U-505 - When the US Navy stole a whole German submarine
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- čas přidán 2. 07. 2024
- Today we take a look at the one of only two surviving Type IX submarines in the world, U-505 in Chicago.
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Pinned post for Q&A :)
in previous Drydocks there has been talk about circumventing the Washington and London Naval Treaties' limitations on smaller warships with Civilian/auxillery craft designed for easy retrofitting into much more capable ships. However, the biggest limitation has always been justifying speed. My question is: what about the Coast Guard? would you be able to disguise a 'totally not fleet destroyer' or other frontline small ship as a Coast Guard cutter of the era?
Within the span of 10 years the IJN went from fighting each other to being on the same side in WW1. Beyond Japan selling Russia back some of its ships? Was there any recorded co-operation between the two navies during WW1 and if so, are there any records of what various personnel thought about now operating alongside their recent enemy?
After the war, the Soviets raised objections because they found out that we had the U-505 that was not listed in the ships list of surrendered German ships to be divided among the Allied parties. The American reply: The U-505 never surrendered! We captured it and we're keeping it!
Drach, could you do a Wednesday video on submarine torpedo operations and equipment? How were the gyros set, the outer pressure doors opened and closed, the launch operation, reloading. Bits and pieces are shown in a few movies, but never the technical parts.
Am unsure, though I'm sure you said it somewhere, of the timeline the channel covers. From ancient floating battle logs to perhaps WWII, Korea era? Will you be expanding as time goes on, as recent history turns into not so recent history, like Vietnam era? et. ?
They didn't steal it. They strategically transferred it to an alternate location. 😎
A fellow man of culture, I see
Also known as S.T.E.A.L.
The Fat Electrician would be so proud
@@nikolaideianov5092
S. Strategic
T. Transfer of
E. Equipment to
A. Alternate
L. Location
Quack Bang - Out
As a native its always fun to see the reaction of people when you tell them there's a U-boat on display in a Chicago museum
I live in the suburbs and I didn’t even know! They need to tell people more about this!
And a ww1 sub in the lake!
@@johnpisciotto7115 I only discovered this a couple years when I read a book about the handful of u-boats allocated as spoils to the United States. Just crazy.
I live in Kansas and have known of the U 505 since my teenage years!
One of two reasons I want to visit Chicago. The other is the Museum of Natual History.
There's more than one sub on the great lakes. People forget how big they really are.
The biggest lake frieghters are longer than QE class of carrier. Heavier when loaded too. Able to carry more iron ore than lots of big WW2 ships weighed. Which is wild when you think about it.
Big missed opportunity here- they should really have named the new museum wing the after the guy who captured the sub: the Gallery gallery.
Nope let's just rename the whole damn thing to appease some guys ego instead. Not a fan of the change at all. You don't give money to be noticed. You do it to preserve the history contained in the museum.
Well, the Navy did one better. They named an anti submarine ship after him and his two brothers. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Gallery
@@lawrencejones1517 if you served on those ships you could put up a painting or two of a Roman galley in the galley and call it the Gallery galley gallery galley.
@@CAP198462 And the portion of the museum that serves food can be called the Gallery Galley
@@marckyle5895 Adm. Galley did write a series of hilarious books about life in the peacetime navy of the 1950s. I believe his first book is titled " All Hands on deck". He is also the first navy Admiral to have a Steel Drum Band as his ship's band.
The World of Warships/Grand Theft Auto crossover you didn't know you needed...
Check out Drach’s video on the RCN. HMCS Oakville fought an epic battle against a Uboat in the Caribbean.
Grand Theft Warship.
😆👍 Nice!
@@waynesworldofsci-tech Ahh yes, those where some smart Germans in that engagement. They saw two pissed off soaking wet Canucks on the bow of their boat, one of whom was naked and wielding a chain, and immediately jumped overboard.
Man, I loved that exhibit when I lived in Chicago! The audio-visual presentation that ends with: "... Loudspeakers blared an order that had not been given on a US Navy warship for more than a century: 'Away all boarding parties! Away all boarding parties!' ..."
Get chills up my spine just thinking about it.
Very cool, but not HMS Cossack cool as some of the Royal Navy boarding party allegedly carried cutlasses when boarding the supply vessel Altmark which served the raider Admiral Graf Spee and carried imprisoned crew from the freighters the Graf Spee had sunk. Must have been disconcerting to the German crew to see boarders approach them brandishing cold steel from times past.
@@roykliffen9674
In the US the Coast Guard likely had more boarding party experience than the USN at that time.
I think it must have said nearly a century since there were certainly boarding parties used during the civil war.
@@mpetersen6100%, that's the coast guard specialty, even today, although obviously not usually against armed resistance like Age of Sail.
Classic! I love it, like I love CAPT Johnnie Walker issuing a command that had not been issued since Horatio Nelson: "General Chase."
Drach, about 50 years ago, I actually met one of the members of the U-505 boarding party at my Grandfather's house in Norfolk VA. Of course I can't remember his name, but he did retire as an Admiral. He indicated that the event made it very easy to get promotions even when others were more deserving in his eyes.
Excellent tour, Drach! My wife is from west Texas, and during the war her grandmother served as a volunteer air spotter in a tiny little town there called Eola. Her grandmothers job was to spot, identify, and log every airplane that flew overhead for the time she served, and for years afterward the family had joked that “no Japanese or German plane ever got passed Mamaw”.
About a decade ago I took my wife to see the U-505 exhibit, and one thing you didn’t mention is that the gallery does a terrific job of explaining the u-boat war for the Americans. My wife was utterly shocked to know that for the first year of the war German u-boats like this Type IX were sinking ships every day right off of Houston, Galveston, Mobile and other Gulf ports. They hadn’t taught in school that for 1942 the Gulf of Mexico was one of the most dangerous places to sail in the world and with the loss of only a single u-boat (I think) in 1942. She never knew the war was that close to her home. Suddenly the work that Grandma volunteered for wasn’t so funny anymore.
Now Mamaw can be seen as a badass. 😅 She must have done good work during the war!
Same thing up here in NJ. There's a sub sunk off the coast in 71 meters of water, less then 100 miles out. Unrestricted submarine warfare wasn't nice. One grandmother was a riveter, the other worked in a munitions plant. Everyone did something. Grandma B canned until the last 10 years of her life, always had a small vegetable garden. She's where I learned about keeping a pantry. There's a lot of WW2 that was hidden from us, and the stories were taken to the grave.
Nice summary and tour. Well done.
We make the same joke about my mother, who stood watch on top of our three story high school! To this day she can identify several different aircraft both American and enemy just from their silhouette as seen from the ground.
@tedfoster6905 as someone that went through the Texas school system, we were taught about the U-boat presence in the gulf of Mexico. We were taught this during Texas History in junior high school and U.S. history in high school.
In a college History class, we were taught about the capture of U-505 and an older lady raised her hand and asked if this was declassified now. The Professor assured her it was and it turned out her husband was on one of the destroyers and told her all about it- after swearing her to utter secrecy. So we got a beautiful second hand account of the operation. When the captured the sub they were overjoyed, they were heroes. The radio messages tried to say what had happened with out saying what happened so it took a while for the higher ups to figure out what had happened, meanwhile they steamed towards the Med. Upon figuring it out there was panic that the Germans might find out if they got anywhere near Gibraltar and they ordered to turn around and head back the way they came. Morale plummeted as the realization set in that they were not ever getting the hero's welcome they had so looked forward to.
"That's ridiculous man, how you steel a whole submarine?"
-Axel Foley, USN
“Maybe it’s enough to get some people on board to inspect it. Call it whatever you want to, a Coast Guard safety inspection” -Jack Ryan, USMC (ret).
@@bartsanders1553 First you stuff some bananas up it's tailpipe...
@@CAP198462 "My name's Axel Foley, Reichstag Submarine Inspector!"
@@CAP198462 nothing of what you are about to see... ever happened.
@@CAP198462
"What's his plan?"
- "His plan?"
"Russians don't take a dump son, without a plan."
An enigma wrapped in a museum
My grandfather was there! Born in 1925 in Philadelphia, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943. He ended up assigned to USS Flaherty as a Fire Controlman. He passed in 2005, but he was always really proud of being a part of the Hunter Killer Task Group that captured U-505. His favorite movie was Das Boot and we would watch it together on many occasions as a kid in the early 90s. My grandmother (his wife) had a brother who was KIA in North Africa in the 1st Inf Div and I remember her hating WWII movies of any kind because it reminded her of her brother. Anyway, I still have my grandfather's U.S. Navy issued gaiters with our last name and "1943" (the year he entered the Navy) stamped on them. He had hundreds of black and white pictures of their task group launching depth charges, Wildcats and Avengers in the air, explosions in the water - all kinds of cool stuff. Cool to see you cover this, Drach since it has a close family connection to me.
It might be a neat video idea for Drach to do one video on interesting picture scans that family members send him - primarily ship-based pictures of course.
I know it is not really 'LOL' written in the top-right corner of that intercepted German message at 1:45, but it made my heart glow to consider the Allied decryption team scribbling various emoticons on their results.
I thought it was a TIE Fighter
When Drach mentioned painting the U-boat, I couldn't help it, but think 'pink?' 😂
@@stevenverhaegen8729 that or yellow. 🤔😉
While "LOL" itself would be quite a stretch, it is entirely possible that there could be internet shorthand on WW2 documents - a lot of early internet shorthand came from morse code shorthand, and it's entirely possible that a telegrapher receiving a message could have written something on the copy.
@@SuzuranMajere
Yes, radio-ham CW laughing is expressed as HI 'didididit didit"
Thanks for keeping the robot voice in the outro. Makes us longtime viewers feel warm and fuzzy. Hope my vote for it way back when helped.
Could you please decode your statement?😊
@@stanmans Done, and I fixed a typo! OG is modern slang for Original Gangster, which is meant to refer to the original group of fans, followers, etc. but I’ve realized I don’t like its origin and will stop using it.
@@PetesGuide 👍👍👍
He Said 5-1(?!) -5!
I visited the 505 some 30 or 40 years ago and when I entered the room where the artifacts were then stored, saw an old man talking to the docents. It turned out that he was a member of the boarding party and lived in the area and had donated his commendations to the museum. One of his buddies was coming for a visit and he was checking out the display before bringing the buddy. He was the guy who put the cover back on the bridge strainer (all the German needed to do was turn 90 degrees to the right and he could have dropped it into the bilge). He told me that the German was living in Florida and they had met. I was very lucky that day and got to shake hands with a tiny bit of history.
As a child I had the opportunity to visit U-505 while visiting my grandparents. She was still outside at this point. They kept the engines in operational condition (they would run them to maintain them). What stood out to me the most was the smell of oil and diesel. I can still remember that smell to this day.
The engine room of the sub absolutely still smells like that. It's so distinct. Phenomenal museum exhibit
Yes it definitely has an oil smell to this day!
Actually the display hall looks and feels like one of the sub pens in, say, La Rochelle. A definite plus. Time to rewatch Das Boot.
You know that U-505 is sharing space with among others, the Pioneer Zephyr trainset, thus lessening that "U-boat pen" feel...
I was thinking the same thing about the museum exhibit; it's good to know I wasn't the only one thinking that way.
My dad worked on the engineering for the new space, and I can confirm that that was something the architects did consider (though intentionally did not exactly copy) in their design.
@@kristoffermangila no its not, that train is in the entrance hall.
I've not toured this boat but I have toured the USS Requin (SS 481) here in Pittsburgh. I was amazed how many things on my boat, built in 1991, looked like this boat built in WW2. The boat smell was identical! I did six years in the nav, and four were on a boat, a fast attack boat out of Groton. My boat's culture was to minimize hot racking, which they did by mounting racks on the same slide/cradle they use to move weapons around. They would then load these and voila, a bunch of extra racks. This was "the good deal", since I had my own rack. Yes... But do you know how gorram loud a test fire of the torpedo system is?! And the queue for chow was also in the torpedo room. So while I'm trying to get 4 or maybe 5 hours of sleep before I stand reactor operator again, I get to instead listen to the inane ramblings of other crew. I slept with earplugs in. Anyways, the picture of the forward torpedo gave me a real "the more things change, the more they stay the same" vibe.
Thanks for another cool video!
"gorram"- 🤣💙
As a lifelong chicago resident, I think I can say that my love of naval history started with visiting the U-505 as a kid. I'm glad you've made a video on it, not enough people realize that we've got a whole submarine hanging out in one of our museums.
@@totkampf8427 As a very young kid I read the family copy of Dan Gallery’s book, originally titled “Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea”, then “U-505”. It is still a great read; he was a good author of many fiction and non-fiction books. That book was the first of many naval history books I read as a youngster and no doubt lead to my joining the USN right out of high school. Of course, my hometown, Evansville, Indiana, was a major LST shipyard during WWII so that may have had something to do with my attraction. GO NAVY! ⚓️🫡
My favorite part of this story is that, when the submarine was transferred to the museum, it had been looted of all possibly useful fixtures for research. The Museum of Science and Industry reached out to the firms that had outfitted the boat for replacement parts. The German firms provided all the parts free of charge 'as the U-505 was a testament to German engineering.'
The admiralty was actually very angry because there was a chance this capture would expose the fact Enigma was broken. The USN had to keep the crew completely in confinement from everybody and everything until the war in Europe was over.
Which is against the Geneva Conventions.
@danreed7889 True, but the Royal Navy and the USN didn't really care .
@@NickJohnCoopnor did the germans
@@danreed7889 you mean "the Checklist"; or the "Suggestion List"?
The British did the same thing with U-110 on 09 May 1941. The sub was detected and located during an attack on convoy OB 318 between Greenland and Iceland; it was attacked by two of the convoy’s escorts and forced to the surface with depth charges. Unfortunately for the Germans, the sub’s crew failed to successfully scuttle the boat before abandoning ship. The British went through the whole ship and collected anything not nailed down, including the Enigma machine and numerous documents from the radio room. The British attempted to tow the U-110 back to Britain, but it sank before reaching Iceland. The 32 crewmen who survived the attack were shipped off to Canada and held in a POW camp in northern Ontario.
As a very young Lt (jg) I was assigned to the LPH-7, the USS Guadalcanal. The wardroom was full of pictures of and awards from the original ship from WWII. Thank you for a superb video. I have always wondered what happened to all the "stuff" we got to look at while having a coffee aboard the ship. Now scrapped, the LPH-7 was a floating memorial, that could fight, of the 1st ship with that name. There was a rumor that the navy was at first very pissed that her Captain captured rather than just sinking the U 505 because we already had the Enigma machine with 4 rotors and the current German codes. The fear was that they might find out that we had captured their most current codes and then change them. As it would be impossible to Court-Martial a Captain for capturing a enemy warship, plus the public nature of such an event, the Navy promoted him and ordered him to STFU about the affair. At least that was the wardroom scuttlebutt.
The greater fear though is if the Germans learned that Enigma was broken, they would tell their Japanese allies that their codes might be broken (it was broken, but the Japanese, like the Germans, didn't knew that).
I think he mentions that in his book about the Can Do Ship.
I saw this sub in 1975. I was surprised at how cramped this sub is. It is something everyone should see.
I, too, saw it outside in the late 60s and remember it cramped as well, and a maze of plumbing running throughout.
Nice job! I visited U-505 in 1966, and it was cool back then. It led me to read Gallery’s book 20 Million Tons Under the Sea, which is one of the most balanced and well written histories of the Battle of the Atlantic. Being Dan Gallery, it is also very funny! Thanks for letting me see U-505 again!
I was fortunate enough to see U-505 in 2019 during a trip to Chicago. My jaw literally dropped when I walked into the exhibit room. It's absolutely massive; you never realize how large submarines can be until you see one up close out of the water.
Grew up within 'field trip' distance, so I'm lucky lucky lucky. Toured it in 1970. We also had the Shed Aquarium, and the Field Museum, which has The Man-eaters of Tsavolions from The Ghost and the Darkness. First time I saw those lions, the hair on the back of my neck stood up as I was looking.
Yep -- I grew up in Peoria, so got to go on three or four field trips touring Chicago's lakefront museums. I've visited the current U-505 exhibit hall with my sons, and it's so much better.
The Field Museum is excellent. Another place I will visit again. Unfortunately as of late a bit more PC than really needs to be in describing the taxidermy. But nevertheless less a great look into our natural world. Unfortunately the Shed Aquarium I did not find near as interesting. I cannot quite put my finger on it. Maybe another trip there would be in order.
A textbook example of how to strategically transfer equipment to alternate locations. USS Nemo
the new Grand Theft Submarine game looks lit
I look at her upper works and shudder thinking about the amount of flow noise she'd make compared to a modern boat.
21:10 “Never meet your heroes.”-Rubbish, and I’m glad your experience has been the same as mine. He was a nuclear physicist. I had his cell phone, home phone, and vacation phone numbers on speed-dial. He used to have Werner on speed-dial. He also used to trigger my imposter syndrome in me by faxing things I wrote for him to addresses you would know without googling.
I’m telling you this because you need to write a book on meeting your heroes. Now, before they’re all six fathoms under.
Toured U-505 a few years ago and loved the exhibit. The story behind the boat’s initial movement onto dry land and then years later to the purpose built underground exhibit hall is a fascinating engineering feat in and of itself.
Might be fun for Grady from his Practical Engineering channel to cover.
I can say that not only did I make it to the U-505 before Drach, I can say I first visited the boat long before Ddach was born. I might have visited it before his parents were born. My first visit was in 1956 and the docent was a former U-boat sailor who emigrated to the US after the war.
A friend of mine's, Uncle ( VADM Wally Massenburg) was chief engineer on the Guadalcanal. He continue the family tradition of specializing in ASW. Wally was a P-3 guy.
Galllery was a real character. He played a minor in the Revolt of Admirals. Formed a flight demonstration team made up of flag officers known as the Grey Eagles flying FH Phantoms. He was also an accomplished author writing several humerous adventures of a fictitious naval officer.as well as "Twenty Millions Ton Under the Sea" about his experiences in the War leading up to the capture.
Drach did you visit the coal mine?.
Brining hand grenades to a submarine boarding party feels a bit like an ultimate "I may not win, but we can all lose"-type move.
Heard this story before, but the extra detail that Drach added made it fresh and well worth the time.
Planning on visiting her in 3 weeks. Chicago is a little over an hour away from me and I have to go there frequently. If anyone wants to visit I recommend leaving your car behind and just taking metra to the museum. Driving in Chicago is a nightmare and every parking location charges you including the museum.
One of many reasons I haven't visited in 30 years... every time I consider it, I remember having to cross 6 lanes of speeding traffic in half a block to reach the only exit I knew led back to the Dan Ryan, and shudder. We'll explore the Metra option next time.
That is the first submarine I was privileged to board. Near my aunts house in the Chicago museum. 10 cents to enter. Did US sub duty on two boats, 623 and 611. 1981 to 1987.
Sonar SSBN/SSN
Happy Independence Day!
U 505 is the first enemy warship captured by the U.S. Navy since the War of 1812.
That's debatable. At least two Spanish warships were captured in the Philippines by the USN during the Spanish-Amercan War. They were the protected cruisers Isla de Cuba and Isla de Luzon.
@@inbreadgoblinBoth those ships were Elswick built protected cruisers. They were both scuttled by the Spanish and later raised by the Americans. Repaired and put into U.S. service being rerated as gun boats. U 505 was actually captured in combat.
I saw the title and TFE’s voice rose unbidden in my mind.
"About to joyride your fking submarine thru the Bermuda triangle"🤣🤣🤣
My grandpa did the metallurgy tests on U-505. Somewhere in the back of my closet I have a chunk of metal from her hull and a journal/worksheet of its properties.
Perhaps you could find the worksheets and send facsimiles to Drach? I'm in manufacturing, so have some interest myself on the materials properties...
I absolutely second @davidg3944 on this: Get that journal scanned and send it to Drach. Heck, it may even be of interest to the museum.
When I visited 50+ years ago, we simply walked through the vessel--no special tickets, no number restrictions. I came away with a link of the anchor chain, but it was purchased! 🤣
31:52 "I made a complete 'pig's ear' of it."
Which, according to 'Phrase Finder', derives from "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."
Or more a case of "I made a "pig's ear" out of a "silk purse".
Alternative meaning
Aussie rhyming slang term: pig’s ear = beer 😂
Back in 1986 I visited this submarine in Chicago. It was one of the high points of a vacation trip as I was absolutely fascinated by being able to tour an enemy sub. Took home a couple books on the whole operation. At that time I knew very little about the Battle of the Atlantic.
Having been born and raised in Chicago the U505 was more a part of the family than a tourist destination.
She really was beginning to deteriorate very rapidly, and the Museum of Science and Industry has done a masterful job of restoration and preservation.
I hope you had a chance to visit the rest of this excellent facility.
Thanks Drach, one of my favorite stories. For anyone who doesn't know Daniel Gallery ended up being a fairly prolific author, writing both non-fiction & fiction.
RADM Daniel Vincent Gallery was an outstanding example of naval story teller. His non-fiction books (including the story of the U-505) and his fiction books are great reads, mostly because of his sense of humour. He told the story of his experiences as naval attache and, later, commander of the Fleet Air Base in Reykjavik when he received letters and documents signed by British officers with sometimes long sets of initialisms after their name. Gallery took to adding the letters DDLM after his signature on documents he sent to his British counterparts. Finally, one of his correspondents asked what the initialism stood for. Gallery replied that it was something like a Knight of the Bath - it meant Dan, Dan, the Lavatory Man.
The command structure in Iceland was somewhat confused. Gallery said that while "no man may serve two masters", serving half a dozen was easier. When one superior told him to do something, he could explain that another -- arguably higher-ranking -- had told to do something else.
I wish I could have gotten the day off that time so I could join my parents when they went to Chicago. Thank you for the autograph, sir.
I first saw U-505 in the '60s. Later, as an adult, I visited again. I was struck at that time that the U-505 still smelled like a submarine. I could close my eyes and be back on board the boat on which I served. It is a distinctive smell that, apparently, is tenacious and eternal.
You are correct that it is an interesting comparison between the Silversides (which was at Navy Pier when I was aboard) and U-505. US submariners definitely enjoyed better conditions, but taking into account the difference in operating theatres and expectations is not unreasonable.
Niggling point, BTW, that is not a bilge strainer. It is an in-line sea strainer in the portion of a pipe run from a hull penetration to a pump or heat exchanger. The cover was removed to allow the ocean contents to enter the people tank freely. This one was the major source of water entering the boat at the time according to the accounts I have read.
I visited U-505 as a child, just after they brought her in from the cold, with my father and grandfather who served in the Navy during the Korean War. Towards the end of the exhibit there was a station where you could make your own dogtags with whatever you wanted on them. My grandpa got me a set of dogtags with my name and date of birth and I still wear them to this day. Thanks Grandpa.
One of my late-USN Serving Grandfathers books was Hunter-Killer: *'Escort Carriers in the Battle of the Atlantic'* and does a great job regaling the tales of Guadalcanal and her little misfits.
As it one of her crew commented on D-Day which was just a few days after:
"Look what Eisenhower had to do to top us!"
Was just there a few weeks ago with the kids! They've done a great job with the exhibit - way better than when my school field trips went there in the 1980's and the U-505 was just outside rusting in the snow.
I first saw U505 as a 5th grader in 1965.
What impressed me was that i was 10, but she was very restricted and imagined how a crew of 40 men cpuld have functioned in such tight quarters for months at a time.
I decided that submarine service was not for me and joined the AF 12 years later.
Thanks, Drach...My first shipboard tour was an epithelial experience.
Hey babe the U505 video finally dropped!
I love taking visitors to this exhibit. Blows my mind every time I walk into the hall.
A crewman of U-505 wrote a memoir of his years serving on the boat entitled Steel Boat Iron Hearts.
I've got that book, a great read
Admiral Gallery was a gifted writer. I highly recommend his books, some of which go into even more detail on the capture of U505.
Every time I move something big and awkward, I remember my home town moved a submarine across Lake Shore Drive.
I’ve been waiting a long time for you to do this video. I grew up north of Chicago and visiting U-505 at MSI (in the early ‘90’s) certainly helped spark my lifelong love affair for military history generally, and naval history specifically.
Didn't know they had acoustic homing torpedoes technology in WW2. I'd like to know more about this in future videos.
Germans had quite fascinating fishes, accounting homing, with a preprogrammed pattern of traject, I do agree, there is a great subject here
G7es i think?
At least for the german one
@@nikolaideianov5092 AKA the GNAT (German Naval Acoustic Torpedo) at the time.
@@nikolaideianov5092 G7e was the standard German electric torpedo, but it came in multiple versions. The homing ones were the G7es(TIV) and G7es(TV).
The acoustic torpedo was a very experimental weapon at the time. Since the theory was the torpedo would home on and explode on/near the propellors, disabling the ship, the warhead was smaller, less BOOM, to give room for the homing gear. It was never much of a success. A hit anywhere else on a ship would do minimal damage. Streaming 'screamers' that produced much sound could spoof the torpedo to head 'that way' instead of to the stern of the ship. Once headed 'that way' and past the screamer, it had little chance to detect anything within its very narrow cone of detection and it would just happily motor along until out of juice. It and the magnetic detonator showed much more promise than was actually achieved.
I've been to that museum and on the Boat at well. It's a great museum! The sub is pretty cozy as Drach implies
Near the end, it shows a gallery with all sorts of aircraft; the commercial aircraft is an L-1011 and they do this thing every 20 or 30 minutes wherein they cycle the flaps and landing gear as if it were taking off or landing. The whole museum is quite interesting.
They also fire off a Tesla coil every hour or so.
It's a pleasure to see the interior of the museum again. I was born and raised in Chicago: my father took me to the museum on his off time. I've spent many hours in the aggregate in U-505 and many days (also aggregated) in the museum overall. I don't live in Illinois anymore, so I haven't been back in over 20 years.
Incidentally, I did get a PhD in engineering instead of becoming a medical doctor like my closest relatives. I guess all that museum time did something.
Dan Gallery was a friend of mine and a fine man with a great sense of humor. My youngest son is named after him.
Who else has toured U-505?
Everytime I visited the Museum of Science and Industry :)
Visiting the Museum of Science and Industry and the U505 was a highlight of my Chicagoland childhood.
Didnt go inside, as that part was closed, but i did walk around. Have toured the Cobia, and that was an experience
Back in 1991, on a trip through the Chicago area. I couldn’t believe how cramped it was on the inside.
I’ve been in the gallery at least 3 times, toured the sub twice
As a kid living in San Diego in the late 50's, early 60's, I had the opportunity to explore about 20 US WWII diesel boats during their calls at San Diego. Very cramped, even for a kid about 10. About 40 years ago I was in Groton and toured the USS Nautilus (SSN-571). Was amazed with the staircase!
Been in the U505 twice....1985 and around 2004....and it still smells like a submarine.
Saw this U-boat in Chicago a couple of years ago. Well worth the time. Interesting effect is that viewing the vessel from the outside, it's immense but once inside it's really tight quarters.
Isn't this the last time a major power took a prize?
nope. they once stole a whole russian helicopter from Khadaffi
Would you count the North Korean seizure of USS Pueblo?
@@asmo1313 air craft don't count.
@@robinmilford2426 that does count. I stand corrected.
@@timesthree5757 Wait North Korea is a "major power"?
I have visited U-505 twice during business trips. I noted that the docents did not mention the fate of 505's second captain.
The horror of being trapped in a submarine that is repeatedly sabotaged by the French does that.
It's about time someone remembered Admiral Dan Gallery.
In the late 1960s I managed to purchase a paperback book authored by Admiral Gallery titled "U-505." The book explained in detail his idea to capture a u-boat and the planning he and his ship's captains did to make it possible. He also gave a complete history of the U-505 from when it was built up to when it was installed in the Chicago museum. He considered the boat to be an unlucky boat, especially because one of their commanders, Kptlt. Zschech, committed suicide during a patrol. I purchased the book because I was lucky to tour the U-505 when I was a teenager in 1967. At that time we could freely walk through the boat, no escort needed.
Avengers were quite large aircraft and escort carriers were rather small carriers. Was there a substantial difficulty in operating them together? Considering the Wildcat was kept in production specifically as a compact CVE friendly fighter, it seems odd.
Which was why most CVEs still carried the F4F as fighter/bombers/scouts. They were very capable yet smaller than the F6F and Avengers.
Catapults help.
@@ph89787 Not so much on landing....
The USN started with Dauntless dive bombers on escort carriers but the Avenger had radar which greatly aided searches for surfaced submarines so Avengers became standard.
There were different types of escort carriers. Of the early designs, the four ships built on fast tanker hulls (Sangamon class) had larger flight decks and hangers and could most easily operate the larger aircraft. The later designs (such as the ship mentioned here) were specifically built with longer flight decks to also allow them to more easily operate the larger aircraft. The Avengers themselves had very clever folding wings to help with storage.
Hey Drach, loved this vid and your appearances at the Big J!
After wanting to go see it for almost 20 years, I finally got to go see U-505 back in May. It completely lived up to my expectations and then some.
Next up on my list is the U-254.... I mean Wilhelm Bauer. Time to save up for a Germany trip!
Growing up in Chicago during the 60’s, a visit to 505 was always a highlight of a trip to Science and Industry. Haven’t visited since she was moved inside.
I visited U-505 scores of times when I was a kid, back when it was still outside. They used to let you just wander around the sub back then. It felt cramped to me when I first saw it as a six year-old. I cannot imagine how it felt for the unfortunate sailors aboard.
Also, if you want to play with an Enigma, there's a bunch of them that you can use at the NSA museum in DC.
23:02- Sadly probably the only law still enforced in Chicago
I have visited this twice first time was when my early teens and it was outside.
Just before the pandemic we took our daughters (the oldest was 11 at the time). The oldest asked if she could touch it, she lit up when I told her we were going abroad. All 4 loved it, despite having little interest in naval history.
I love the new exhibit, it has a sub pen feeling.
There are a few things in World War II that I think are more terrifying than trying to board a damaged U-boat that might be booby trapped. Salute to the few men that boarded this sub.
Went to the Science Museum 2 years ago. 505 and the DC-9 are really cool displays. The DC-9 is a moving display too, the gear and flaps lower and raise every minute or so. Well worth the trip to see it all.
I have been to see the last surviving above water Type VII (U-995) at the German naval memorial near Keil and the Type XXI (U-2540) in Bremerhaven. I can confirm its a very claustrophobic enviroment on a Type VII, it is not an environment i would want to live in for a patrol. I now understand more about the conditions my dad served in on HMS Thrasher.
@steveclarke6257 My name is Steven Clark Kohl.
Drach, Stole is a rather harsh term for what happened. We prefer, borrowed permanently.
Nah, she was salvage! She was abandoned after all! Finders keepers! 😅
We borrowed without the intent of returning it.
... accidentally maliciously.
That be what you call a coerced defection...
We just strategically transferred it to an alternate location.
31:40 Thanks for acknowledging.
I was one of the guys going like "hey Drach, you got something wrong here..."😉
My parents were born and raised in Chicago, and when we'd go back for visits one of the highlights of the trip for me was a visit to the Museum of Science and the U505.
The museum itself, as well as several museums nearby and the grounds in which they are set, were built for the 1892 World's Fair, sometimes called the Columbian Expedition.
That 30 person occupancy warning needs an accompanying "This U-Boat is known to the State of California to cause cancer" warning just to complete the vibe. U-Boat crews certainly hoped they survived long enough for that to be a concern!
What happened to the intro?
Got to tour the U505 when I was in boot camp at Great Lakes in November 1970. At that time they had cut openings at the bow and stern to allow visitors to walk through the boat.
Thank you for this. I could not travel to the USA and I would be uncomfortable in such a small space so you have given me a great understanding of the submarine. I have nothing but admiration for the crews on both sides who worked in them.
I thought u-505 was captured not stolen!!.
Nah. It was strategically transferred to another location without permission.
Potato potahto
As a young teenager in early 1959, I toured the U-505. It was winter with snow falling and very cold inside and out. It was my first time touring inside a submarine. All equipment was label in German. No tour guide to help. I had a great time.
Having been on both U-505 and Silversides myself (Silversides first, U-505 second), when I initially stepped out into the gallery where 505 is, I thought to myself "Wow, this sub is big! I don't remember Silversides being anywhere close to this size!". But once I went inside 505, I realized how much less space there was compared to Silversides. Putting the 505 inside definitely makes her seem like the bigger ship at first glance.
American buccaneers, give it back
We stole it fair and square. Find your own.
Finders keepers get your own U-505
23:00
I'm now imagining Chicago suing the Kriegsmariener for unsafe practices over, not sending men to die in late 1944 Germany, but for exceeding capacity for their own U-Boats.
When Lori was in charge I honestly would not have put it past them😒
Visited U-505 in 1981 at the age of 10. What a great memory! Thank you for the tour!
Sometime around 1956-7 as a 10-ish year old lad we had a school trip to the Museum. I recall that having the opportunity to go inside and walk through the U-505 was the high point of a thoroughly interesting and information packed day. Even at an average size child for that age range I remember thinking how tight the space of a submarine was. Thanks for the memories.
Chicagoland native here, very excited to see this pop up in my feed
Craig's Marina was out of control
Thanks captions for keeping forgotten history alive
Brought back memories. My family toured U-505 in 1978 if I remember right. My dad had served on U.S. fleet subs in the U.S.N.R between WW2 and Korea, so it was interesting to hear the differences between U-505 and the boats he had served on.
Thanks for the tour!
If you have the chance to visit Chicago again, it is worth seeing the U-505 on one day, then driving 3 hrs north to Manitowac Wisconsin to see the USS Cobia, a WWII Gato class U.S. sub. You can even stay overnight on the Cobia. The differences in U.S. and German design philosophy are stark.
Being a life long Chicago resident I remember when the current indoor exhibit opened up. I was a young boy and my mother took me and her dad the week it opened. My grandfather served on a destroyer during the war I was fascinated not only by the u boat itself but also to better understand what my grandfather went through. I still visit the exhibit every couple years its by far my favorite in Chicago - I think I’ve read every bit of text multiple times and this point. I even remember getting the little novelty plastic mold of it from those old coin operated 3d print machines lol
Growing up in Chicago, MSI and the U505 will always be the love of my Hometown.
Not only the U-505 in the Museum of Science and Industry but there is another one out on the bottom of Lake Michigan. One from WWl that was displayed in Chicago as part of a Bond Drive. Later sunk by gunfire from a Naval Reserve training vessel that had formerly been the SS Eastland
I've been visiting this museum since 1973 and have always been fascinated by the exhibits, especially this U-505 german submarine, thanks for covering it!