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  Surrender by the U-530

  “Hello,” an excited voice came over the phone. “This is the United Press. A German submarine has just surrendered to Argentine Naval authorities in the port of Mar del Plata.”

  This conversation took place July 10, 1945. The capitulation of the Reich already was history and the three Great Powers were making last-minute preparations for their meeting at Potsdam. Thus it was no wonder that this unexpected news created a sensation not only in Buenos Aires, but also in London and Washington.

  Subsequent stories confirmed that first piece of news and around noontime an official communique of the Navy Ministry announced the vessel in question was the German submarine U-530.

  The commander’s papers identified him as Captain Otto Wermutt. He was the last to leave his boat. On shore he handed over a small valise containing the flag of the submarine as well as the ship’s papers. His youth created general attention. It was later learned that he was only 25 years of age. His second in command, Captain Karl Felix Schubert, was still younger, only 22. Both officers and enlisted men seemed unusually young, some of them mere children.

  The crew of the U-530 appeared tired, but not undernourished. The first officials who came aboard established that the boat’s entire complement of 54 men still had a rather large store of food, despite their long voyage. In turn, a surprisingly small amount of fuel was found on board the submarine. Incidentally, at the moment of surrender the vessel was partially disarmed. It lacked the forward (bow) cannon as well as two large-caliber antiaircraft guns. These it was supposed, had been dumped overboard when the captain had decided to surrender. On the other hand, the hull of the submarine was partially denuded of paint and generally covered with dirt, sure signs of an extended voyage on the high seas.

  “No important Nazi bigwig arrived on the U-530,” the Buenos Aires evening papers announced in large headlines, thus furnishing a clear answer to the question asked by all. Meanwhile, another question raised was whether the U-530 was responsible for the sinking of the Brazilian cruiser Bahia, whose survivors arrived that same morning at the port of Recife. On the other hand, rumors were heard everywhere to the effect that some of the Nazi Chieftains had landed on the coast of Patagonia. These landings, it was alleged, had been made by means of rubber boats in the region of Necochea.

  Four and a Half Months at Sea

  The next day, the mystery was cleared up by a second communique issued by the Navy Ministry which stated as follows:

  (1) Investigations established that the German submarine which surrendered to the authorities of the Mar del Plata base was not responsible for the sinking of the Brazilian cruiser Bahia.

  (2) No German political or military leaders were on board the aforementioned submarine.

  (3) Prior to having surrendered to the authorities, the submarine did not disembark anybody along the Argentine coast.

  (4) All persons who did come ashore were members of the crew of the submarine, in accordance with the official register submitted.

  At Mar del Plata the arrival of the German submarine created unusual excitement.

  Following inspection visits by the Naval Attaches of Great Britain and the United States, it was learned that in accordance with information furnished by the Captain the U-530 had left Germany on February 19, 1945 and sailed northward to Norway. From there it left on March 13 in the direction of the North Atlantic. When the surrender order issued by Admiral Doenitz became known on board, Captain Wermutt decided to continue his voyage to the coast of Argentina and surrender at Mar del Plata.

  These statements, together with additional information concerning the person of Captain Wermutt and his career as submarine commander were soon published by the papers. Yet, there was the fact that the U-530 had traveled on the high seas for almost four and a half months.

  This fact, in itself, could not fail to attract considerable attention. The modern German submarines like the U-530 which had been constructed in 1942 were equipped with completely new devices which enabled them to cruise for months on end far away from their bases. They were Schnorkel-equipped, the Schnorkel being a respiratory device which made it possible for the submarine to stay submersed and travel under water for 70 consecutive days. Thus, it was not the fact of the prolonged voyage on the high-seas which attracted so much attention, but the question which logically followed, namely:

  What had been the activities of the U-530 during those four and a half months, from the day it had left its base to the day of its surrender at Mar del Plata?

  This question was asked not only at Buenos Aires but also in London. There the news of the submarine’s surrender created consternation at the Admiralty, whose spokesman had only recently stated that the seas of the globe could again be traversed in absolute safety. When no official communique was forthcoming in the British capital, a naval commentator did not hesitate to speak of “an ocean mystery which is open to numerous conjectures.” One month before it had been assumed that the last German submarine had been accounted for. Then, on June 3, one of these vessels was disarmed by its crew off the northern coast of Portugal.

  The news of the surrender of the U-530 created in London the effect of a bombshell and promptly provoked lively disputes in naval circles, where the presence of a German submarine in Argentine waters was explained by one of two theories:

  (1) Under orders of its fanatical commander, the submarine had continued to carry on the war on its own account as long as possible, without heeding the orders issued by Doenitz.

  (2) The submarine had been selected for the secret transport of a high Nazi personage to Argentina with the hope of finding refuge there.

  Soon it became evident that both theories were ill founded. Few facts were known concerning the political convictions of Commander Wermutt. However, inspections of the technical installations on board the vessel showed beyond doubt that the U-530 not only had not sunk the Bahia, but had in fact not engaged in any warlike action during the last phase of its voyage, that is, at least not since the day when the capitulation order had been issued.

  With regard to the second theory, the official Argentine statement was absolutely clear: it was based on the result of inquiries carried out in the most conscientious manner. Yet, one question remained unanswered: What had the U-530 been doing during its long voyage and why had it come to Argentina to surrender?

  The Mystery Cigarettes

  There seemed to be no satisfactory answer to this question nor to several others that cropped up in that connection. The crew of the submarine underwent repeated questioning, with no result. Their statements agreed perfectly with the documents produced and with the stories of their officers. Their replies were perfectly coordinated, as if they had been carefully rehearsed or—and there is always that possibility—as if they actually embodied the truth.

  Nevertheless, three days after the arrival of the U-530 at Mar del Plata only a handful of people believed in the declarations of Captain Wermutt and his crew. For in these uniform recitals there were several obscure points which yet required explanation. Without going into any lengthy investigation, there was the obvious fact that the submarine could not possibly have undertaken the long and dangerous voyage from Norway to Mar del Plata for no other reason than to arrive “on the hospitable shores of Argentina,” to quote the Captain of the vessel.

  Certain details continued to arouse the public interest. The U-530 was of limited tonnage. Its normal complement could not have exceeded 27 men. Since the second year of the war, German submarines of the U-530 type used to carry no more than 18 and sometimes only 16 men, in view of the lack of manpower which permanently beset the Reich submarine arm. Why, then, did the U-530 at the time of its surrender carry three times the complement of the war years?

  Why did Captain Wermutt’s vessel carry 54 men aboard? Why was the majority of the crew so surprisingly young?

  Experts who inspected the vessel were able to establish that the supplies on board were rather ample even fo
r such a large crew. They also found that the ship carried only an insignificant number of torpedos and other munitions. In all probability, the war materiel had been reduced in quantity so as to gain space for such a large crew as well as for the necessary food supplies.

  Another mystery which balked satisfactory clarification: one compartment of the submarine yielded a rather large quantity of cigarettes. The naval inspectors were surprised to find such a large stock of cigarettes on board the U-530. And without doubt they raised eyebrows when Captain Wermutt told them that ‘on his arrival he still had 10 cartons of cigarettes per man aboard.’ As a result, there were found 540 cartons of cigarettes on board and maybe more.

  Imagine the surprise of naval technicians—in view of the fact that no smoking is permitted in the interior of a submarine. As a rule, submarine crews don’t smoke and the Germans are no exception to that. And this abstinence became quite evident during the internment of the U-530 crew near Mar del Plata at a summer camp, which happened to be vacant: they didn’t smoke, even though they had disembarked.

  A Phony Captain?

  All these facts indicated that the U-530 was truly an unusual submarine. It carried a large complement, plenty of food supplies, a large store of cigarettes and little war materiel. It had not conformed to the capitulation orders and it had undertaken such a long and perilous voyage for the sole purpose of surrendering to the Argentine port authorities.

  Truly, this story smelled phony. On the other hand, the truth failed to be unearthed. Officers and men of the U-530 continued to repeat their initial statements with the precision of a phonograph record and without any contradictions. Yet, the naval authorities dared not be satisfied with these well-tailored stories.

  And so, on the morning of July 13, the Argentine flag was hoisted on the conning tower of the German submarine and Argentine war vessels and planes left the Mar del Plata base to search the coastal waters for other German naval units.

  That search yielded no positive results. Investigations were also undertaken throughout the Necochea region where several persons insisted they had observed the landing of a rubber lifeboat several days prior to the surrender of the submarine. A new crop of rumors sprang up but soon subsided. Yet some people persisted that Captain Wermutt was not the real captain of the submarine.

  The most persistent rumors concerned alleged landings of Nazi bigwigs on the coast of Patagonia. True, in view of the enormous length of the Argentine coastline, the U-530 could have carried out shore landings by means of rubber lifeboats. However, the results of the investigations did not support such theories by a single shred of evidence. During the period which has elapsed since, all conjectures of this sort have been thoroughly demolished. It is safe to state that beyond any reasonable doubt, no person was put ashore along the Argentine coast by the U-530.

  If such conjectures had proved well founded, it would have undoubtedly caused new investigations and certainly would have resulted in official steps on the part of the United States and Great Britain with the Argentine Government.

  On July 14, 1945 a naval commentator declared: “The truth concerning the U-530 will be found only in the German naval archives.” He is probably right.

  It is not known whether the Allies succeeded in getting hold of the pertinent Reich Naval records and whether those records explained the nature of the last mission of the submarine seized at Mar del Plata. News dispatches announced that the American and British Governments would hold consultations on the case of the U-530 on the basis of reports from their respective naval attaches at Buenos Aires.

  But a few weeks later it was learned that the submarine which had surrendered at Mar del Plata actually was not the real U-530 at all.

  HITLER IS ALIVE!

  Second of a Series

  As related in the preceding installment, the German submarine U-530 entered the Argentine port of Mar del Plata on July 10, 1945 and surrendered to the Argentine authorities.

  Several days later, on July 19, 1945 Admiral Eberhardt Godt, Commander in Chief of Submarine Operations issued this statement at Kiel, Germany:

  “The U-530 did not leave Germany on February 19, 1945. As a matter of fact, the boat was still at Kiel on March 3. On that date it left Kiel for Norway.”

  This statement by Admiral Godt later confirmed by Admiral Helmuth, former Commander of the German Battle Cruiser Hipper and ex-Chief of Small Combat units, squarely contradicted the stories told by Capt. Otto Wermutt, Commandant of the U-530, to the Argentine authorities.

  Did Wermutt Lie?

  Wermutt’s tale was contradicted even more strongly by another German naval officer, Capt. Kurt Langer who until the middle of 1944 had been in command of the U-530.

  In an interview with newspapermen, Langer stated that “the U-530 actually leaked water at the seams and could no longer be considered seaworthy.

  “In fact,” he went on, “the U-530 was an unlucky submarine. Its stern had been smashed by an American tanker on Christmas Day of 1943 when I was attacked on the eastern shore of the Panama Canal. It was a sheer miracle that I managed to get back to my base.

  “It seems unbelievable to me that such an old and worn ship could have made the trip to the Argentine Coast.

  “If Hitler and Eva Braun escaped from Germany aboard a submarine,” he concluded, “they hardly could have made this voyage aboard the U-530.”

  But the U-530 which surrendered at Mar del Plata, was not at all an “old and worn ship” which leaked water through its seams.

  As a matter of fact, it was a recently designed, completely new boat and in excellent condition to have made the long journey across the Atlantic.

  Thus, all evidence points to the fact that the U-530 which surrendered at Mar del Plata was not the same submarine of which Captain Langer spoke.

  In other words, the ship at Mar del Plata was a different unit, though of the same class as the original U-530.

  Somewhere along the line, a switch had been made and a new ship had been substituted for the old U-530.

  What reason was there for this switch?

  Obviously, it was to confound any subsequent investigations. What actually seemed to have happened was this: while the real U-530, that “old and worn ship”, was being overhauled at Kiel for departure scheduled on March 3, its double had left Germany as early as February 19 to carry out the mission entrusted to it. It is entirely feasible that this switch was carried out in a secrecy which tricked even Admirals Godt and Helmuth, especially since the secret orders heretofore seem to have come from the Supreme Army Command of the Reichwehr.

  Thus, all German naval officers quoted previously may have spoken the truth. Commandant Wermutt may have been sincerely convinced that his boat was the real U-530. And Captain Langer and Admirals Godt and Helmuth also may have been entirely sincere when they asserted that the real U-530 was on February 19 still at Kiel.

  Did the Allies ever succeed in proving a switch? This is a moot question, since no statement on this subject was ever published.

  Nevertheless, the British Admiralty must have entertained suspicions as to the real state of affairs. On July 18, 1945 its spokesman told the press in London that “no official calculation has been undertaken as to the number of remaining German submarines.” At about the same time a London naval commentator freely admitted “With respect to the German submarine problem even the Admiralty’s secret intelligence branch despite the information available, is unable to express itself with absolute certainty.”

  Strange Events

  With the U-530 and its crew interned at Mar del Plata, the Argentine Naval Authorities decided on July 17, 1945 to place that sub at the disposal of the United States and Great Britain.

  That same day, July 17, news was received in Buenos Aires of strange observations made by inhabitants of the village of San Clements del Toyo, situated to the north of Mar del Plata.

  These villagers claimed to have seem the shape of another German submarine silhouetted against the horizo
n far out at sea. A few of the observers even claimed to have spotted TWO subs and that one of them appeared to have run aground not far from the shore.

  Upon receipt of this news the Argentine Navy Ministry dispatched several airplane squadrons and various ships to the scene. But despite intensive searching no submarines were spotted. As a matter of fact, weather conditions in the warm of a thick fog hampered the search considerably which rendered the job of the combined naval and air units so difficult that it was soon broken off. Yet, and extensive area was covered.

  Also, numerous beach patrols were organized immediately along the coast in order to prevent any landing attempts. Simultaneously, Argentina’s Federal Police launched several investigations among the country’s German colonies.

  The net results were zero.

  No submarines were sighted and no landings were discovered along the coast.

  A week later, on July 24, the US Government at Washington announced it had dispatched army planes to Mar del Plata in order to bring the crew of the U-530 to the US The same communique added that the U-530 would be towed to an American port.

  The news was bound to create a sensation. Though the war had ended three months earlier, the US seemed in great haste to intern within its borders the crew of the U-530. This contrasted with the leisurely manner in which the crew of the Admiral Graft Spee had been carried off at the height of the war.

  Suffice it to say that no official statements were ever issued concerning the interrogations of the crew of the U-530 by the US authorities. Rumors had it that both officers and men were subjected an intensive questioning. But the results still remain to be aired.

  Appearance of the U-977

  A little over a month after the surrender of the U-530, on August 17, 1945 the Argentine Naval Ministry issued to the press two communiques.

  “Today, at 9:20 a.m.,” the first communique, from “a German submarine, seemingly of the type of the U-530, surrendered to Argentine Naval units on patrol off Mar del Plata. The aforementioned submarine entered Mar del Plata at 11:15 towed by the Dredge M10 and escorted by a submarine of the country’s Navy. Thereupon the crew was taken ashore. At present, a security watch is being stationed on board.”