November 2009 - Do You Know...

That the only German submarine ever captured at sea was kept hidden in Bermuda?

by Horst Augustinovic

U-505, a long-range German IX-C type submarine operated from Lorient, France, and was based in the South Atlantic and credited with sinking 47,000 tons of allied shipping. In early June 1944, with the help of radio transmission intercepts, U-505 was tracked near the Cape Verde Islands. A US Navy Task Group consisting of the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal and five destroyers operated in the area and was sent to intercept.
On June 4, 1944, the destroyer USS Chatelain reported a sonar contact 800 yards away and immediately covered the area with depth charges. Aboard the U-505, Oberleutnant Harald Lange, the submarine’s commander, attempted to maneuver to safety, however, power was lost and the rudder was jammed to starboard. Captain Lange had no option but to surface and abandon ship. Ordering the U-Boat to be scuttled, Captain Lange and his crew began to abandon the submarine which continued to circle at about seven knots, slowly filling with water.
While the USS Chatelain and USS Jenks were picking up survivors, the USS Pillsbury sent a nine-man boarding party to the submarine. Despite the probability of the U-505 sinking or blowing up at any moment, the boarding party quickly climbed down the hatch and found that the submarine had

A salvage party tries to keep crippled U-505 afloat after its capture.

The U-505 at the Naval Operating Base in Southampton with a
US Navy flying boat landing in the Great Sound.

been deserted. After disconnecting scuttle charges and closing valves, the boarding party managed to retrieve important codebooks and the Enigma machine itself. Only one German sailor was killed during the capture of U-505. The remaining 58 crew members were all rescued from the sea.
It was the first time since the War of 1812 that U.S. forces captured an enemy ship on the high seas. It was also the first time that a German submarine was ever captured at sea.
Because Allied leadership was worried that if the Germans found out that one of their submarines had been captured, they would know that the Allies had broken the Enigma codes. It was therefore decided to tow U-505 to Bermuda. The Task Force turned west and, towed by the fleet tug USS Abnaki, the prize arrived in Bermuda on June 19, 1944. Shrouded in secrecy, U-505 remained in Bermuda until the end of the war. To further protect the secret, the prisoners from U-505 were kept in Bermuda for several weeks and later sent to a prison camp in Louisiana, while the Germans were told that they had all been killed in battle.
After the war, efforts were made to save U-505 as a museum and since 1954 the submarine has been on exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry. She is the only surviving Type IX-C long-range U-Boat in the world.

U-505 hidden in Bermuda next to the fleet tug USS Abnaki.
Photos courtesy of the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry.

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