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U-505
Only
U-boat captured in action during World War II and the first enemy warship
boarded and captured by the U.S. Navy since the War of 1812. The captured
Enigma encryption machine and accompanying documentation in June 1944 greatly
facilitated subsequent Allied decryption efforts for the remainder of the war.
(For more on the breaking of the Enigma, see Decoding Nazi Secrets.)
Her second commanding officer, KL Peter Zschech, committed suicide on
board during a depth-charge attack 24 October 1943.
Type: IX C
Built: Deutsche Werft, Hamburg
Keel laid: 12 June 1940
Launched: 24 May 1941
Commissioned: 26 August 1941
Commanders:
KK Axel-Olaf Loewe, August 1941-September 1942
KL Peter Zschech, September 1942-October 1943
OL Paul Meyer (temporary), October-November 1943
OL Harald Lange, November 1943-June 1944
Fate: Captured at sea 4 June 1944 west of the Azores by U.S. Navy Task Group
22.3, after being forced to the surface by depth-charge attack. Boarding
parties from destroyer USS Pillsbury and later the light aircraft
carrier USS Guadalcanal kept the U-boat afloat, and it was eventually
towed to Bermuda. In 1954, U-505 was awarded to the Chicago Museum of
Science and Industry, where it remains today as the best preserved and most
originally furnished of the four museum U-boats, the others being U-534,
U-995, and U-2540. (For more about U-505, see
Resources.)
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