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U-505 submarine
 

A copy of this U-505 submarine is on permanent display at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. The Naval War College is the staff college and "Home of Thought" for the United States Navy. It educates and develops leaders, supports defining the future Navy and associated roles and missions. The U.S. Department of Defense operates the National War College.

U-505 is a German German Type IXC submarine. In her career with the Kriegsmarine during World War II, she had the distinction of being the "most heavily damaged U-boat to successfully return to port" in World War II. She was the very first U-boat that was captured by Allied forces during World War II. The capture of U-505 played a significant role in the battle against the deadly German submarines in the Atlantic.

u-505

On 4 June 1944, a hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captured the submarine U-505. This event marked the first time a U.S. Navy vessel had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the nineteenth century. The action took place in the Atlantic Ocean, about 150 miles off the coast of Rio De Oro, Africa.

In March 1944, antisubmarine Task Group 22.3 was formed with the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal as the flagship. On this cruise, Gallery pioneered 24-hour flight operations from escort carriers in order to hunt U-boats, which had begun remaining submerged during daylight to avoid carrier-based aircraft.

On April 9, the task group sank U-515, commanded by U-boat ace Kapitänleutnant Werner Henke. After prolonged depth charging, the submarine was forced to the surface among the attacking ships and the surviving crew abandoned ship. The deserted U-515 was hammered by rockets and gunfire before she finally sank. Gallery saw that this would have been a perfect opportunity to capture the vessel. He decided to be ready the next time such an opportunity presented itself. The next night, aircraft from the task group caught U-68 on the surface, in broad moonlight, and sank her with one survivor, a lookout caught on-deck when the U-boat crash dived.

On the next cruise, Gallery took the unusual step of forming boarding parties, in case of another chance to capture a U-boat arose. On June 4, 1944, the task group crossed paths with U-505 off the coast of Africa. U-505 was spotted running on the surface by two Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters from Guadalcanal. Her captain, Oberleutnant Harald Lange, dived the boat to avoid the fighters. But they could see the submerged submarine and vectored destroyers onto her track. The experienced antisubmarine warfare team laid down patterns of depth charges that shook U-505 up badly, popping relief valves and breaking gaskets, resulting in water sprays in her engine room. Based on reports from the engine room, the captain believed his boat to be heavily damaged and ordered the crew to abandon ship, which was done so hastily that full scuttling measures were not completed.

Gallery ordered the boarding party from the destroyer escort USS Pillsbury to board the foundering submarine. The destroyers used their antiaircraft guns to chase the Germans off the vessel. Once on board, the party replaced the cover of the sea strainer, thus keeping the U-boat from sinking immediately. The boarders retrieved the submarine's Enigma coding machine and code books. (This was a primary goal of the mission because it would enable the codebreakers in Tenth Fleet to read German signals immediately, without having to break the codes). U-505 became the first foreign man-of-war captured in battle on the high seas by the U.S. Navy since the War of 1812.

This incident was the last time that the order "Away All Boarders!" was given by a U.S. Navy captain. Lieutenant Albert David, who led the boarding party, received the Medal of Honor for his courage in boarding a foundering submarine that presumably had scuttling charges set to explode – the only Medal of Honor awarded in the Atlantic Fleet during World War II. For capturing U-505, Task Group 22.3 was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and Gallery received the Distinguished Service Medal.

In addition to vectoring in hunter-killer task groups on those locations, these coordinates enabled Allied convoy commanders to route shipping away from known U-boat locations, greatly inhibiting the effectiveness of German submarine patrols.

The 
U-505 affair led to some concern among the Allied leadership. This was largely due to worries that if the Germans were to know that the sub had been captured they would become aware that the Allies had broken the Enigma codes. So great was this concern that Admiral Ernest J. King, the US Chief of Naval Operations, briefly considered court-martialing Captain Gallery. To protect this secret, the prisoners from U-505 were kept at a separate prison camp in Louisiana and the Germans informed that they had been killed in battle. Additionally, U-505 was repainted to look like an American submarine and redesignated USS Nemo.

In 1954, U-505 was designated a National Historic Landmark and donated to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois. She is now one of the only four U-boats that survive as museum ships, and just one of two Type IXCs still in existence with U-534. ModelShipMaster.com is proud to have supplied many models to the Museum of Science and Industry for permanent exhibition.

u-505 model

This primarily wood U-505 U-boat model is 30.5" long  x 9" tall x 4" wide $2,750 Shipping and insurance in the contiguous USA included. Other countries: $300 flat rate. This model is in stock and can be shipped within five business day

We also build this model at 42" long (1/72 scale) $3,370

The prices above are for models without rust marks. It is only $400 extra for our rust marks. Click here for a sample.

Learn more about the U-505 here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-505