The SS Antilla was a Hamburg America Line cargo ship launched in 1939. She operated in the Caribbean as a cargo ship for Nazi Germany. With a length of nearly 400 feet, beam of 55 feet, and a full load weight of 4,363 GRT (crew of 35) the Antilla was a decent sized merchant ship from that era.
Just before the outbreak of war (in August of 1939) Nazi authorities directed the Antilla (if unable to reach a German port) to seek safety in a neutral harbor. She ultimately anchored in Malmok Bay on the northwest side of Aruba. There she wintered uneventfully.
Early in 1945 the Japanese war machine was in a sorry state: “American submarines and aircraft destroyed in four years almost all of Japan’s merchant fleet. It was radically defeated even before American bombs incinerated the cities and Roosevelt obtained the entry into the war of the Soviet Union.”(1) Immediately after the surrender, the Japanese government confessed that shipping losses were the main reason behind defeat.(2) Japanese failure to protect its merchant fleet and thwart the U.S.
