Inside an "Iron Coffin"

Up in Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry is an incredible exhibit that illustrates a victory of the Allies against the Germans in WW 2.  The war at sea had been raging for over 5 years with German u-boats sinking ship after ship and irreplaceable war materiel and men being lost. The allies fought valiantly but the Germans had an ace up their sleeve in the form of a code machine they called Enigma. Using this machine, the Germans could second guess the allies and have one lone submarine or a 'Wolf pack' of subs waiting to sink convoys and warships.

The Enigma machine was invented shortly after WW 1 and operated by a series of rotors, wheels and lamps to create so many different possibilities as to the messages meaning that only with a code book could one hope to decipher the message.  And so it was that the allies set out to capture or steal an Enigma machine and/or its code books as soon as they could. And this is where the U-505 enters the picture.

U-505 was launched in 1941 and was a type IX-C submarine capable of 20 mph on the surface or 12 mph underwater. She had a range of over 13,000 miles on a surface patrol and was rated to go as deep as 750 feet.  Armed with 22 torpedoes and a 4" deck gun she should have been a formidable fighting machine but she suffered nothing but problems during her short career. 

Her first patrols were successful sinking several allied ships and assisting in the sinking's of other with a 'Wolf pack'. By her 4th patrol though her luck turned for the worse. An RAF bomber dropped explosives on her deck nearly sinking her and only thru strenuous efforts did she manage to limp back into port earning the dubious honor of being the 'Most heavily damaged' boat to ever do so.  Her next five patrols were cut short due to equipment malfunctions and deliberate sabotage by the French dockyard workers. This happened so many times she became a joke to the other u-boat crews and after returning from yet another aborted patrol found a sign that read 'U-505's hunting grounds' at her pier.

On her 10th patrol she had the bad luck to be spotted by British destroyers and had to endure hours of concentrated depth charge attacks and the strain of that combined with the previous humiliations caused the captain, Peter Zschech, to pull his pistol out and commit suicide in front of the crew earning another dubious honor of being the only u-boat whose captain killed himself during an attack.

So it was that on her 12th and final patrol she was found cruising off the coast of Africa by an American task force led by Chicago native Daniel Gallery. Gallery realized that rather than sinking U-505 he might Capture her instead, not only taking a war prize but capturing an Enigma machine and it's updated code books as well. And so it was that on June 4th, 1944 the German submarine became the first enemy vessel captured on the high seas since the War of 1812.

After the war was over U-505 was just a derelict floating next to a pier at the  Portsmouth navy yard in New Hampshire and was slated to be used as a target ship and sunk. When Gallery learned of this he set things in motion for the submarine to be donated to the Museum in his hometown of Chicago as an exhibit and on September 25th, 1954 she was dedicated as a memorial to all who fought and died in the Battle of the Atlantic and in 1989 was designated a National landmark.

Today U-505 is in a specially built underground shelter to protect her hull from the elements and is free to tour with entry to the museum. Recently my helper Lil' Nick took a tour and the following photo's were taken by him.