 U-505 shortly after being captured |
|
| Career (Germany) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | U-505 |
| Ordered: | 25 September 1939[1] |
| Builder: | Deutsche Werft AG, Hamburg-Finkenwerder[1] |
| Yard number: | 295[1] |
| Laid down: | 12 June 1940[1] |
| Launched: | 24 May 1941[1] |
| Commissioned: | 26 August 1941[1] |
| Captured: | Captured on 4 June 1944 by US Navy ships in the south Atlantic.[2] |
| Status: | Preserved as a museum ship[2] |
| General characteristics [3] | |
| Type: | Type IXC submarine |
| Displacement: | 1,120 t (1,100 long tons) surfaced 1,232 t (1,213 long tons) submerged |
| Length: | 76.8 m (252 ft 0 in) o/a 58.7 m (192 ft 7 in) pressure hull |
| Beam: | 6.8 m (22 ft 4 in) o/a 4.4 m (14 ft 5 in) pressure hull |
| Height: | 9.4 m (30 ft 10 in) |
| Draft: | 4.7 m (15 ft 5 in) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × MAN M9V40/46 supercharged 9-cylinder diesel engines, 4,400 hp (3,281 kW) 2 × SSW GU345/34 double-acting electric motors, 1,000 hp (746 kW) |
| Speed: | 18.2 knots (33.7 km/h) surfaced 7.7 knots (14.3 km/h) submerged |
| Range: | 24,880 nmi (46,080 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) surfaced 117 nmi (217 km) at 4 kn (7.4 km/h) submerged |
| Test depth: | 230 m (750 ft) |
| Complement: | 48 to 56 |
| Armament: | • 6 × torpedo tubes (4 bow, 2 stern) • 22 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedoes • 1 × Utof 105 mm/45 deck gun (110 rounds) • AA guns |
| Service record | |
| Part of: | Kriegsmarine 4. Unterseebootsflottille (Training) 26 August 1941–January 1942 2. Unterseebootsflottille (Front Boat, 12 patrols) 1 February 1942–4 June 1944 |
| Identification codes: | M 46 074 |
| Commanders: | KrvKpt. Axel-Olaf Loewe (26 August 1941–5 September 1942) Kptlt. Peter Zschech (6 September 1942–24 October 1943) Oblt. Paul Meyer (acting) (24 October–7 November 1943) Oblt. Harald Lange (8 November 1943–4 June 1944) |
| Operations: | 12 patrols |
| Victories: | 8 ships sunk for a total of 44,962 gross register tons (GRT) |
German submarine U-505 was a Type IXC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine built for service during World War II. She was captured on 4 June 1944 by United States Navy Task Group 22.3 (TG 22.3). Codebooks and other secret materials from U-505 assisted Allied code breaking operations. She is one of six U-boats that were captured by Allied forces during World War II, and one of four large German World War II U-boats that survive as museum ships.
All but one U-505 crewman was rescued by the Navy task group. The submarine was towed to Bermuda in secret, and her crew was interned at a US prisoner of war camp where they were denied access to International Red Cross visits. The Navy classified the operation as top secret and managed to prevent its discovery by the Germans.
After spending nearly a decade at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, U-505 was donated to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois. As of 2010 U-505 is a museum ship, kept indoors in a climate controlled environment to prevent corrosion.
Contents |
The keel for U-505 was laid down 12 June 1940, by Deutsche Werft of Hamburg, Germany. She was launched on 25 May 1941, and commissioned on 26 August 1941 with Kapitänleutnant (Kptlt.) Axel-Olaf Loewe in command. On 6 September 1942, Loewe was relieved by Kptlt. Peter Zschech. On 24 October 1943, Oberleutnant zur See Paul Meyer found himself in command for about two weeks until he was relieved on 8 November by Oblt. Harald Lange. Lange then commanded the U-boat until her capture on 4 June 1944.[2]
U-505 conducted twelve patrols during her career, sinking eight ships for a total of 44,962 tons. Three of which were American, two British, and one Norwegian, Dutch, and Colombian each.[2]
Following training exercises with the 4. Unterseebootsflottille from 26 August 1941, to 31 January 1942, U-505 was assigned as the front boat for the 2. Unterseebootsflottille on 1 February 1942. However, U-505 began her first patrol by leaving the port city of Kiel on 19 January 1924, (while she was still formally undergoing training). For 16 days, she traveled around the British Isles and docked at Lorient, France on 3 February 1942. During her first patrol, U-505 never engaged any enemy vessels nor was attacked.[4]
U-505 left Lorient on 11 February 1942 for her second patrol. In 86 days, U-505 traveled down to the west coast of Africa where she sank her first four vessels. In less than one month, U-505 sank the British vessel, Benmohr, the Norwegian ship Sydhav, the American West Irmo, and the Dutch ship Alphacca for a total loss of 25,041 tons. On 18 April 1942, U-505 was attacked by an Allied aircraft in the Mid Atlantic but the U-boat itself suffered little damage.[5]
U-505 began her third patrol on 7 June 1942, after leaving her home port of Lorient. During this patrol, U-505 headed out to the Caribbean Sea where she sank the American vessels Sea Thrush and Thomas McKean as well as the Colombian ship Urious. 80 days after her third patrol began, U-505 returned to Lorient on 25 August 1942, without ever being attacked.[6]
U-505's fourth patrol involved her heading down to the northern coast of South America. She left Lorient on 4 October 1942 and sank the British vessel Ocean Justice off the coast of Venezuela on 7 November 1942. On 10 November 1942, U-5-5's second watch officer and a lookout were badly wounded in an air attack by a Lockheed Hudson aircraft of No. 53 Squadron from the Royal Air Force (RAF) near Trinidad. The aircraft was shot down by U-505's anti-aircraft guns during the attack. The U-boat was heavily damaged from depth charges though and was forced to head back to port. The wounded watch officer was sent to the Milchkuh ("milk cow") U-462 twelve days after the attack.[7]
After six months in Lorient for repairs, U-505 started her fifth patrol. She left Lorient on 1 July 1943 but after only 13 days, she was forced to return to port following an attack by three British destroyers that stalked the U-boat for over 30 hours. While U-505 was not badly damaged during the encounter, she was forced to return to France for repairs.[8] The U-boat's next four patrols were aborted after only a few days at sea each time due to equipment failure and sabotage.[9][10][11][12] This happened so many times that she became the butt of jokes throughout the base at Lorient. Upon returning from another botched patrol, the crew of U-505 found a sign painted in the docking area reading, "U-505's Hunting Ground". At a time when many U-boats were being sunk, U-505's new commander, Kptlt. Peter Zschech, overheard another U-boat commander joke, "There is one commander who will always come back … Zschech."[13]
After ten months in Lorient, U-505 was once again able to cross the Bay of Biscay on her way to the Atlantic Ocean. On 24 October 1943, Zschech, while in command of U-505 and under a heavy depth charge attack, committed suicide. The first watch officer, Paul Meyer, saved the boat and took her back to port. For his part in saving the ship and her crew from almost certain destruction after their commander had abandoned them, Meyer was merely "absolved from all blame."[14][15]
U-505's eleventh patrol began on Christmas day of 1943. However, she was again forced to return to Lorient on 2 January after she rescued thirty-three crew members from the German torpedo boat T-25, which had been sunk on 28 December by British cruisers in the Bay of Biscay.[16]
The decryption of German messages sent on the Enigma network meant that Allied forces were aware that U-boats were operating near Cape Verde, but their exact locations were not known.[17][18] On 15 May 1944, Task Group 22.3, an American task force commanded by Captain Daniel V. Gallery, USN, consisted of Gallery's escort aircraft carrier USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60), and five destroyer escorts under Commander Frederick S. Hall: Pillsbury (DE-133), Pope (DE-134), Flaherty (DE-135), Chatelain (DE-149), and Jenks (DE-665).[19] sailed from Norfolk, Virginia to conduct anti-submarine patrols in the area using high-frequency direction-finding fixes ("Huff-Duff") and air and surface reconnaissance, and at 11:09 on 14 June 1944 made sonar contact with U-505 at 21°30′N 19°20′W / 21.5°N 19.333°W, about 150 miles (241 km) off the coast of Río de Oro.[17]
The sonar contact was only 800 yards (700 m) away off the starboard bow of Chatelain. The escort ships immediately moved towards the position, while Guadalcanal moved away from the area at top speed and launched an F4F Wildcat fighter to join another Wildcat and a TBM Avenger which were already airborne.[20]
Chatelain was so close to U-505 that depth charges would not sink fast enough to intercept the U-boat, and instead opened fire with a hedgehog battery before passing the submarine and turning to make an attack with depth charges.[17] At around this time one of the aircraft sighted U-505 and dived on it, firing into the water to mark the position while Chatelain fired depth charges. Immediately after the detonation of the charges a large oil slick spread on the water and the fighter pilot overhead radioed, "You struck oil! Sub is surfacing!"[21] Less than seven minutes after Chatelain's first attack began, a badly damaged U-505 surfaced less than 600 metres (700 yd) away. [20] Chatelain immediately opened fire on U-505's decks with all available automatic weapons, while other ships of the task force and the two Wildcat fighters also opened fire.[17] Wounded and believing that U-505 was seriously damaged, the commanding officer of U-505 ordered his crew to abandon ship — an order obeyed so promptly that scuttling was not completed and the engines continued to run.[17] With the engines still running and the rudder damaged by the detonation of the depth charges, U-505 circled clockwise at approximately 7 knots (13 km/h). Seeing the U-boat turning toward him and believing it was preparing to attack, the commanding officer of Chatelain ordered a single torpedo fired at the submarine – however, the torpedo missed and passed ahead of the now-abandoned U-505.[17]
While Chatelain and Jenks collected survivors, an eight-man party from Pillsbury approached U-505 by boat and entered via the conning tower. After determining that U-505 was deserted other than a single dead man on the deck (the only fatality of the action), the boarding party secured charts and codebooks, and began to plug leaks and disarm demolition charges. They were successful in plugging the leaks, and although low in the water and tilting at the stern, U-505 remained afloat.[17]
While the boarding party secured U-505, Pillsbury attempted to take it in tow, but collided repeatedly with it and had to leave the area with three compartments flooded. Instead, a second boarding party from Guadalcanal connected a towline from Guadalcanal to U-505.[17] Meanwhile, members of the second boarding party disconnected U-505's diesels from her motors, allowing the propellers to turn the shafts while under tow. Guadalcanal towing the U-505 at high speed thus caused the propellers to act as electrical generators and allowed U-505's pumps and air compressors to clear the flooding.[17] After three days of towing, U-505 was transferred to the fleet tug Abnaki (ATF-96), which on Monday, 19 June 1944, entered Port Royal Bay, Bermuda, after a tow of 1,700 miles (2,740 km), the first time the U.S. Navy had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the nineteenth century. In total, 58 prisoners were taken from U-505, three of them wounded, and only a single member of her crew was killed in the action. The U-505 crew was interned at Camp Ruston, near Ruston, Louisiana. Among the guards were members of the U.S. Navy baseball team, composed mostly of minor league professional baseball players that previously toured combat areas to entertain the troops. In order to keep their skills sharp for expected post-war careers, the players taught some of the U-505 sailors to play the game in order to have a team to play against (the German sailors insisting on lopsided rules heavily favoring them over the professional athletes).[22]
The capture of codebooks on U-505 allowed Allied cryptanalysts to break the special "coordinate" code in enciphered German messages and determine more precise locations for U-boat operating areas. In addition to directing hunter-killer task groups to these locations, these coordinates enabled Allied convoy commanders to route shipping away from known U-boat locations, greatly inhibiting the effectiveness of German submarine patrols. The material captured from U-505 arrived at Bletchley Park on 20 June 1944, and, in addition to the coordinate code, included the regular and Offizier settings for June 1944, the current short weather codebook, and the short signal codebook and bigram tables due to come into effect in July and August respectively.[23]
That the U-505 itself was captured and towed – rather than merely sunk after the codebooks had been taken – was considered to have endangered the Enigma secret, to the extent that Admiral King considered court-martialling Captain Gallery.[23] To protect the secret, the captured German crewmen of U-505, who knew of the U-boat's capture, were isolated from other prisoners of war; the Red Cross were denied access to them. Ultimately, the German Kriegsmarine declared the crew dead and informed the families as well. The last of the German crew was not returned until 1947.[24]
Lieutenant (jg) David's part in saving the abandoned submarine earned him the Medal of Honor, the only Medal of Honor awarded to an Atlantic Fleet sailor in World War II. Torpedoman's Mate Third Class Arthur W. Knispel and Radioman Second Class Stanley E. Wdowiak each received the Navy Cross; and Commander Trosino received the Legion of Merit. Captain Gallery, who had conceived and executed the operation, received the Distinguished Service Medal. The task group itself was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll, Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, cited the Task Group for "outstanding performance during anti-submarine operations in the eastern Atlantic on 4 June 1944, when the Task group attacked, boarded and captured the German submarine U-505 … The Task Group's brilliant achievement in disabling, capturing, and towing to a United States base a modern enemy man-of-war taken in combat on the high seas is a feat unprecedented in individual and group bravery, execution, and accomplishment in the Naval History of the United States."[17]
U-505 herself was kept at the navy base in Bermuda and intensively studied. Many of the new technical advances incorporated into her were subsequently included in postwar US Navy diesel submarine designs. For purposes of maintaining the illusion that she had been sunk rather than captured, she was temporarily renamed the USS Nemo.[25]
As the U.S. Navy was already familiar with the design of U-boats of U-505's type, after investigation by Navy intelligence and engineering officers during 1945 it was decided to use U-505 for gunnery and torpedo target practice.[17] However, in 1946 Father John Gallery learned of this plan from his brother, then-Admiral Daniel Gallery, and called Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) President Lenox Lohr to see if MSI would be interested in U-505. The museum, established by Chicago businessman Julius Rosenwald as a center for "industrial enlightenment" and public science education, specialized in interactive exhibits, not just viewable displays and artifacts. As the museum already planned to display a submarine, the acquisition of U-505 seemed ideal.[17] In September 1954, U-505 was donated to Chicago by the U.S. Government, and a public subscription among Chicago residents raised $250,000 for transporting and installing U-505. On 25 September 1954, U-505 was dedicated as a permanent exhibit and war memorial to all the sailors on both sides who lost their lives in the Battle of the Atlantic.
When U-505 was donated to the Museum, her guts had been thoroughly stripped during the years she sat neglected alongside the dock at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. Admiral Gallery proposed a possible solution. Major Lohr contacted all of the German manufacturers who had supplied the components and parts that went into her, in hopes of restoring her to near-new condition. As the Admiral reported in his autobiography, Eight Bells and All's Well, the Major expected at best responses that boiled down to "Go to hell." However, to his and the Museum's surprise, every company supplied the requested parts without charge. Most included letters that said in effect, "We are sorry that you have our U-boat, but since she's going to be there for many years, we want her to be a credit to German technology."[26]
In 1989, U-505, the only Type IXC still in existence, was designated a National Historic Landmark. By 2004, the U-boat's exterior had suffered noticeable damage from weather, and in April 2004, the museum moved the U-boat to a new underground, covered, climate-controlled location. Now in an enclosed area and protected from the elements, the restored U-505 reopened to the public on 5 June 2005.[27]
 Underside of U-505 |
 Wide-angle shot of U-505 |
 Sail of U-505 |
The story of the captured German crew of U-505 has been recounted in Gary Moore's book, Playing with the Enemy: A Baseball Prodigy, a World at War, and a Field of Broken Dreams. Production of the motion picture Playing with the Enemy is underway and release is scheduled for late 2009.[28]
John Chatterton repeatedly toured U-505 as part of his preparations for diving on the then-unidentified wreck of U-869; this allowed him to gain a 'feel' for the interior of a Type IX U-boat, which enhanced the safety and productivity of his dives.[29]
Media related to U-505 at Wikimedia Commons
|
||||||||
|
||||||||||
Coordinates: 41°47′30″N 87°34′53″W / 41.791787°N 87.58139°W
|
|
Wikis
Search
