermuth was unspecific about routes used and could not explain why it had taken two months to reach the port, why the crew had no identification, or why they had sunk the ship's log and deck gun.Template:Refn Wermuth stated that the U-boat had transported no people or treasure prior to its surrender and that he did not know of any other submarines coming to Argentina.

The Argentine Ministry of the Navy issued an official communique stating that U-530 did not sink the Brazilian cruiser Bahia (as suspected by one Brazilian admiral), that U-530 had landed no one on the coast of Argentina before surrendering, and that no high-ranking officials were aboard. The crew was interned and transferred, along with the boat, to the United States. The submarine was sunk as a target on 28 November 1947 by a torpedo from American submarine .

Another Brazilian admiral suspected that U-530 had come from Japan. Template:GS, which surrendered at Mar del Plata on 17 August 1945 (its papers intact), was also accused of sinking Bahia, but an inquiry eventually found that the cruiser had been sunk due to a gunnery accident during drills.

Additionally, by 23 July 1945, an Argentine reporter claimed that he had seen a Buenos Aires provincial police report implying that a submarine had surfaced off the Argentine coast and landed a high-ranking officer and a civilian who might have been the disguised Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, both somehow still alive. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation similarly documented a lead claiming that a self-proclaimed Argentine refugee said he had met Hitler upon his arrival in one of two U-boats that supposedly surfaced at the tip of Valdés Peninsula in May 1945.Template:Refn

Summary of raiding history

Date	Ship Name	Nationality	Tonnage (GRT)	Fate
9 March 1943	Milos	Sweden	3,058	Sunk
5 April 1943	Sunoil	United States	9,005	Sunk
26 December 1943	Chapultepec	United States	10,195	Damaged

See also

• Argentina during World War II

Bibliography

• Los Verdaderos Últimos Días de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Parte II: "La verdad sobre la llegada de sumergiles alemanes a la Argentina". Julio B. Mutti, HistoryBook 2013, Template:ISBN

Further reading

• Juan Salinas & Carlos De Nápoli (2002) Ultramar Sur: la última operación secreta del Tercer Reich ("South Overseas: the last secret operation of Third Reich") Template:In lang Grupo Editorial Norma Template:ISBN
• Report of the interrogation of Otto Wermuth