Well Spain's position was complicated. They had just had a very bitter and destructive civil war, with the axis supported nationalists defeating the republicans who had communist and democratic support. So a sizeable percentage of Spain's population, including Franco, had very close ties with the axis powers that had been their support and co-fighters.
But if Franco had then thrown in with Germany at that time, it could have reignited the civil war again when he was trying to stabilise and rebuild the country, which i expect is why the most he offered the axis was axis-leaning neutrality.
I think describing it as simply 'shady' behaviour doesn't do any favours. Shady is more like American business interests dallying with the nazis. Franco could not have won the civil war without german help - it is more impressive that he didn't join the axis altogether, and i think the western allies were extremely happy with that fact, minor assistance for the axis notwithstanding.
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But that i suppose is a digression.
Your point about torpedoes being offloaded is valid. In one of my books somewhere, i read one captain going out having already expended some torpedoes encountering a U-boat coming home with a full torpedo loadout (that returning captain being described as a coward)
Anyway, the outbound captain persuaded the homewardbound captain to hand over some of his torpedoes in the middle of the sea. This indicates that it cannot have been an insurmountable difficulty to extract torpedoes from a U-boat with only on-board equipment.
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"Enemy submarines are to be called U-Boats. The term submarine is to be reserved for Allied under water vessels. U-Boats are those dastardly villains who sink our ships, while submarines are those gallant and noble craft which sink theirs." Winston Churchill
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