After more than 80 years hidden beneath the waves off Rio de Janeiro, the location of a Brazilian troop transport ship torpedoed and sunk by Nazi Germany was definitively confirmed by Brazil’s navy this week. The wreck of the Vital de Oliveira was initially discovered in 2011 by a pair of brothers. As part of a scientific expedition to obtain the exact location of the wreck, the navy officially confirmed the brothers’ 14-year-old discovery on January 16 using sonar imaging.
The Vital de Oliveira was a civilian ship, built in 1910 and outfitted as an auxiliary naval craft when Brazil entered World War II on the side of the Allies. It was transporting supplies, sailors, and soldiers along the Brazilian coast when a German U-boat struck its stern with a torpedo just before midnight on June 19, 1944.
