[HN Gopher] Brazilian ship sunk by WWII U-Boat located
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       Brazilian ship sunk by WWII U-Boat located
        
       Author : isaacfrond
       Score  : 77 points
       Date   : 2025-02-20 10:08 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (archaeology.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (archaeology.org)
        
       | jeanlucas wrote:
       | Oh, I haven't heard about these in Brazilian news.
       | 
       | That's a nice find.
       | 
       | Some interesting points:
       | 
       | * This was the last Brazilian ship sunk during WWII
       | 
       | * Brazil was an US ally, providing raw materials, but mainly
       | rubber after Asia trade routes were suspended by the Japanese
       | 
       | * If Brazil didn't become an US ally, there was a plan to invade
       | the rubber producing area - known as Plan Rubber [1] - it was not
       | necessary since Brazil joined the allies
       | 
       | * To warm up Brazilians public reception to a US partnership even
       | Disney got involved (and Carmen Miranda!) creating the character
       | Ze Carioca [2]
       | 
       | * Brazil sent 25k+ troops to the Italy front
       | 
       | --
       | 
       | [1] Plan Rubber - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Rubber
       | 
       | [2] Ze Carioca - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Carioca
        
         | pfdietz wrote:
         | > * Brazil sent 25k+ troops to the Italy front
         | 
         | The Smoking Snakes!
         | 
         | As part of that they had pilots flying P-47s.
         | 
         | I understand the rationing of gasoline in the US during the war
         | was intended to conserve rubber, not (just) gasoline.
         | Eventually synthetic rubber became available but this took a
         | while and was a huge effort.
         | 
         | http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/R/u/Rubber.htm
        
         | marcosdumay wrote:
         | > Brazil was an US ally
         | 
         | The Brazilian government was a dictatorship closely aligned
         | with Italy. The Brazilian society was closely aligned with the
         | US.
         | 
         | At the moment that ship sank, you could replace US with Italy
         | and that phrase would be about as true. That ship was basically
         | the last drop that made Brazil push the government into
         | breaking ties with Italy.
         | 
         | And yeah, shortly after that Brazil participated on the taking
         | of Italy.
        
           | DanielHB wrote:
           | Brazil was playing both sides, much like Sweden. Profiting
           | from the war while staying out of it. Brazil only joined the
           | war because the US gave big loans to Brazil to fund the
           | creation of steelworks factories to kickstart the steel
           | production in the country. The sinking of the ships was just
           | the official excuse to declare war, but Brazil was aligned
           | with the US a few years before that.
           | 
           | From: https://guides.loc.gov/brazil-us-relations/brazil-
           | world-war-...
           | 
           | > Foreign Minister Oswaldo Aranha's five-week visit to the
           | United States earlier in the year secured Brazil substantial
           | lines of credit, loans, and technical assistance for the
           | development of Brazilian rubber and mining industries. On
           | September 26, 1940 the United States and Brazil signed
           | agreement for the financing and construction of the Volta
           | Redonda steel mill. By the end of 1940, Brazil had privately
           | resolved to throw its lot in with the Allies.
           | 
           | I recommend reading the whole article, very interesting. I
           | remember my history teacher in high school actually teaching
           | this (he mentioned only steel, not rubber), I am very
           | surprised this fact is downplayed and a lot of Brazilians
           | don't know about it. I remember my teacher also mentioning
           | that Brazil tried to secure similar deals with Germany but
           | with no luck, but I can't find any sources for that.
        
       | kaivi wrote:
       | It seems to lie on the continental shelf, at a depth of abount 40
       | meters. Surprised it took so long to locate.
        
         | jeanlucas wrote:
         | I think it is mostly because it wasn't being looked for. WWII
         | is not as present in Brazilian mainstream culture as it is in
         | the US, for example.
        
         | mmooss wrote:
         | How big is the continental shelf on the Brazilian coast, in
         | square miles? Has more than a fraction of it been explored?
        
       | James_K wrote:
       | WII U boat? I didn't really Nintendo had a navy.
        
         | RandomBacon wrote:
         | You're missing a "W" but in case you didn't know, Pepsi once
         | had a navy:
         | 
         | https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pepsi+navy
        
       | 7373737373 wrote:
       | Since so many ships were sunk during WW2, is there a list of what
       | they transported at the time? Have their countries ever made an
       | attempt to recover them?
        
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       (page generated 2025-02-23 23:01 UTC)