Coordinates:Built1941ArchitectDeutsche Werft AG, Hamburg, GermanyNRHP reference #Significant datesAdded to NRHP1989Designated NHL1989U-505 is a German built for Germany's during World War II. She was captured by the U.S. Navy on 4 June 1944.In her uniquely unlucky career with the Kriegsmarine, she had the distinction of being the 'most heavily damaged U-boat to successfully return to port' in World War II on her fourth patrol, and the only submarine in which a commanding officer took his own life in combat conditions on her tenth patrol, following six botched patrols. She was one of six U-boats that were captured by Allied forces during World War II, captured on 4 June 1944 by United States Navy Task Group 22.3 (TG 22.3). All but one of U-505 's crew were rescued by the Navy task group. The submarine was towed to Bermuda in secret and her crew were interned at a US prisoner of war camp, where they were denied access to visits. The Navy classified the capture as top secret and prevented the Germans from discovering it.
Her codebooks, and other secret materials found on board helped the Allies to break Germany's top secret codes.In 1954, U-505 was donated to the in Chicago, Illinois. She is now one of four German World War II U-boats that survive as museum ships, and just one of two Type IXCs still in existence with. Marker at the Museum of Science and IndustryThe Navy had no further use for U-505 after the war. Experts had thoroughly examined her in Bermuda, and she was moored derelict at the, so the Navy decided to use her as a target for gunnery and torpedo practice until she sank. In 1946, Rear Admiral Gallery told his brother Father John Gallery about this plan, and Father John contacted President of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) to see if they would be interested in it. The museum already planned to display a submarine, and the acquisition of U-505 seemed ideal. The US government donated the submarine to the museum in September 1954, and Chicago residents raised $250,000 for transporting and installing the boat.
Coast Guard tugs and cutters towed the boat through the Great Lakes, making a stop in in July 1954. The museum dedicated it on 25 September 1954 as a permanent exhibit and a war memorial to all the sailors who lost their lives in the and.Museum ship Nearly every removable part had been stripped from the boat's interior by the time she went to the museum; she was in no condition to serve as an exhibit, so Museum director Lohr asked for replacements from the German manufacturers who had supplied the boat's original components and parts. Admiral Gallery reports in his autobiography Eight Bells and All's Well that every company supplied the requested parts without charge. Most included letters to the effect that the manufacturers wanted her to be a credit to German technology.The Navy had removed the periscope and placed it in a water tank used for research at its in; they demolished that lab in 2003 and found it. The Navy donated it to the museum to be displayed along with the submarine.
By 2004, the U-boat's exterior had suffered noticeable damage from the weather, so the museum moved it to a new climate-controlled location in April 2004. They restored it and reopened it to the public on 5 June 2005.In 2019, the Museum of Science and Industry refurbished the submarine, restoring it to be closer to its original condition. Also, a special exhibit with many additional artifacts from the sub was opened in the general admission section of the museum. Conning tower of U-505, showing the badge of the flotilla to which she belonged. Shell damage received during her capture is visible.In popular culture Captain Gallery recounted the capture of U-505 in his memoir Clear the Decks (1951).
Gary Moore recounts the story of the captured crew in. Hans Goebeler tells the fictionalised story of the boat's patrols and her crew in Steel Boats, Iron Hearts: A U-Boat crewman's life aboard U-505.See also Wartime captured German U-boats., later HMS Graph.Surviving German U-boats.Other.References. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 15 March 2010. ^, p. 193. 23 January 2007.
National Historic Landmarks Program. National Park Service.
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Archived from on 14 October 2007. ^, p. 68. Helgason, Guðmundur. U-Boat Patrols - uboat.net. Retrieved 15 March 2010. Helgason, Guðmundur. U-Boat Patrols - uboat.net.
U Boat For Virtual Sailor 7 Ships Free
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Steel Boat, Iron Hearts: A U-boat Crewman's Life Aboard U-505. Savas Beatie. Helgason, Guðmundur. U-Boat Patrols - uboat.net. Retrieved 15 March 2010.
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Helgason, Guðmundur. U-Boat Patrols - uboat.net. Retrieved 15 March 2010. Helgason, Guðmundur. U-Boat Patrols - uboat.net. Retrieved 15 March 2010.
Helgason, Guðmundur. U-Boat Patrols - uboat.net. Retrieved 15 March 2010. Helgason, Guðmundur. U-Boat Patrols - uboat.net. Retrieved 15 March 2010.
Helgason, Guðmundur. U-Boat Patrols - uboat.net. Retrieved 15 March 2010., p. 203., p. 213.
^ Helgason, Guðmundur. U-Boat Patrols - uboat.net. Retrieved 15 March 2010. Helgason, Guðmundur. U-Boat Patrols - uboat.net. Retrieved 15 March 2010.
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P. 78. ^ Bell, Jonathan (19 June 2019). Retrieved 19 June 2019. Moore, Gary W. Pp. ^ (2000). Enigma: Battle for the Code.
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P. 290. 'Captured Submarine Goes on Exhibition Today to Bond Buyers'. The Evening Star. The Evening Star Newspaper Company. 23 June 1945.
Wise, James E, Jr., Captain (2005). Retrieved 16 November 2012. (1965). Eight Bells and All's Well. Norton & Company.
P. 248. Green, Jack A. (7 February 2003).
Retrieved 12 April 2012. National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 11 June 2008. Johnson, Steve (3 June 2019). Chicago Tribune.
Retrieved 6 June 2019.Bibliography. Foster, Kevin J. (9 July 1988). Retrieved 3 September 2012. (pdf). Retrieved 3 September 2012. (1958).
We Captured a U-Boat. London: The Popular Book Company. Gallery, Daniel V. New York: Warner Books.