July 30, 2025 - Driving from Alaska to Maryland
U-505, Griffin Museum, Chicago
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| After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1981, Frank and I drove to Frank's hometown of Chicago. One of the things we did was tour the U-505 at the Museum of Science and Industry. 44 years later, it was time to do it again! |
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The capture of German submarine U-505 on June 4, 1944, was one of the most dramatic naval actions of World War II — and the first time the U.S. Navy had captured an enemy warship on the high seas since the War of 1812.
The story combines luck, courage, and split-second decision-making.
A U.S. Navy hunter-killer group centered around the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60) was patrolling off the west coast of Africa. The group was commanded by Captain Daniel V. Gallery, an aggressive and imaginative officer who had actually trained his crews beforehand on the possibility of capturing a U-boat intact — something many thought impossible. The task group included destroyer escorts: USS Chatelain (DE-149), USS Pillsbury (DE-133), USS Jenks (DE-665), USS Flaherty (DE-135).
On the morning of June 4, sonar operators aboard the Chatelain detected a submerged submarine: U-505. The destroyer escort attacked immediately with depth charges and “hedgehog” anti-submarine mortars. The explosions badly shook the submarine. Inside U-505, equipment failed, lights went out, leaks developed, and the commander, Harald Lange, was severely wounded. Believing the submarine was doomed, the German crew surfaced suddenly.
As the U-boat burst from the water, American ships opened fire with deck guns and machine guns while aircraft from Guadalcanal strafed the deck to keep the Germans from manning their own guns. The German crew quickly abandoned the submarine, expecting it to sink. Standard procedure required them to open seacocks and set demolition charges to destroy secret equipment and codebooks. But in the chaos, they failed to complete the scuttling properly.
A tiny boarding team from the Pillsbury raced toward the unmanned submarine in a small boat. Leading the party was Lieutenant Albert David. This was extraordinarily dangerous: The U-boat could explode at any moment. It might suddenly sink beneath them. Hidden German sailors could still be aboard. The Americans climbed inside anyway.
They found flooding underway and quickly began closing valves and disconnecting demolition charges. Others searched frantically for intelligence materials. What they discovered was a gold mine: Current German Enigma codebooks. Cipher settings. Operating manuals. Charts and communications procedures. These materials became enormously valuable to Allied cryptanalysts already working to break German naval codes.
American sailors worked for hours to stop flooding while the submarine was taken under tow. At one point the towline snapped, and there were fears the submarine would sink. But the salvage effort succeeded. Eventually, U-505 was secretly transported to Bermuda.
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| Our first look at the U-505. Impressive! |
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| Map showing how Task Group 22.3 hunted the U-505. Task Group 22.3 had an escort carrier, a squadron of Avengers and Wildcats, and four destroyer escorts. Once a hunter-skiller group got onto a U-boat's trail, it was almost impossible for the U-boat to escape. |
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| Looking up at the U-boat's conning tower. |
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| We're excited about going aboard the U-505! |
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P17
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Our tour guide at left. She was very knowledgeable and was able to answer every question.
The U-505 is very popular; we had timed entry tickets.
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Bunks in the forward torpedo room. There were more crewmen than bunks, so the crew would have to "hot" bunk it. Not a problem, since the crew didn't have much time to sleep; they were either working or standing watch.
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| Officer's bunks. |
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| The Captain's cabin. Not really a cabin but a drape pulled across a bend in the main (and only) passageway. |
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| Controls to steer the U-boat |
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Gauges.
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| More gauges. |
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The main, and probably only, exit from the U-boat.
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| The chart table, where they did the navigation. |
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| Walking between the diesel engines that powered the U-boat. |
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| Engine gauges. |
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The head. Serving every man on the boat.
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| Bunks in the stern. |
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| We emerge from the U-boat near the stern. I thought it interesting how the prop shaft runs outside the hull. |
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| Looking at where the prop shaft emerges from the hull. |
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The U-boat's steel surface is pitted from the many years it sat outside the museum.
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| A good look at the aft torpedo tubes, rudders, and propellers. |
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The U-505's starboard side.
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| A torpedo is shot out of one of the bow torpedo tube. |
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| Looking bow-on the U-505. |
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| Model of the U.S.S. Guadalcanal (CVE-60), the Casablanca-class escort carrier and flagship of Task Group 22.3, a hunter-killer group which captured the German submarine U-505 on June 4, 1944. |
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A model of the U-505 in the museum.
During the war, the US Navy kept U-505 at the US Naval Operating Base in Bermuda, and Navy intelligence officers and engineers studied her intensively.
In June 1945, she visited New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore to help promote E War Bond sales.
The Navy had no further use for U-505 after the war. She was moored derelict at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, so the Navy decided to use her as a target for gunnery and torpedo practice until she sank.
In 1946, Rear Admiral Gallery, who opposed the Navy's plans for U-505, told his brother Father John Gallery about this plan, and Father John contacted President Lenox Lohr of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry to see if they would be interested in her. The museum already planned to display a submarine, and the acquisition of U-505 seemed ideal. The US government donated the submarine to the museum in September 1954, and Chicago residents raised $250,000 for transporting and installing the boat. Coast Guard tugboats and cutters towed the boat through the Great Lakes, making a stop in Detroit, Michigan, in July 1954. The museum dedicated her on 25 September 1954 as a permanent exhibit and a war memorial to all the sailors who died in the first and second Atlantic campaigns.
U-505 was displayed outside the museum and that is where Frank and I toured her in 1981.
By 2004, the U-boat's exterior had suffered noticeable damage from the weather, so the museum moved her to a new climate-controlled location (under ground next to the museum) in April 2004. They restored and reopened her to the public on 5 June 2005.
In 2019 the Museum refurbished the submarine, restoring her to be closer to her original condition. Also, a special exhibit with many additional artifacts from the submarine was opened in the general-admission section of the museum.
OOO
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U-505 outdoors as she was circa 1956. Photo from Wikipedia.
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The bottom end of the U-505's periscope.
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A piston and piston rod from one of the U-505s diesel engines.
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| Kids having fun operating a U-505 simulator. |
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| One of the torpedoes carried by U-505. |
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| Cut-away showing the inner workings of the German torpedo. |
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The two opposing commanders: Captain Daniel V. Gallery, USN, Commanding Officer of Task Group 22.3. and Oberleutenant Harald Lange, Captain of the U-505.
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Names of the officers and men of the American forces of Task Group 22.3: U.S.S. Guadalcanal (CVE-60), Composite Squadron Eight (VC-8), U.S.S. Pillsbury (DE-133), U.S.S. Chatelain (DE-149), U.S.S. Pope (DE-134), U.S.S. Jenks (DE-665).
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