Cargo of blockade runners to and from Brazil, 1941?

[sid guttridge]

The Germans ran four blockade runners to and from Brazil in the first half of 1941: Lech, Karnak, Joao Pessao and Frankfurt.

Does anyone know what their cargos were or, failing that, does anyone know where I can find such information?

Many thanks,

Sid.

[Enrico Cernuschi]

Hello Sid,

I can only supply you some infos about the Italian motor ship Himalaya cargo which arrived in France from Brazil in Aug. 1941 (3.146 t of raw materials and most rare minerals - 220 t cromo, 50 t molibdeno, 30 t vanadio, 210 t nickel, 1.000 t copper, 1.000 t tin, all bbought in USA during winter 1940/1941) according the Ufficio Storico Marina Militare, I violatori di blocco, Rome, 1972).

There were too the tanker Frisco with 5.800 t of oil, the steamship Mombaldo (3.121 t iron, 1.133 t of cotton, 779 t of lubricating oil, 707 t pig iron, 220 t rubber and 43 t paraffin), XXIV Maggio (406 t cotton, 165 t of raw hide, 207 t of beryllum and 218 t of rubber), Butterfly (1.024 t of general cargo included 200 t of rubber) and Africana which had a similar cargo (no further details available).

Bye

EC

[sid guttridge]

Hi Enrico,

Thanks very much.

I am particularly interested in the cargoes to Brazil and whether they contained aircraft spares for the various Lufthansa subsidiaries in Latin America and LATI.

I also have some questions about LATI, but time is running out now.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Andy H]

from http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=39308

Hope its of use

One of the major sources for smuggled materials into Germany was the Italian airline Linee Aeree Transcontinentali or LATI, which operated between South America-North Africa & Italy.

Between Dec 1st 1940 amd Dec 4th 1941 the War Trade Department estimated the freight carried by LATI was as follows

Westbound (all weights in Kilo's)
1,932 Films
5,904 Books & Maps
21 Medals
337 Gold & Jewellery
1,294 Electrical items
6,935 Chemical & Pharmaceutical products
68 Photo materials
606 Aviation equipment
1,783 Misc
Total of 18,881

Eastbound
10,666 Mica
4.4 Industrial Diamonds
1,745 Other stones
1,860 Chemical & Pharmaceutical products
282 Platinum
327 Misc
Total of 14,884

After the closing down of LATI by the Allies, Germany had to resort to smuggling via ships

Regards