Long-time Members will remember back in 1996, when there was a report of a German U-Boat, found scuttled in Argentine waters? Each time we asked the Admiral in charge of the operation, he told that this was top secret. We told him that there was nothing secret about a fifty-year-old German U-boat. After a week of telling us that it was top secret, his reply then was “What U-Boat?” With no more to go on, the matter was dropped.

It’s no longer dropped! A LOT has recently taken place. Read on! This mystery is not such a mystery any longer. We have learned many things over the years since we first ran onto this strange story in 1996.

Two U-Boats in the Mid-Atlantic

Any researcher worth beans knows that there were two U-Boats in the middle Atlantic at the end of the war. U-530 under Captain OTTO WERMUTH (1344-1990) & U-977 under Heinz Schäffer who is deceased for many years.

U-530, a Type IX-C long-range submarine, surrendered about two and a half months AFTER the order was given to surrender. They surrendered at Mar del Plat, which is a bit down the coast from Buenos Aires. He said that he wanted to surrender in a place “where his men would be treated with dignity”. In many written documents, he referred to this last trip as a ‘Reise’ rather than a ‘Feindfahrt’. A ‘Reise’ is a trip to Disney World whereas a ‘Feindfahrt’ is a war patrol. Capt. WERMUTH absolutely refuses to talk about this last trip at all.

U-977, a Type VII-C with some 6,500 miles of range, put out from Norway shortly before the German surrender, with less than full tanks and went as far as England, then put back to Norway and offloaded all the married members of the crew. Then, without taking on any additional fuel (that we can verify) he made the long, long voyage all the way to – mar del Plat in Argentina, arriving a week or so after U-530…….in the same harbor! He said that he wanted to surrender in a place “where his men would be treated with dignity”. Haven’t we read that comment someplace before?

While a Type IX-C would have the “legs” to reach Mar del Plat, how could a Type VII-C with less than a full fuel load, make it this far? Did he receive fuel from U-530? Or from another boat?

A Third Boat in the Mid-Atlantic?

Our top researcher, SEIG Agent Be 589, concluded long ago, that there was indeed, a third U-Boat on the high seas at the time of the German surrender! Remember back to the story by DON ANGEL ALCAZAR de VELASCO (158-+?-1985) in which he reported that he rode a boat with Martin Bormann, from the jumping off point in Villa Garcia, some thirty kilometers from Vigo in Spain? While he said that this trip was many months after the end of the war, we think that it is possible that he was giving some mis-information on the dates and that this was the third boat. DON ANGEL stated that the boat on which he rode put them ashore at Puerto Coig on the Patagonian coast and that the Skipper was going to take the boat to some point about halfway between there and Buenos Aires, then scuttle the boat and come ashore with people friendly to the crumbled Reich.

Look at the map of Argentina. Golfo San Matias is about halfway between Puerto Coig and Buenos Aires, and it was reported in Argentine newspapers in 1996, that a German U-Boat was found there. Keep reading – there is more…..much more, on this.

From SEIG Agent Be 741 we learn the following:

“Yes, we think that three U-Boats like U-530 and U-977 to Argentina. Possible U-977 was one or two days near a small Kap Verde Island and he was waiting for his friend with U-?

Look to the SFM-43 story. This was a new code system, not Enigma. SFM-43 was only for Dönitz, Bormann and Adolf Hitler, and Admiral Voss.”