Operation Neuland

Operation Neuland
Part of the Atlantic Campaign of World War II
Date 16 February – late March 1942 Location Caribbean Sea Result Axis victory
Belligerents
Germany Italy	United States United Kingdom Netherlands
Commanders and leaders
Karl Dönitz Romolo Polacchini	John H. Hoover
Strength
11 submarines	USS Barney USS Blakeley USS Lapwing
Casualties and losses
Casualties 1 killed 1 wounded Losses 1 submarine damaged	Losses 45 cargo ships sunk 1 lighthouse tender sunk 10 cargo ships damaged

Operation Neuland was the code name of the Kriegsmarine extension of unrestricted submarine warfare into the Caribbean Sea during World War II. German U-boats demonstrated range to disrupt British petroleum supplies and American aluminum supplies which had not been anticipated by Allied pre-war planning. Although the area remained vulnerable to submarines for several months, U-boats never again enjoyed the opportunities for success resulting from the surprise of this operation.

Background

The Caribbean was strategically significant because of Venezuelan oil fields in the southeast and the Panama Canal in the southwest. The Royal Dutch Shell oil refinery on Dutch-owned Curaçao, processing eleven million barrels per month, was the largest in the world; the refinery at Pointe-à-Pierre on Trinidad was the largest in the British Empire; and there was Lago Oil and Transport Company, another large refinery on Dutch-owned Aruba where Shell operated the Eagle refinery of Oranjestad. The British Isles required four oil tankers of petroleum daily during the early war years, and most of it came from Venezuela, through Curaçao, after Italy blocked passage through the Mediterranean Sea from the Middle East.

The Caribbean held additional strategic significance to the United States. The southern United States Gulf of Mexico coastline, including petroleum facilities and Mississippi River trade, could be defended at two points. The United States was well positioned to defend the