Medford mail tribune., September 01, 1957, Image 32

m.r. V'-. V "" ''W
Like hounds around fox, ships surround sfriclcen sub. Nervy gobs pile down hatch to close valves. Sub founders as towing begins. Crew breathes easier; sub is secured.
Captured: One
by Jack Glasner
.'
0L
s,
Impossible to take a German
submarine on the high
seas? It was until the Navy
did it In one of the most
daring episodes of World
War II.
J2B
Adm. Gallery, who led operation, stands in conning tower
of German sub, first enemy man-o'-war captured since 1815.
Inset photo shows German crew, now prisoners of war, climb
ing aboard rescue ship after they were pulled from the sea.
Linking slowly as water poured in, her decks raked by
gunfire, the Nazi submarine U-505 was boarded and captured by
American sailors in the waning days of World War II the first
such capture of an enemy man-o'-war since 1815.
The capture gave the Allies the key to the German naval code
and invaluable information on U-boat operations during the invasion
of Europe, when vital supplies had to be kept flowing to the Nor
mandy beachhead.
Boarding and taking enemy vessels was commonplace in the days
of sailing ships, but with airplanes, sonar, radar, and all the
mechanics of modern war, it's unheard of today except, of course,
the capture of the U-505.
Here's how that prize was taken.. In May, 1944, an American
task force consisting of the escort carrier U.S.S. Guadalcanal and
five destroyer escorts steamed out of Norfolk, Va. It was a "hunter
killer" group, specifically designed to search out submarines.
Capt. Daniel V. Gallery, now a rear admiral, commanded the
task force from the Gwdalcanal. He had a plan to capture a sub
if one was forced to the surface, and boarding parties
" ran through drill after drill, waiting for the chance
i in a million to board a U-boat before it sank.
i 15 1 1 About noon on Sunaay, June 4, a destroyer picked
' up a sub on its sound apparatus. The task force
In . closed in with depth charges as fighters went aloft
I i to mark the sub's position with machine-gun fire.
j uwncu uy uie utpui cuarges, me suo lrunucuiiy
! tried to evade the attack.
Listen to the words of one of the German crew:
"Whole series of depth charges exploded with
j their hard, steely, and nerve-killing noise quite
near us. The U-505 went down like a dive bomber.
The lights went out and the steering was out of
control. We went deeper and deeper.
Thank goodness, the air pipes were still in order and we
got to the surface where the planes came over us like a pack of dogs,
firing with their machine guns from all sides while we were trying
to leave the boat. Our commander was wounded, another killed.
But we managed to leave the U-505."
rpHE minute the sub surfaced, Gallery put his capture plan into
A effect. Three destroyer escorts closed in, sweeping the U-505's
decks with small-arms fire while Wildcat fighters overhead poured
in machine-gun fire, trying to force the Germans to flee before they
could destroy their ship.
A nine-man boarding party led by Lt. Albert L. David shoved off
from the destroyer U.S.S. Pillsbury. The sub, its rudder jammed
and motors still running, slowly moved in a circle. The boarding
party reached the sub and found its decks deserted except for one
crewman's body the only fatality of the fight.
Tumbling aboard the sub and down the conning-tower hatch, the
American sailors didn't know how long the sub would stay afloat; she
was already foundering. They had their guns ready in case any
4 Family Weekly, September I. Ui7