I got an e-mail titled “fascinating WW2 submarine story” with an attached image of a submarine with both an American and a Nazi flag flying over the conn tower perch. In my mind, all I could think was, “OK, this is a first…what’s the story?”.
Back in June of 1944, a sonar operator on the escort ship USS Chatelain received a report of a sub (German U-Boat) firing on it’s convoy (Task Group/TG 22.3). Sure enough, the sonar confirmed the report with a “ping”.
That little “ping” begins this little known historic story which marks a first in U.S. Naval history and answers the question of the 2 flags over a submarine named U-505.
“Ping”
From that sound the USS Chatelain was able to locate the submerged sub’s position; allowing the crew to commence its attack.
As the saying goes, “the hunter became the hunted”.
Back to the e-mail:
Brad Smithfield wrote an article in a small but interesting web-site called “The Vintage News”, I’ll let him take it from here:
“The U-505 was being obliterated. The (German) commander…believed there was no way for the submarine to survive the attack, so he commanded that his crew abandon the U-Boat.”
“But when his order was given, his soldiers didn’t follow proper protocol and destroy the vessel as they abandoned it. Some of the valves were left open, but it wasn’t enough for the submarine to sink, forever leaving the technology and intelligence at the bottom of the ocean.”
“The engines were still operating and were left running. The final verdict is that the Nazi crew panicked and didn’t scuttle the ship in the right fashion.
The final result was that the U-boat began circling at 8 miles per hour.”
“The commander of Chatelain thought the U-boat was going down with a fight and that the Nazi crew was prepared to sink to the bottom of the ocean. He ordered a torpedo to be shot at the U-boat, but it missed the abandoned U-505.
After the first torpedo had missed, the U-Boat hunters realized that the submarine had been abandoned. The U.S. Navy began picking up the German survivors.”
“A boarding party from the Pillsbury went on a mission to keep the submarine from sinking and to secure intelligence the United States could use against the Axis.
The crew that infiltrated U-505 stopped the leaks and kept the submarine afloat. They also stopped the engines and got to work at securing the intelligence.”
“The boarding party uncovered charts, extracted hard to find code books, and disarmed the demolition charges that had been planted by the fleeing Germans.”
“After being towed for three days, the submarine was transferred over to the tug boat Abnaki before it ultimately arrived at Port Royal Bay after having traveled 1,700 nautical miles.”
“The delivery marked the first capture for the U.S. Navy in over a century. The last capture for the Navy previously occurred during the War of 1812.”
This historic story that started with a “ping” along with the actual U-505 is now on display at Chicago’s Museum of Science+Industry. Thank you Brad for sending in a piece of history for us all to learn about the feat of USS Chatelain and our brave Sails from WW2.
-Rick
These rare color images of U-505 were taken by Richard Cosby as the boat was towed into the Chicago river in June 1954, just prior to the boat’s installment at the Museum of Science and Industry.
(Photographs courtesy of Richard Cosby)
Link to Museum exhibit HERE.
Also, check-out more cool galleries on “The Vintage News”.
