The OMEGA File

GERMAN SUBMARINES IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC

The newspaper "France Soir" had the following account: "Almost 1-1/2 years AFTER cessation of hostilities in Europe, the Islandic [Icelandic?] Whaler, 'Juliana' was stopped by a large German U-boat. The Juliana was in the ANTARCTIC region around Malvinas [now Falkland] Islands when a German submarine surfaced and raised the German official naval Flag of Mourning -- red with a black edge.

The submarine commander sent out a boarding party, which approached the Juliana in a rubber dinghy, and having boarded the whaler demanded of Capt. Hekla part of his fresh food stocks. The request was made in the definite tone of an order to which resistance would have been unwise. The German officer spoke a correct English and paid for his provisions in U.S. dollars, giving the Captain a bonus of $10 for each member of the Juliana crew. Whilst the food stuffs were being transferred to the submarine, the submarine commander informed Capt. Hekla of the exact location of a large school of whales. Later the Juliana found the school of whales where designated."

The French "Agence France Press" on 25 September 1946, said: "The continuous rumors about German U-boat activity in the region of Tierra del Fuego [Feuerland, in German], between the southernmost tip OF LATIN AMERICA AND THE CONTINENT OF ANTARCTICA are based on true happenings."

There have been stories and books written about Germans counterfeiting U.S. currency and otherwise obtaining American money printing plates, which may account for the German use of American money.

The Guinness Book of World Records says that the "greatest unsolved robbery" was the disappearance of the entire German treasury at the end of the war.