nbcman
Donor
"The German auxiliary cruiser Stier was scuttled on 27 September in the Caribbean. This was after Stier sank the American liberty shipSS Stephen Hopkins in a short battle" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Caribbean (my book on auxiliary cruisers is lacking in details, am going by Wiki on this one)
The link to the Battle of the Caribbean includes an interesting bit - the crew of the I-156 still used their deck gun when they ran out of torpedoes. They used hacksaws to cut the damaged part of the barrel off and sank two more merchies on the north side of Puerto Rico with a sawed off 105 mm deck gun.
EDIT: Here is a link to the Coast Artillery command for the detachment which was sent to Aruba.
http://www.lago-colony.com/AMERICANS_IN_ARUBA/COAST ARTILLERY COMMAND.htm
Note the following:
Corporal Bruce Sark of the 166th Infantry may have been the first bugler to sound a real call to arms in the Western Hemisphere during World War II. Although the 37 mm automatic weapons of Battery G, 213th C.A.(AA), had been set up at the Sint Nicholaas wharf and at nearby Camp Sabaneta, they were unable to open fire because of the thick smoke from the burning tankers and generally poor visibility. The 155 mm guns of Battery A, 252nd C.A., were still sitting on the docks where they had been unloaded. However, all troops were alerted, the guard was reinforced, and a complete blackout of the island was ordered.(21)
There wasn't any operational coastal artillery on Aruba at the time of the attack because their guns were in crates on the dock. I-156 attacked at the opportune moment where the previous garrison was stood down and the new garrison was not set up.
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