The USS Omaha and USS Jouett Sink the German Blockade Runner Rio Grande

There is a photograph taken of the sinking of the German blockade runner SS Rio Grande.  The caption reads:

February 22, 1944.  U.S. gunfire sinks scuttle  Nazi  blockade runner.  Towering geysers of water mark near-hits fired by the six-inch guns of the USS Omaha and  the five-inch guns of the USS Jouett as they joined in sinking the  Nazi blockade runner  Rio Grande in the South Atlantic after removing the crew some of whom had scuttled he doomed vessel before abandoning it.

Second of three Nazi blockade runner sunk within 48 hours early in January in the same sector by alert U.S. warships, the Rio Grande was, like the other two, laden with valuable war materials destined for Germany, including tin, fats, strategic ores, oil and rubber.

Some rubber was recovered after the sinkings.  22 February 1944.

--GreGen