The Nazi submarine that became a top-secret American trophy and a Chicago museum icon.
In short: Captured by the US Navy in 1944, U-505 was a high-stakes intelligence prize. To protect the secret of Enigma code-breaking, the crew was held in total isolation for years. Today, this rare Type IXC submarine serves as a permanent memorial in Chicago, restored to its original wartime condition.
The German submarine U-505 was a Type IXC vessel commissioned in 1941. Throughout her service, she endured a difficult history, including six botched patrols and the suicide of her commander, Peter Zschech, in 1943—the only known instance of a submariner taking his own life underwater due to the stress of depth-charge attacks. By June 1944, the boat was operating off the coast of West Africa when it was intercepted by Task Group 22.3, led by Captain Daniel V. Gallery.
The capture was a massive gamble. Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations, was initially furious, fearing the boarding would reveal to Germany that the Allies had cracked the Enigma code, potentially jeopardizing the upcoming Normandy landings. To maintain the ruse that the submarine had been sunk, the US Navy renamed her USS Nemo, kept the crew in secret isolation at Camp Ruston until 1947, and hid the vessel in Bermuda for intensive study. The boarding party, led by Lieutenant Albert David, successfully secured codebooks and charts, an act that earned David the Medal of Honor.
Following the war, the Navy planned to use the submarine as target practice. However, in 1954, the vessel was donated to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. The restoration was a collaborative effort; original German manufacturers even provided replacement parts for free, wishing for the boat to stand as a credit to their engineering. After decades of exposure, the submarine was moved to a climate-controlled underground facility in 2004 and underwent further refurbishment in 2019 to ensure her preservation as a war memorial.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: German submarine U-505
- Also: U-505
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