On June 4, 1944, U.S. naval forces seize one of Adolf Hitler’s deadly submarines, the U-505, as it makes its way home after patrolling the Gold Coast of Africa The German submarine was the first enemy warship captured on the high seas by the U.S. Navy since the War of 1812.
If ever there was a submarine laden with bad luck, it was Germany’s U-505.
Despite sinking eight Allied ships early in the war, the German WW II U-boat suffered repeated damage while on a number of patrols and was further marred by the suicide of its second commanding officer while on board.
The submarine had been tracked by Allied intelligence via radio waves. It was spotted during a sonar sweep 150 miles from the coast of Rio De Oro, Africa by a “hunter-killer” task group commanded by U.S. Navy Capt. Daniel V. Gallery. His command included the USS Chatelain, USS Guadalcanal, USS Flaherty, USS Jenks, USS Pillsbury and USS Pope.
After the surrendered German survivors were picked up from the U-boat (all but one lived), Lt. (junior grade) Albert L. David led a group of nine men down the hatch of the U-505, salvaging the U-boat and recovering invaluable code books and papers that were used by Allied forces to help in code-breaking.
David was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. The 58 captured Germans, deemed prisoners of war, were sent to a POW camp in Ruston, Louisiana, while the U-505 was towed 2,500 nautical miles to Bermuda.
The top-secret capture of the submarine was not made public until after Germany’s May 7, 1945 surrender, and the U-505 was eventually part of a military fundraising tour. On September 25, 1954, the submarine was named a war memorial and, in 1989, it received National Historic Landmark designation.
