Recently I was rereading some trashy paperback about WW2 and it mentioned the oft told story about the submarine that took General Macarthur out of the Philippines being loaded with gold. The tale goes that there were crates and crates of the stuff and the crew was essentially told to keep silent on pain of death.
I’ve seen the story mentioned in several actual WW2 histories. Sometimes it’s cast as “might-be-true”, sometimes as just another urban legend. To the best of my knowledge he never exhibited signs of great wealth after the war.
Has anyone ever pinned down “the straight dope” on this??
Indeed. So long as the gold went somewhere safe (e.g. Fort Knox) rather than being left on a beach somewhere, who cares? In fact, you’d want people to know that the loot is with you, available to your friends but not your enemies.
Similarly when the Norwegian royals fled to the UK with the contents of the treasury, it wasn’t kept a big super secret. Before and during the move, certainly, but not afterwards.
