Posted on 05/24/2005 4:25:20 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Folded in his bunk aboard the U-505 submarine, with temperatures topping 100 degrees, a German sailor recorded his misery:
"For a few days now we have been 'enjoying' the tropical heat. Everybody is perspiring freely,'' he writes. "Even in the bunks it takes only a few minutes until everything is soaked wet. The heat is so unbearable. ...
"Sometimes wish I could shed my skin."
On June 5, the Museum of Science and Industry will open a new $35 million indoor exhibit of its famous World War II U-505 sub, captured by the U.S. Navy in 1944.
But the museum's effort wasn't limited to the physical restoration of the once-rusting German vessel. It takes in the human side, as well.
Curator Keith Gill, 39, spent some seven years, the last four full time, researching the sub's structure, its mission -- and its men. Gill scoured records in Germany and interviewed some of the last of the U-Bootwaffe -- now in their 80s -- who were aboard the vessel when it was captured on June 4, 1944, off the West African coast.
"We understood a lot about the mechanical life of the boat but relatively little about the personal life,'' said Gill, a historian. "We really got some good insights.''
A DIARY BY A GERMAN SAILOR ABOARD THE U-505
A diary was kept by a sailor on the U-505 in 1944, most likely Oberfunkmaat (Signalman First Class) Gottfried Fischer. Some edited excerpts:
March, 1944: It is fourteen days [since] we departed from the base. Throughout the entire period we have seen neither the sky nor the sun. For the past 3 days we have been experiencing rough seas. The crockery is flying all around, and an escape breathing apparatus nearly hit my head.
May 3, 1944: I had my second glimpse of daylight through the periscope since we left base. ... My eyes hurt from the unaccustomed brightness.
May 7, 1944: I stood outside for the very first time on this patrol. I breathed the fresh and humid air of Africa and let the rain wash down my body. What a feast!!
Tough, smelly duty
What emerges is a portrait of a snakebit crew. Some were demoralized by the suicide of an earlier U-505 captain. Many could sense the tide of the war was turning against them. The vessel was sabotaged -- likely by French repairmen -- though the Gestapo insinuated that the crew did it themselves to avoid combat.
"It will be a hard life -- have no illusions about that,'' a German military official told the crew during the boat's commissioning ceremony in August of 1941.
Indeed, onboard, sailors spent long stretches laboring in a fetid environment of dripping pipes, body odor and toilet stench while struggling with maddeningly moody equipment. Power outages would plunge the men into darkness. The food tasted of diesel fuel, and the U-505 doctor's prescription for a sore throat was to tell sailors to "wrap a scarf around it.''
Most of the men were in their 20s, a working-class crew of metalworkers and machinists. Three had spent time in military prisons for offenses such as stealing coffee and going AWOL. Some were battle-scarred: One U-505 vet recalled how, after an earlier air attack, he had seen the head of a British fighter pilot bobbing by the boat. "Floating ... floating ... his blond hair moved by the sea,'' he said.
'Black sheep'
Of the 58 to survive the capture, only a handful of U-505 submariners are still alive, Gill said. "A couple are very helpful; some don't want to talk at all. It's nothing personal, but they don't want to talk.''
Not to outsiders, perhaps, but for years the survivors held reunions -- sometimes apart from other German sea vets because, as sailors of the only captured U-boat, they felt they were looked upon as "black sheep,'' said Gill.
The crew's assessment of themselves was split. "There are those who feel that they, as a crew, didn't do their duty [because] they allowed the boat to be captured. And because their boat was captured, the hundreds of submarines that were sunk [by the Allies] after the capture were directly connected to [the seizing of the U-505]. They feel ashamed, basically.''
The others, including two who will come to Chicago from Germany for a private rededication ceremony with their American counterparts on June 4, believe they "didn't do anything wrong. They're happy they're alive. They're happy with a connection to history,'' said Gill.
Captured, caged below deck
For years, some resented the United States. After being captured "we were picked up by destroyers and brought to the carrier, where [the Americans] locked us in a cage just below the flight deck,'' recalled one. "The heat from the carrier's engines was so terrible that we lost 20 or 30 pounds during those weeks from sweating.''
In violation of the Geneva Conventions, the POWs were hidden in Louisiana and unable to contact their families, who mourned their "deaths,'' said Gill. The Allies needed Germany to think the ship was sunk because code books and devices seized from the U-505 helped intercept German orders.
Three German survivors relocated to the United States after the war, including Hans-Joachim Decker, who worked as a Museum of Science and Industry guide.
The two captains involved in the capture -- American Daniel V. Gallery, a Chicagoan, and Germany's Harald Lange, a merchant seaman who met his wife in New York -- were filmed together by the museum in 1964.
Gallery is seen describing their relationship as "good friends.'' Adds Lange, "Time healed a lot.''
Looking around the boat in the black-and-white archival footage, Lange explains, "On the one hand, you are glad you got off. On the other hand you are reminded of it, again.''
In violation of the Geneva Conventions, the POWs were hidden in Louisiana and unable to contact their families, who mourned their "deaths,'' said Gill. The Allies needed Germany to think the ship was sunk because code books and devices seized from the U-505 helped intercept German orders.'
Uh oh!! Good thing Newsweek didn't get a hold of this one!!!
CHICAGOLAND PING
I knew an old fellow that was a machinist on a Destroyer that took part in the capture of the U-505. Even from his perspective in the engine room it was one of the most exciting events of his life. I dug up an old copy of Morrison's book on the Battle of the Atlantic and gave it to him. He dug out all his old photos, news clippings and unit citations for my troubles. Pretty neat.
That'll be next weeks highlight.
Just wait!
Interesting article - thanks for posting. I was there watching when they hauled the U-505 out of Lake Michigan and across the Outer Drive to set it up beside the Museum (of Science and Industry). It was a really big deal back then.
With the recent memory of the German sub still fresh, I was utterly amazed at the differences in creature comforts between the German boat and a Fleet Sub of the WWII US Navy.
A side note that not many are aware of, during WWII, 42 subs were built in Manitowoc at the Manitowoc Lake Boat shipyard and sailed down Lake Michigan, to the Cal-Sag Canal, to the Illinois River, to the Mississippi at Alton, IL and out to war at New Orleans.
Thank you for the post.
I fondly remember school trips from my small northern Indiana elementary school in the late 50's to the Museum of Science and Industry. My favorite exhibits were the U-505 and looking at the Spitfire and Stuka hanging over the model railroad display in the main entry hall. I'm glad to hear that the U-505 will be properly housed and kept from rusting away.
Daniel V. Gallery wrote a lighthearted book about his time in the military that covered the U-505 event in great detail.
Short little paperback - a small slice military history with a good amount of humor, "Clear the Decks." I recommended it to a friend for a quick read a couple of years ago. I think it was $10 on Amazon.
Glad to see it's back.
However, even US Navy subs of the era still had crewmen sweating like crazy due to the fact they lacked air conditioning systems and also the fact many of them operated in the tropical Pacific. It wasn't until the arrival of nuclear power and modern electrical systems on diesel-electric subs that crews could actually work in a sweat-free environment.
I was there, too! One of many fond memories of time spent with my grand-dad. He was a true southsider, living right on the lake at 73rd and Southshore Drive, and loved all things Chicago. He died several years later in '58.
One can not help but feel sorry for the men cramped in this horrible, frightening, primitive piece of machinery. Enemy or not, they had guts. But you have to see it for yourself to understand.
Forget all the romantic visions of the well-groomed Robert Mitchum or Curt Jurgens whirling around, eyes glued to a periscope. War is hell, and so was das boot.
Leni
I took the tour of U-505 a couple of years ago. The thing that struck me was how cramped it was inside.
Foxhole ping
Sorry if I missed anyone
My recollection is that the allies already possesed the German Navy code books at the time of U-505's capture. And that the capture of U-505 was actually counter productive to the allied cause from an intelligence perspective.
Thanks for the ping.
Good read.
Visted the U-505 many a time while growing up in Chicago.
Thanks for the pig.
ping
Back then I lived in a small downstate (IL) town but spent summers with a cousin on south side (near 138th and Halsted). We used to practically live in the museum. Could never get enough of it, especially the sub and model train exhibit.
Me too. Visited ca. 1964, 1967, and 2003.
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