RAF Wing Commander Ron Rotherham with Dubai and Sharjah Sheiks, 1942-1944
Coronel Ron Rotherdam, comandante da Base Aérea de Sharjah
Base aérea britânica de Sharjah, 1942 a 1944.
Pub. Alexandre Monteiro, Paulo Costa e Rui Carita, projeto Maritime Archeological Survey Proposal Portuguese Team, July 2021, Underwater Archaeology mission UEA, Sir Abu Nu’ayr, emirado de Sharjah, Emirados Árabes Unidos, fig. 9, p. 17, IAP/Nova de Lisboa, abril de 2021, Lisboa, Portugal.

During World War II, some 57 German U-boats ranged into the Indian Ocean and Pacific waters. Sending German submarines to Indian and Far East waters was a Japanese proposal that Germany received without much enthusiasm, as it was the Atlantic Ocean that offered the highest expectations of success in attacking the Allied merchant fleet. However, due to the success that the Allied anti-submarine warfare was achieving in the Atlantic, Germany reconsidered moving some submarines to the Indian Ocean. The U533 was one of those 11 German U-boats deployed to the Gulf of Oman. Its main mission was to patrol the Gulf of Aden in order to attack and sink any allied merchant ships it found. It did not happen: U533 was destroyed by a British bomber Blenheim V Bisley from the Sharjah air base, on October 16th, 1943. A single man managed to reach the coast near Khor Fakkan after spending about 28 hours swimming. He was 21-year-old Mechanikergefreiter Günther Schmidt, the only survivor of the U533 crew.