German submarine U-505

U-505 was assigned as an operational boat to the 2nd U-boat Flotilla on 1 February 1942, following training exercises with the 4th U-boat Flotilla from 26 August 1941 to 31 January 1942. She began her first patrol from Kiel on 19 January while still formally undergoing training. For 16 days, she circumnavigated the British Isles and docked at Lorient in occupied France on 3 February. She engaged no enemy vessels and was not attacked.[7]

U-505 left Lorient on 11 February 1942 on her second patrol. In 86 days, she traveled to the west coast of Africa where she sank her first vessels. In less than one month, U-505 sank four ships: the British Benmohr, the Norwegian Sydhav, the American West Irmo, and the Dutch Alphacca for a total of 25,041 GRT. On 18 April, U-505 was attacked by an Allied aircraft in the mid-Atlantic but suffered little damage.[8]

U-505 began her third patrol on 7 June 1942, after leaving her home port of Lorient. She sank the American ships Sea Thrush and Thomas McKean and the Colombian Urious in the Caribbean Sea.[9] Urious was a sailing ship belonging to a Colombian diplomat, so its sinking gave Colombia political grounds to declare war on Germany.[10] U-505 then returned to Lorient on 25 August after 80 days on patrol without being attacked.[11]

U-505's fourth patrol sent her to the northern coast of South America. She left Lorient on 4 October and sank the British vessel Ocean Justice off the coast of Venezuela on 7 November. On 10 November near Trinidad, U-505 was surprised on the surface by a Lockheed Hudson maritime patrol aircraft from No. 53 Squadron, Royal Air Force, which made a low-level attack, landing a 250 lb (110 kg) bomb directly on the deck from just above water level. The explosion killed one watch officer and wounded another in the conning tower. It also tore the anti-aircraft gun off its mounting and severely damaged the ship's pressure hull. The aircraft was hit by fragmentation from the bomb's explosion and crashed into the ocean near U-505, killing RAAF pilot Flight Sergeant Ronald Sillcock and his entire crew. With the pumps inoperative and water flooding the engine room in several places, Kptlt. Zschech ordered the crew to abandon ship, but the technical staff (led by Chief Petty Officer Otto Fricke) insisted on trying to save her. The vessel was made water-tight after almost two weeks of repair work. After sending the wounded watch officer to the supply submarine ("milk cow") U-462, U-505 limped back to Lorient on reduced power.[12]

After six months in Lorient for repairs, U-505 started her fifth patrol. She left Lorient on 1 July 1943 and returned after 13 days, after an attack by three British destroyers that had stalked her for over 30 hours. While U-505 was not badly damaged in this encounter, she had to return to France for repairs.[13] U-505's next four patrols were all aborted after only a few days at sea, due to equipment failure and sabotage by French dockworkers working for the Resistance.[14][15][16][17] Faults found included sabotaged electrical and radar equipment, a hole deliberately drilled in a diesel fuel tank, and faulty welds on parts repaired by French workers. This happened so many times that she became the butt of jokes throughout the base at Lorient. Upon returning from one botched patrol her crew found a sign painted in the docking area reading: "U-505's Hunting Ground". At a time when many U-boats were being sunk, U-505's commander, Kptlt. Zschech, overheard another U-boat commander joke, "There is one commander who will always come back ... Zschech."[18]

After ten months in Lorient, U-505 departed for her tenth Atlantic patrol, seeking to break her run of bad luck and bad morale. British destroyers spotted her east of the Azores on 24 October 1943, not long after crossing the Bay of Biscay, and she was forced to submerge and endure a severe depth-charge attack. Zschech committed suicide in the submarine's control room, shooting himself in the head in front of his crew. First watch officer Paul Meyer took command and returned the boat to port with minimal damage. Meyer was "absolved from all blame" by the Kriegsmarine for the incident.[19][20] Zschech is recorded as the only submariner during the war to commit suicide underwater in response to the stress of a prolonged depth charging.[20]

Zschech was replaced as commander by Oblt.z.S. Harald Lange. U-505's eleventh patrol began on Christmas Day 1943. She again returned early to Lorient on 2 January 1944, after she rescued thirty-three crew members from the German torpedo boat T25, sunk on 28 December by British cruisers in the Bay of Biscay.[21]

U-505 took part in wolfpack Hela from 28 December 1943 to 1 January 1944.

The Allies had learned from decrypted German messages that U-boats were operating near Cape Verde, but not their exact locations.[22][23] The US Navy dispatched Task Group 22.3 to the area, a "Hunter-Killer" group commanded by Captain Daniel V. Gallery. TG 22.3 consisted of escort aircraft carrier Guadalcanal and destroyer escorts under Commander Frederick S. Hall: Pillsbury, Pope, Flaherty, Chatelain, and Jenks.[24] The group sailed from Norfolk, Virginia on 15 May 1944 and began searching for U-boats in the area in late May, using high-frequency direction-finding fixes ("Huff-Duff") and air and surface reconnaissance.

At 11:09 on 4 June 1944, TG 22.3 made sonar (ASDIC) contact with U-505 at 21°30′N 19°20′W, about 150 nmi (280 km; 170 mi) off the coast of Río de Oro,[22] only 800 yards (700 m) from Chatelain's starboard bow. The escorts immediately moved towards the contact, while Guadalcanal moved away at top speed and launched a Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter to join another Wildcat and a General Motors TBM Avenger which were already airborne.[25]

Chatelain was so close to U-505 that depth charges would not sink fast enough to intercept the U-boat, so she fired Hedgehog mortars before passing the submarine and turning to make a follow-up attack with depth charges.[22] One of the aircraft sighted U-505 and fired into the water to mark the position while Chatelain dropped depth charges. Immediately after the detonation of the charges, a large oil slick spread on the water and the fighter pilot radioed: "You struck oil! Sub is surfacing!"[26] Less than seven minutes after Chatelain's first attack began, the badly damaged submarine surfaced less than 600 metres (700 yd) away.[25] Chatelain immediately opened fire on it with all available weapons, joined by other ships of the task force and the two Wildcats.[22]

Lange believed U-505 to be seriously damaged and ordered his crew to abandon ship. They obeyed the order promptly, but they did not scuttle the boat; they opened some valves but left the engines running.[22] The rudder had been damaged by depth charges, so the submarine circled clockwise at approximately 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph). The commanding officer of Chatelain saw the submarine turning toward his ship and thought that she was about to attack, so he ordered a single torpedo to be fired at it; the torpedo missed, passing ahead of the abandoned U-505.[22]

USS Guadalcanal lying alongside the captured U-505

Chatelain and Jenks collected survivors while an eight-man party from Pillsbury led by Lt. Albert David came alongside the submarine in a boat and entered through the conning tower. They found the body of Signalman First Class Gottfried Fischer on the deck, the only fatality of the combat, and U-505 was deserted. They secured charts and codebooks, closed scuttling valves, and disarmed demolition charges. They stopped the water coming in and the submarine remained afloat, although it was low in the water and down by the stern, and they also stopped her engines.[22] U-boat researcher Derek Waller has written that a German crewman, Ewald Felix, helped foil the scuttling attempt.[27]

Pillsbury attempted to take the submarine in tow but repeatedly collided with her and had to move away with three compartments flooded. A second boarding party from Guadalcanal then rigged a towline from the aircraft carrier to the U-boat.[22] Guadalcanal's chief engineer Commander Earl Trosino joined the salvage party. He disconnected the submarine's diesels from her electric driving motors while leaving them clutched to the propeller shafts. With the U-boat moving under tow by Guadalcanal, the propellers "windmilled" as they passed through the water, turning the shafts and the drive motors. This caused the motors to act as electrical generators charging the batteries. With power from the batteries, U-505's pumps cleared out the water let in by the attempted scuttling, and her air compressors blew out the ballast tanks, bringing her up to full surface trim.[22]

After three days of towing, Guadalcanal transferred U-505 to the fleet tug Abnaki. On 19 June, the submarine entered the Great Sound, site of the United States Navy's Naval Operating Base (as well as the Royal Naval Dockyard, RAF Darrell's Island, and Royal Naval Air Station Bermuda), in Bermuda, after a tow of 1,700 nautical miles (3,150 km; 1,960 mi).[27] The US Navy took 58 prisoners from U-505, three of them wounded. The crew were interned at Camp Ruston, near Ruston, Louisiana.[28]

• German submarine U-110 (1940)
• German submarine U-570, later HMS Graph
• German submarine U-559
• German submarine U-744
• German submarine U-1024

• SM U-1
• German submarine U-534
• German submarine U-995
• German submarine U-2540

• List of submarine museums
• Playing With the Enemy
• U-571