Mission: Sink U-199
31 July 1943 Early morning, a USN Martin PBM-3C Mariner from the VP-74 squadron,based in Rio de Janeiro,located and attacked the U-199. The U-boat was damaged but was not sunk and kept firing chaotically to the american aircraft. Brazilian defences were alerted and a Brazilian Hudson, crew of Sergio Candido Schnoor soon took off from Rio de Janeiro. It attacked the U-199 with two Mk. 17 bombs which fell short of the U-boat, in a second run Schnoor started to shoot U-199 with nose guns and this had the effect to kill some German crewmen on the tower. Soon another Brazilian aircraft, the crew of Alberto Martins Torres which was flying nearby, came to help,as Schnoor did not have other bombs and besides the U-boat still kept firing to every aircraft found on their way. Torres bombed the U-199 with Mk 44 bombs and the U-199 finally -after a long battle- began to sink. This particular aircraft was later named Arara, in honour of the crew of the ship of the same name which had been sunk in 17 August 1942 by U-507, while tried to rescue the sailors of brazilian ship “Itagiba” which earlier was sunk from U-507..This is the Real Story.
