World War II was a conflict on a scale never seen before or since. Nearly every corner of Europe was ravaged by the scars of war. The tropical beaches of tiny Pacific islands were turned into battlefields in the sea and sky. Tanks rolled through Africa and rebellion was alive and well in India.
Yet despite this nearly global conflict, the Western Hemisphere was largely safe from fighting, with only the infamous surprise attack on Hawai’i being deemed significant enough to include in most textbooks. However, Germany did set its sights on the Caribbean in attacks and operations largely forgotten by many, including a submarine attack on the tropical paradise of Aruba.
The United States had remained neutral for the first few years of the war, and with that neutrality came protections for Western Atlantic shipping and trade. After Pearl Harbor and the United States’ subsequent involvement, the Caribbean Sea, and in particular the region's oil refineries, was now a valid target for the Axis powers. Thus, Operation Neuland was born.
The plan was to disrupt the various strategic Allied supply chains that were based in the Caribbean: oil from Venezuela and aluminum from the Guianas were processed and refined on Caribbean islands. By sending a small fleet of German and Italian submarines, the Axis hoped to cut off these vital resources while simultaneously gaining a foothold to launch potential attacks on the continental United States.
Aruba, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, was particularly close to the Venezuelan oil fields and was home to one of the largest refineries in the world, supplying British and eventually American demands for petroleum. Although the governor had called for more fortifications and personnel during the years building up to the Second World War, these large refineries were only moderately defended; the long distance to European shores was deemed enough protection.
A German U-boat.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia CommonsIn the early hours of February 16th, 1942, U-156, a German U-Boat, surfaced off the coast of Aruba. Torpedoes were fired at two oil tankers, killing 23 as the oil-loaded ships ignited easily. Later, a refinery was targeted, but a crewman’s mistake caused the missile to detonate in the barrel, killing a gunner and severely wounding another. The U-Boat continued its mission and attacked another tanker, doing minor damage and beaching one of their torpedoes that eventually claimed the lives of four Dutch marines when they failed to disarm it.
By the end of February, U-156 had sunk three Allied ships, including the Oregon, which lost six American sailors. The flames of the burning ships were reportedly seen in Curaçao, 75 miles away.
The attacks on Aruba were coordinated with other submarines attacking neighboring islands and Venezuela. While attacks on tankers around Curaçao did little long-term damage, an American tanker was sunk in Lake Maracaibo and there was intense fighting along the coast of Trinidad from both German and Italian ships, seeking to disrupt the distribution of bauxite to be made into aluminum. Further attacks throughout the Caribbean occurred throughout the rest of February 1942.
Luckily for the Allies, the initial attacks on Aruba were largely mitigated by weapons malfunctions, with both the accidental detonation of U-156’s gun and several torpedoes missing their target or failing to explode. The Aruban governor’s prior persistence in requesting for defenses also paid off, as the coastal artillery installed around the larger refineries made shelling, the U-Boat captain’s preferred method of attack, very difficult.
Instead, the attacks on ships in Lake Maracaibo were perhaps the most effective. As the lake is shallow, a special fleet is required to ship supplies in and out, and around a tenth of that fleet was destroyed by the Axis; the crews of the surviving ships mutinied until they could secure an anti-submarine escort.
In total, 47 Allied merchant sailors were killed in the attacks on Aruba and neighboring Caribbean islands, and there were even more neutral casualties, including the sinking of a Brazilian ship that claimed 54 lives. The operation was considered a high point in German and Italian coordination in the Atlantic Theater. Though Aruba would never be attacked again, the Battle of the Caribbean stretched on for years as the Axis shifted on attacking Allied shipping.
The sinking of two Mexican tankers caused Mexico to declare war on Germany later in 1942, and the conflict in the Caribbean further intensified. Growing anti-submarine capabilities and stronger defenses in the Atlantic meant that the effectiveness of the U-Boats quickly diminished; after sinking 336 Allied ships in 1942, the Axis only sank three in all of 1944. Eventually the Caribbean was no longer a valuable target for Germany, and with much higher priorities in Europe, the Caribbean was free of Axis influence by 1945. The Axis had taken 400 merchant ships for the price of 17 submarines, but it would not be enough to win them the war.
Plaza Daniel Leo, Oranjestad, Aruba, 2020.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia CommonsToday, Aruba is famous for its consistently dry and sunny climate and charming Dutch colonial architecture that makes it a year-round vacation destination. Few walking its beaches would ever think that it was once the site of deadly naval warfare that would kick off the Nazis' battle to control the entire Caribbean less than a century ago.
Sources: U.S. Naval Institute
