Capture
and Tow of the German U-boat 505
On May 16, 1945, one of the best kept secrets
of World War II was released by the Department of the Navy.
On June 4, 1944, one year earlier, 150 miles West of Cape
Blanco in French West Africa, a US Navy escort carrier task
group captured, boarded and salvaged the German U-boat 505
and towed it 2,500 miles to the Naval Operating Base in Bermuda.
The task group, consisting of the baby flattop, USS Guadalcanal
and five destroyer escorts: the USS Pillsbury, USS Chatelain,
USS Pope, USS Flaherty and USS Jenks, encountered the enemy
submarine as it was returning to its base in Brest, France
after an eighty day commerce destroying raid in the Gulf of
Guinea.
Before sailing, Captain
Daniel V. Gallery , Commander of the USS Guadalcanal
and task group, gave his men orders to capture the first submarine
they sighted. He told the pilots to concentrate attacks on
personnel rather than the submarine, only sinking it if necessary.
The aim of capturing a German submarine was to get their communications
code. Gallery said, "it would be worth taking long chances".
At
11:10 am "one of the most improbable events of the Battle
of the Atlantic" began when the Chatelaine radioed the
Guadalcanal, "Frenchy to Bluejay - I have a possible
sound contact". The submarine was in a perfect position
to attack the Guadalcanal. Immediately, the carrier launched
its planes. Sighting the submarine, one of the pilots radioed,
"Sighted sub - destroyers head from spot where we are
shooting". The destroyers fired "hedgehogs",
depth charges thrown ahead of the destroyers which explode
only on contact. The salvo badly damaged the submarine, forcing
it to surface. When the submarine was hit, Ensign J. W. Cadle,
flying a Wildcat fighter airplane radioed, "You've struck
oil! Sub is surfacing".
On the surface, the submarine circled to the right at seven
knots, unable to alter course and flee because of the damage
inflicted by the hedgehogs. Small calibre automatic weapons
fire forced the German crew to abandon ship. In their haste,
the Germans were only able to partially open one scuttling
valve in an attempt to sink the boat. They also managed to
fire one
Torpedo, at the Guadalcanal, but fortunately,
it missed. Chatelain also fired a torpedo in an attempt to
wart off a possible attack from the submarine, but it also
missed.
Captain
Gallery ordered the submarine boarded as soon
as it reached the surface. A
boarding party of sailors from the Pillsbury were the
first to reach the boat. They cleared it of all
Germans
with tommy guns and hand grenades. This boarding marked
the first capture of an enemy warship by the US Navy since
1815.
While denying the danger of booby traps and racing against
time, the boarding
party, reinforced by a larger crew from the Guadalcanal,
proceeded to plug all leaks found. During salvage operations,
it became necessary for a crew to enter the after torpedo
room to manipulate the steering gear to allow the boat to
move forward. Captain
Gallery, himself opened a suspected booby trap
on the hatch to the room. |
USS Guadalcanal ACV 60/CVE 60/CVU
60
Launched June 5th 1943, commissioned Sept
25th 1943. Presided in the Atlantic, captured a German
U-505 Submarine on June 4 1944. Decommissioned July
15th 1946, stricken May 27 1958. Sold
April 30 1959. (Above Photo by: Alex Zar) |
German U-505 Sub
This U-boat was captured by the CVE USS Guadalcanal
during WWII. It now resides at the Chicago Museum of Science
and Industry at the exhibit called "Ships Through the
Ages." (Above Photo by: HARRY LAMM, CLIFFORD WERLE)
The U505 Sub in tow.
(Above
Photo by: Alex Zar)
Members of the Boarding Party from the USS Guadalcanal go below
into the uboat. One man at the left handling a moter-driven
billy-pump for pumping out the water below decks. In going
below decks these men ran the risk of a horrible death. The
hatch had to be closed because of sea swells breaking over
the conning tower, if the boat sank, they would have been
trapped inside with no way back to the sea's surface.
(Above Photo by: Alex Zar)
Click on Image
for official Museum Website
Above photo: "Copywrite 1999-2000
by the Museum of
Science and Industry, Chicago IL USA
Science
and Industry Museum
57th St. & Lake Shore Drive Chicago Illinois 60637
Contact
Museum online
Phone: (773)-684-1414
Click on Image to see Virtual Tour
Sign
my Guest Log
Other Resources:
Gallery, Daniel V., Rear Admiral, US Navy, Away Boarders,
from Clear the Decks, Readers' Digest Vol 60
May 1952
Gallery, Daniel V., Rear Admiral, US Navy, Parade, The Washington
Post,"My Friend and I", May 31, 1964
Gallery, Daniel V., Rear Admiral, US Navy, The Story of
the U-505, Chicago: Museum of Science and Industry,
1955.
Gallery, Daniel V., Rear Admiral, US Navy, Twenty Milliom
Tons Under the Sea, Henry Rgenery Company, Chicago, 1956
Torpedo
Junction Books
Home
|
The Pillsbury pulled alongside
the U-boat to use its main pumps to pump out the water which
threatened to sink the submarine. Both ships were moving together
in tight circles to the right. When one of the ropes holding
them together broke from the strain, the sub's bow hydroplane
slashed the thin side plates of the Pillsbury causing flooding
in two of its compartments. She had to withdraw to make repairs.
In the meantime, the Guadalcanal's boarding
party completed temporary salvage measures
and decided that to keep the 505 afloat they would have to
tow it. A cheer went up from the ships as the slack in the
cable tightened and the submarine rose to the surface as the
Guadalcanal picked up speed.
The task force first headed for Dakar,
NW Africa until their orders were changed. Since Dakar was
full of German spies and the U-boat's capture was to remain
a secret, the task force was redirected to Port Royal Bay
in Bermuda.
During
the towing operation, it became necessary to recharge the
submarine's batteries. Mechanics disconnect the diesels
from the motor so that the propellers could turn the shaft
as the boat was towed. They traced the wiring in the electrical
system and set the switches for battery recharge. They were
then able to use the U-505's own pumps to remove remaining
water bringing the boat to full surface trim.
After
three days, the fleet tug, Abnaki, arrive to relieve the
Guadalcanal of the towing job. The tanker, Kennebec supplied
the carrier with much needed fuel so it could complete the
journey. On June 19, the task force brought the 505 into
Port Royal Bay, Bermuda. While there, Naval Intelligence
found technical and operational data "which played
an important part in clinching the battle of the Atlantic
and thus shortening the war by some months". Among
the important findings was a new type of torpedo, but most
important was the German radio code used to direct u-boat
operations.
For
several months after the war, the U-505 made a tour of Eastern
port cities and then tied up at the Navy Yard at Portsmouth,
New Hampshire to await final disposition. Since Captain
Gallery was from Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry
in Chicago saved it from being either scrapped or sunk at
sea. The museum took great pains to have it transferred
to a permanent resting place on its grounds "as a permanent
memorial to those Americans who have thus lost their lives
at sea"
The
entire crew of Task Force 22.3 received the Presidential
Unit Citation. The words of Captain Gallery during the award
ceremonies sums up the capture:
I
consider this capture proof for posterity of the versatility
and courage of the present day American sailor. All ships
in this task group were less than a year old and 80% of
the officers and men were serving in their first seagoing
ships. All hands did their stuff like veteran sea dogs and
airplane mechs became sub experts in a hurry when the chips
were down. I'm sure Paul Jones and his men would have been
proud of these lads and of the day's work when the US colors
went up on the U-505. |
