The U-505 is an American captured German submarine during WWII, the first U.S. Navy captured enemy vessel since 1812. Today, it is the only Type IX-C U-boat (submarine) in existence and is permanently exhibited in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
The capture
May 15th, 1944 – a task group of the Atlantic Fleet heads out to sea. The group entails five destroyer escorts – Chatelain, Pillsbury, Flaherty, Clarity, and Jencks — and a USS Guadalcanal carrier under Captain Dan Gallery, a USN pioneer of naval aviation.
June 4th, 1944 – the group was tasked with seizing a sub, communicated 150 miles off the coast of West French Africa. The crew of Guadalcanal settled on an audacious plan: instead of sinking the sub as soon as she surfaces, there would be an attempt to board the sub in small boats. If successful, the reward is historic – allied naval intelligence will be able to exploit a completely equipped enemy vessel.
Suddenly at 11:10, a sound contact was detected by Chatelain. The signal spurred the arrival of two American wildcat fighter jets to the scene. Only minutes passed until Commander Knox of the Chatelain announced, “Contact evaluated as sub, making attack.”
Long-awaited explosions were heard following the detonation of torpedoes after contact with the subject underwater. Simultaneously, both fighter jets spot the submarine’s long dark silhouette gradually ascending 60 feet below the surface.
“Sighted sub!!”
A 10-minute-long chase began as the sub reversed its direction to avoid the destroyers. However, she remains fixed under the surveillance of the wildcats, which direct the attack of its surface vessels by firing at the spot where the sub has just disappeared, revealing her position.
A death-charge attack was made minutes later, and the wounded U-boat floats up on the Atlantic surface, right in the middle of the task group at 11:22. The Nazis are now in rubber rafts while U.S. Navy parties began to board a foreign enemy “man-of-war” for the first time in more than a century.
As the second boarding party from the Guadalcanal approaches, worries encompass the U-boat’s risk of blowing up or sinking. Nevertheless, such a scenario had been rehearsed for months and each man had a clear job to do. Expectedly, the Nazis tried sinking the ship as a frantic 8H stream of water poured into the boat. However, the attempt was rushed, and Lieutenant Albert David of USS Pillsbury was able to secure the sub’s covers back just in time.
Journey back home
In the meantime, Chatelain seeks to rescue members of the U-505 on board. Surprisingly, all but one were saved and everyone was given dry clothing, food, and cigarettes. The first man out was captain of the U-505 who was instantly blown overboard by a shell. The sub’s second commander, Peter Zschech took his own life in the control rooms before boarding the destroyer.
From there on, the group heads for Bermuda, a lengthy 2,500 nautical-mile journey with the captured U-boat in tow. The sheer length of the voyage was not the only challenge facing Captain Gallery, the sub risks sinking dragging the carrier down along with it.
Thankfully, the journey saw no major mishaps as U-505 successfully transferred from the Guadalcanal to carrier Abnaki on the 7th of June. 12 days later, U-505 was towed into Bermuda, and there remains as a prize of war.
Life as submariners
The life of a typical U-boat submariner was easily one of the most dangerous endeavors. With an alarming 75% casualty rate, the highest amongst all German forces during the war, the boat’s temperatures would exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the warmer months of the year. For the two months at sea, the crew could only swab their bodies with alcohol instead of showering while food was often infused with trails of diesel. Nearing the end of the war, the life expectancy of a U-boat crew fell to merely 60 days.
Enigma and secrecy
Those who were captured on board the Chatelain remained war prisoners at Camp Ruston. 58 survivors were ordered into the isolated camp while their identities were kept secret despite their rights to write home and receive care from the Red Cross, a declaration offered by the Geneva Peace Convention.
The reason for such avoidance of international law was alerting. The real treasure of the U-505 capture lay within an Enigma Decoding Machine, with all its decrypted messages, code books, and rotors intact. Fearing that prisoners could alert German intelligence of the captured code books, the Americans could take no chances. Such enigma machines would go on to save millions of American and Allied lives as they helped decode nearly all German Navy instructions to secret submarine fleets.
By 1946, the U.S. Navy had extracted all information and technology from the U-505. With no reason to keep the sub, Camp Ruston was cleared out and prisoners were sent back to their homes. See more of Camp Ruston.
The dedication
In 1953, Captain Gallery, a Chicago native, was searching for a permanent home for the sub. President Lenox Lohr at the Museum of Science and Industry as well as several others convinced Gallery that the sub be kept at the museum, after raising hundreds of thousands of dollars necessary to repair, transport, and install the sub for exhibition. On September 25, 1954, the U-505 was officially dedicated as a war memorial and a permanent exhibit at Lohr’s museum. In 1989, the sub was also designated as a National Historic Landmark. The exhibition of the U-505, which marks the bravery and sacrifices of those who served in the war, continues to this day.
Written by Julia Jiang
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