Battle of the Caribbean

Battle of the Caribbean
Part of World War II, Battle of the Atlantic
The Antilles, Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico
Date 1941–1945 Location Antilles, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico Result Allied victory
Belligerents
Allies:  United States  United Kingdom  Canada  Netherlands  Free France[1]  Cuba  Panama  Venezuela  Mexico  Colombia  Peru other allies	Axis:  Germany  Italy  Vichy France
Commanders and leaders
Sir Max K. Horton Wolfgang Larrazábal Francisco de Menocal Roldán	Erich Raeder Karl Dönitz Romolo Polacchini
Casualties and losses
400 merchant ships sunk	17 submarines[2]

The Battle of the Caribbean refers to a naval campaign waged during World War II that was part of the Battle of the Atlantic, from 1941 to 1945.^[3] German U-boats and Italian submarines attempted to disrupt the Allied supply of oil and other material. They sank shipping in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico and attacked coastal targets in the Antilles. Improved Allied anti-submarine warfare eventually drove the Axis submarines out of the Caribbean region.

Background

The Caribbean was strategically significant because of

The first offensive against the Caribbean refineries was organised under the command of Kapitänleutnant (lieutenant) Werner Hartenstein aboard U-156 with and U-502, U-67, U-129, and U-161. The first three U-boats launched simultaneous attacks on 16 February 1942. U-502 sank crude oil tankers Monagas, Tia Juana and San Nicholas between Lake Maracaibo and Aruba. U-67 entered Willemstad harbour on Curaçao and torpedoed three oil tankers. The four torpedoes from the bow tubes were duds, but the stern tube torpedoes sank Rafaela. U-156 entered San Nicolas harbour on Aruba and torpedoed oil tankers Pedernales, Oranjestad and Arkansas. U-156 then attempted to shell the Aruba refinery with its 10.5 cm SK C/32 naval gun; but the gun barrel burst when the first shell exploded because the gun crew failed to remove the tampion.^[9] The Germans slightly damaged a large storage tank. A Venezuelan gunboat, General Urdaneta, assisted in rescuing the crews of several torpedoed vessels; and A-20 Havoc light bombers attacked all three U-boats unsuccessfully; Resulting in an increased American occupation of the island began for its protection.^[10][11]

U-161 entered Trinidad's Gulf of Paria on 18 February to torpedo Mokihama and the oil tanker British Consul. As the U-boats settled into routine patrolling, U-67 torpedoed oil tankers J.N.Pew and Penelope; U-502 torpedoed oil tankers Kongsgaard, Thallia and Sun; U-156 torpedoed Delplata and oil tanker La Carriere; U-161 torpedoed Lihue and oil tankers Circle Shell, Uniwaleco and Esso Bolivar; and U-129 torpedoed George L. Torrain, West Zeda, Lennox, Bayou, Mary, Steel Age and the oil tanker Nordvangen. The U-156 crew used hacksaws to cut off the damaged portion of the gun barrel; and, when U-156 ran out of torpedoes, used their sawn-off deck gun to sink Macgregor and the oil tanker Oregon. On 10 March U-161 entered Castries harbour on Saint Lucia to torpedo HMCS Lady Nelson and Umtata. After leaving Saint Lucia, U-161 torpedoed Sarniadoc and sank the United States Coast Guard lighthouse tender USCGC Acacia with gunfire.^[12]

Other operations

Five Italian submarines patrolled the Atlantic side of the Lesser Antillies during Operation Neuland. Morosini torpedoed Stangarth and oil tankers Oscilla and Peder Bogen. Enrico Tazzoli torpedoed Cygnet and the oil tanker Athelqueen. Giuseppe Finzi torpedoed Skane and oil tankers Melpomere and Charles Racine.

German submarines sank two Dominican merchant marine ships in May 1942, after the Dominican Republic entered World War II on the side of the Allies.^[16]

Attacks on Allied shipping

SS Sylvan Arrow was a tanker of the Standard Oil and Transportation Company during World War II when U-155 torpedoed her. The attack occurred on 20 May just southwest of Grenada in the Caribbean Sea. Attempts to tow her to port did not succeed, and she sank on 28 May, at position 12° 50' north, 67° 32' west.

The tanker SS Hagan was sunk by U-157 on 11 June about 5 mi (4.3 nmi; 8.0 km) north of the Cuban coast. The American ship holding thousands of barrels of molasses was hit in the engine room. The torpedo destroyed the engines and caused a boiler to explode and a moment later another torpedo hit the ship. Six men were killed and 38 survivors made it to shore. Two days later, U-157 was sunk by USCGC Thetis.

U-171 attacked the 6,511 GRT Mexican tanker SS Amatlan on 4 September at the position 23°27′N 97°30′W / 23.45°N 97.5°W / 23.45; -97.5. The Mexicans evaded three attacks of two torpedoes each before being hit by one in a final spread. Amatlan sank with 10 men and another 24 sailors survived.

On 11 September,

On 5 July 1943, 70 mi (61 nmi; 110 km) to the west of Port-Salut, Haiti, U-759 encountered the American-flagged steamer Maltran, which was part of Convoy GTMO-134. U-759 fired torpedoes and at least one hit the vessel. Maltran sank within 15 minutes of being hit, though all of her crew survived and escaped the danger in lifeboats. The crew was later rescued by USS SC-1279. On 7 July, U-759 torpedoed the Dutch cargo ship Poelau Roebiah, in Convoy TAG-70. The ship sank just east of Jamaica, taking down two men. Sixty-eight others were rescued. After sinking Poelau Roebiah U-759 was chased down and attacked by the U.S. Navy the following day. A PBM Mariner flying boat first dropped a load of explosives over the sub, and then for seven hours American surface vessels depth charged the area, but U-759 escaped without damage or loss of life.

Losses

Axis vessels

U-157 was sunk on 13 June 1942 by the U.S. Coast Guard. The U-boat was surface cruising just southwest of Key West, in position 24°13′N 82°03′W / 24.217°N 82.050°W / 24.217; -82.050, when sighted by USCGC Thetis. The German submarine submerged and attempted to flee but Thetis gained sonar contact and began a depth charge attack. After several minutes, the action ended when debris and oil were spotted by the Coast Guard crew. Thetis sank U-157.

Seven days after escaping attacking Allied ships off Haiti on 8 July 1943, U-759 was reported sunk; post war research discovered it was not until an attack on 23 July that she was actually destroyed. An American PBM Mariner at the approximate position of 15°58′N 73°44′W / 15.967°N 73.733°W / 15.967; -73.733 bombed^{[clarification needed]} and sank the boat.

German submarine U-158 off Bermuda at Coordinates: 32°50′N 67°28′W / 32.833°N 67.467°W / 32.833; -67.467 on 30 June 1942 was sunk by a Martin PBM Mariner commanded by Richard Schreder. A depth charge struck the deck of the submarine, but did not explode on impact; it merely lodged in the teak planking. However, as the U-boat submerged, the charge detonated after the sub carried it down to its pre-set trigger depth.

The freighter

On 28 August, U-94 was in operation against convoy TAW 15 off Haiti when attacked by American and Canadian escorts. First, an American PBY swooped down and bombed the U-boat, and then Canadian corvettes HMCS Halifax and Snowberry attacked. HMCS Oakville fired depth charges which forced the submarine to the surface. The corvette then rammed U-94 twice before it slowed to a stop. Hal Lawrence led a boarding party of eleven sailors from Oakville to capture the boat. They boarded the vessel and entered through the conning tower. Only two Canadians actually went through the hatch, they were surprised by two Germans who came running towards them. After ordering halt, the Canadians fired and killed the attacking Germans when they failed to stop. The rest of the crew surrendered without incident. After just barely capturing the vessel, the Canadian sailors realized the Germans had already scuttled the boat and it was taking on water. The Canadians left U-94 and she sank with nineteen of her crew; Oakville rescued 26, including the commander, Oberleutnant zur See Otto Ites.^[20]

The French submarine cruiser

SS George Calvert, a one-gun Liberty ship, was sailing off eastern Cuba when she was sunk by U-753 on 20 May 1942. Ten men were killed when three torpedoes slammed into her, sinking her within minutes. The surviving crew were captured by the Germans and interrogated before being freed in lifeboats. Three armed guards^{[clarification needed]} were killed and the survivors made it to the Cuban shore.

On 23 June, the unarmed

SS Stephen Hopkins was an armed American Liberty ship which fought during World War II. On 27 September, Stephen Hopkins was returning to Surinam from Cape Town when attacked by the auxiliary cruiser Stier. Stephen Hopkins was ordered to stop by the Germans, the Americans refused, so they opened fire with their main battery. A lone 4 in (100 mm) gun and a few machine guns were then put in operation by the Americans and a short but violent battle was fought. Both vessels suffered casualties and by 10:00 the American ship had sunk. Stier was badly damaged as well and could no longer make steam, so her commander scuttled her less than two hours after defeating the American vessel.

The American gunboat USS Erie was escorting Convoy TAG-20 in the Caribbean between Trinidad and Guantánamo Bay when attacked 10 miles south of Curaçao by a German U-boat in November 1942. U-163—under Kurt-Eduard Engelmann—surfaced and fired three torpedoes at Erie. The Americans spotted the submarine and the torpedoes, then took evasive maneuvers. Erie escaped two of them but was hit by the third and badly damaged. Her crew grounded her on the nearby shore and she burned for several hours before the flames were brought under control. American forces suffered seven killed and eleven wounded in the attack. Later, Erie was towed to Curaçao's Willemstad Harbor but capsized and sank on 5 December.

In fiction

• The Battle of the Caribbean forms part of the plot of the novel Sharks and Little Fish. The protagonist's U-boat is first sent into the Caribbean and takes part in sinking American vessels off Trinidad, before being moved to the North Atlantic. ^{[citation needed]}
• The Howard Hawks film To Have and Have Not is set in Vichy government controlled-Martinique in the summer of 1940.^{[citation needed]}
• In the 1980 Robert R. McCammon novel The Night Boat, a German submarine is sunk soon after shelling a Caribbean island. Its crew remains trapped aboard the submarine, kept alive by a voodoo curse, until an underwater explosion sets them free to wreak havoc in the 1980s.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Martinique in World War II
• Naval Base Trinidad

References