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The capture of Germany’s U-505 turned a sinking submarine into one of the most extraordinary intelligence prizes of the Battle of the Atlantic. Just two days before D-Day, U.S. Navy Task Group 22.3 forced the damaged U-boat to the surface, then sent a boarding party from USS Pillsbury into a flooding enemy vessel that could have exploded or slipped beneath the waves at any moment.
Captain Daniel V. Gallery had prepared for a chance many officers thought impossible: boarding a German submarine at sea and keeping it afloat long enough to recover documents, equipment, and secrets. Inside the cramped hull, sailors closed flooding valves, searched for intelligence, and fought to save U-505 before the Atlantic reclaimed her. The mission became a daring World War II naval operation, a submarine hunt, and a rare example of combat turning into an intelligence recovery effort.
The story also follows the secrecy that kept the capture hidden until the war was nearly over, and the later recognition of Lieutenant Albert L. David and the men who made the operation work. For anyone interested in WWII history, military history documentaries, Battle of the Atlantic stories, U-boat operations, and documentary narration about naval warfare, this is a gripping account of how preparation and timing changed history. Ideal for listeners searching for World War II stories, naval history, submarine warfare, and historical documentary storytelling.
Captain Daniel V. Gallery had prepared for a chance many officers thought impossible: boarding a German submarine at sea and keeping it afloat long enough to recover documents, equipment, and secrets. Inside the cramped hull, sailors closed flooding valves, searched for intelligence, and fought to save U-505 before the Atlantic reclaimed her. The mission became a daring World War II naval operation, a submarine hunt, and a rare example of combat turning into an intelligence recovery effort.
The story also follows the secrecy that kept the capture hidden until the war was nearly over, and the later recognition of Lieutenant Albert L. David and the men who made the operation work. For anyone interested in WWII history, military history documentaries, Battle of the Atlantic stories, U-boat operations, and documentary narration about naval warfare, this is a gripping account of how preparation and timing changed history. Ideal for listeners searching for World War II stories, naval history, submarine warfare, and historical documentary storytelling.
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LearningTranscript
00:00The battle should already be over.
00:02The German submarine has been forced to the surface in the middle of the Atlantic.
00:06Smoke hangs over the water as her crew abandons ship,
00:09diving into the sea while their vessel slowly begins to die.
00:13For most naval commanders, this is the moment to stand down.
00:17The enemy has been defeated.
00:20Another U-boat has been removed from the Battle of the Atlantic.
00:23But on this morning, the Americans do something almost unthinkable.
00:28Instead of sinking the submarine with gunfire or leaving her to disappear beneath the waves,
00:33a small group of sailors climbs aboard.
00:36They step onto the deck of an enemy warship that is still flooding beneath their feet.
00:40The diesel engines have fallen silent.
00:43Water is pouring into the hull.
00:45Nobody knows how much damage has already been done below deck.
00:49Nobody knows whether demolition charges have been armed.
00:52Nobody knows whether armed German sailors are still hiding somewhere inside the boat.
00:56Every passing minute increases the chance that the submarine will slip beneath the Atlantic,
01:01taking anyone aboard with her.
01:03Yet the boarding party keeps moving.
01:05They force open hatches that moments earlier had belonged to the enemy.
01:09They descend into a maze of narrow steel passageways built for men who had spent weeks beneath the ocean.
01:16The lights are failing.
01:18Compartments are filling with water.
01:20Pipes drip from the overhead.
01:22Every unfamiliar sound raises the same terrifying possibility.
01:27Is the submarine breaking apart?
01:29Or is something far worse waiting below?
01:32There is no time to hesitate.
01:34If the flooding cannot be stopped, everything inside this submarine will vanish forever.
01:38Documents, equipment, machines, evidence, secrets that both sides have fought an entire war to protect.
01:46The men entering U-505 understand that they are no longer fighting to destroy an enemy vessel.
01:53Now they are racing to save one.
01:55What happens over the next few minutes will become one of the most extraordinary episodes of the Battle of the
02:01Atlantic.
02:02It will give the Allies an intelligence prize few believed could ever be taken from Nazi Germany,
02:08while forcing the United States Navy to keep the entire operation hidden until the war itself was nearly over.
02:15But none of that is certain yet.
02:17At this moment, the submarine is still sinking.
02:21The events unfolding aboard U-505 were not simply the result of opportunity.
02:27Months before this dramatic morning in June, 1944,
02:32one American commander had begun thinking about a possibility
02:35that most naval officers considered little more than wishful thinking.
02:39His name was Captain Daniel 5, Gallery.
02:44Gallery commanded Task Group 22.3,
02:48a hunter-killer force built around the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal and several destroyer escorts.
02:55Their mission was straightforward,
02:57locate German submarines before those submarines could threaten Allied shipping,
03:01then hunt them relentlessly across the Atlantic.
03:04By 1944, this type of operation had become one of the Allies' most effective answers to the U-boat campaign.
03:13Escort carriers provided aircraft that could search enormous stretches of ocean,
03:17while fast destroyer escorts moved in quickly once a submarine had been located.
03:22Working together, they denied U-boats the freedom they had once enjoyed
03:26during the darkest years of the Battle of the Atlantic.
03:29Most commanders measured success by one number alone.
03:32How many submarines had been sunk?
03:35Gallery saw another possibility.
03:37Destroying a U-boat removed one enemy from the war.
03:40Capturing one intact could reveal how every remaining U-boat fought.
03:45It was an extraordinary idea, but it came with almost impossible odds.
03:50German submarine crews were thoroughly trained to prevent exactly that outcome.
03:55If a boat could no longer escape,
03:57its crew was expected to destroy it before abandoning ship.
04:00Scuttling procedures were practiced repeatedly.
04:03Valves could be opened to flood the submarine from within.
04:06Sensitive documents were to be destroyed.
04:09Secret equipment was never supposed to fall into enemy hands.
04:13Every officer understood that preserving military secrets
04:16was as important as saving lives.
04:19The chances of reaching a disabled submarine before it sank were already incredibly small.
04:25Reaching it before the crew completed those procedures seemed even less likely.
04:30Many experienced officers believed it simply could not be done.
04:35Gallery disagreed.
04:36He instructed his men to think beyond destruction alone.
04:39If circumstances ever allowed it, they were to be ready for something no.
04:44American naval force had successfully achieved during the war,
04:48boarding an enemy submarine at sea before it disappeared beneath the surface.
04:52It was the kind of plan that depended on countless events unfolding in exactly the right order.
04:57The submarine had to survive the attack.
05:00Its crew had to abandon it before completing every scuttling measure.
05:04The boarding party had to arrive within minutes,
05:06and even then, there was no guarantee the boat could still be saved.
05:10For weeks, the idea remained little more than a possibility discussed within the task group.
05:16Then, on the morning of June 4, 1944,
05:20hundreds of miles off the coast of West Africa,
05:23the impossible opportunity finally appeared on the horizon.
05:27It was the morning of June 4, 1944.
05:32Across the English Channel,
05:33the greatest amphibious invasion in history was only two days away.
05:37Thousands of ships, hundreds of thousands of soldiers,
05:41and an immense flow of supplies were preparing to cross into occupied France.
05:46Every convoy depended on one thing before anything else,
05:50safe passage across the Atlantic.
05:52By the summer of 1944,
05:55the Battle of the Atlantic had already raged for nearly five years.
05:59The balance had shifted in the Allies' favor,
06:01but the German U-boat fleet remained dangerous.
06:04A single submarine could still sink valuable cargo ships,
06:08troop transports,
06:09or tankers carrying the fuel that kept Allied armies moving.
06:12Every U-boat destroyed reduced that threat.
06:15Everyone that escaped could return to hunt again.
06:19That morning,
06:20Task Group 22.3
06:22continued its patrol west of French West Africa.
06:25Captain Daniel Vera Gallery's Hunter Killer Group
06:28had not been assigned to escort a convoy.
06:30Instead, it was searching for the hunters themselves.
06:33The force combined aircraft from the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal
06:38with fast destroyer escorts operating as a coordinated team.
06:43Aircraft could scan enormous stretches of ocean
06:45that no ship could search alone.
06:48When they spotted suspicious signs or detected a submarine,
06:51the escorts closed in quickly,
06:53ready to attack before it disappeared beneath the sea.
06:56The ocean often favored the submarine.
06:59A U-boat could vanish beneath the surface in less than a minute,
07:03turning thousands of square miles of water into a hiding place.
07:07Once submerged,
07:08it became a contest of patience, training, and prediction.
07:12The hunters could not see their opponent.
07:14Instead,
07:15they searched for faint clues beneath the waves,
07:18trying to anticipate every evasive turn before it happened.
07:22On this patrol,
07:23those clues began to align.
07:25The escorts tightened their search patterns.
07:27Contact had been made.
07:28Somewhere below them,
07:30U-505 was attempting to escape.
07:32Her commander,
07:33Oberleutnant Harold Lang,
07:35had little reason to believe this encounter would end differently from countless others.
07:39Dive deeper,
07:40change course,
07:42slip away beneath the ocean before the attackers could close in.
07:45German subrunners had survived difficult situations before,
07:49through discipline,
07:50experience,
07:50and careful maneuvering.
07:51But Task Group 22.3 refused to give the submarine room to breathe.
07:56One attack followed another.
07:58Each forced U-505 to maneuver again.
08:02Each maneuver consumed precious battery power and narrowed the submarine's options.
08:06Instead of breaking contact,
08:09the Americans maintained relentless pressure.
08:11Every change of course was answered.
08:14Every attempt to slip away was met by another attack.
08:17Inside the submarine,
08:19the situation steadily worsened.
08:21Damage accumulated.
08:22Equipment failed.
08:24The crew struggled to keep control while explosions echoed through the surrounding water.
08:29Even when a depth charge failed to strike directly,
08:32the violent shock waves could shake machinery,
08:35damage instruments,
08:36and push men to their limits.
08:38Every passing minute increased the strain on both the submarine
08:41and the sailors trapped inside her steel hull.
08:45Eventually,
08:45the calculations changed.
08:47Remaining underwater no longer offered safety.
08:50It offered only the possibility of dying unseen.
08:53Then,
08:54just after noon,
08:55the Atlantic itself seemed to break apart.
08:58U-505 burst through the surface.
09:01The submarine emerged suddenly into daylight.
09:04Her hull scarred,
09:05her crew stunned,
09:07and American warships already closing around her.
09:10For the men aboard,
09:11surfacing exposed them to enemy guns.
09:14Staying below had become impossible.
09:16But as dangerous as surfacing was,
09:18remaining aboard the crippled submarine would soon prove even more dangerous.
09:23The appearance of U-505 above the waves transformed the battle in an instant.
09:29Moments earlier,
09:30the submarine had been an invisible threat somewhere beneath the Atlantic.
09:34Now,
09:35she lay exposed on the surface,
09:37surrounded by American ships that had spent hours forcing her into exactly this position.
09:43Confusion spread across both sides almost immediately.
09:47German sailors began climbing from the hatches onto the deck.
09:50Some were injured.
09:51Others struggled to understand the full extent of the damage as smoke drifted from the submarine.
09:57Orders had to be shouted over engines, gunfire, and the sound of the sea itself.
10:02The crew knew what years of training demanded.
10:04If the submarine could not escape,
10:06she could not be allowed to fall into enemy hands.
10:10Scuttling procedures began.
10:12Flooding valves were opened.
10:14The intention was simple.
10:15Let the Atlantic finish what the attack had started.
10:19One by one,
10:20German sailors abandoned the submarine and entered the water,
10:23expecting their vessel to sink beneath them.
10:26They had every reason to believe that within minutes,
10:29U-505 would disappear forever,
10:31carrying her secrets to the bottom of the ocean.
10:35But something unexpected happened.
10:36The submarine did not sink.
10:39Although damaged in taking on water,
10:41she continued drifting across the surface.
10:44Her engines had stopped.
10:46Her controls no longer responded properly.
10:49Without a crew to guide her,
10:50the boat circled aimlessly as seawater continued pouring into the hull.
10:54American destroyer escorts remained close enough to finish the job at any moment.
10:59A few more shells.
11:00Another attack.
11:01The battle could end exactly as hundreds of anti-submarine actions had ended before.
11:07Instead,
11:08Captain Daniel V. Gallery made a decision that would define both his career and this operation.
11:13He ordered his ships to hold their fire.
11:16It was an extraordinary command.
11:18Every minute of hesitation gave the damaged submarine more time to flood.
11:22Every minute also carried risks that no one could fully measure.
11:26No one knew whether the flooding had already reached a point beyond saving.
11:30No one knew whether demolition charges had been activated somewhere below deck.
11:34No one knew whether armed German sailors still remained inside the submarine.
11:39No one knew whether live torpedoes, damaged batteries, or other hazards could turn the entire vessel
11:45into a deadly trap for anyone who boarded her.
11:49Gallery understood all of those dangers.
11:51He also understood the opportunity drifting before him.
11:54An intact German submarine represented something almost beyond calculation.
12:00Documents could reveal operational procedures.
12:02Equipment could answer technical questions.
12:05The submarine herself could become evidence, allowing Allied experts to examine the design,
12:10strengths, and weaknesses of one of Germany's most important naval weapons.
12:14But none of that would matter if U-505 slipped beneath the waves first.
12:19There was only one way to find out whether she could still be saved.
12:23Someone would have to board her.
12:25The order went out.
12:26A volunteer boarding party prepared to leave the destroyer escort USS Pillsbury
12:31and cross onto an enemy submarine that everyone believed might sink or explode at any moment.
12:37For those sailors, the battle was only just beginning.
12:41The order was given almost immediately.
12:43A boarding party assembled aboard the destroyer escort USS Pillsbury.
12:48Time had become the enemy.
12:51Every minute the abandoned submarine remained adrift, more seawater found its way inside her hull.
12:57If the flooding reached a critical point, U-505 would sink regardless of what anyone did next.
13:03As the American sailors pulled alongside the drifting submarine,
13:07they faced a challenge unlike anything they had trained for in combat.
13:11The Atlantic was never still.
13:13Both ships rose and fell with the swell,
13:16threatening to throw men into the water between steel hulls weighing thousands of tons.
13:21The first sailors climbed onto the submarine's wet deck,
13:25carefully finding their footing as seawater washed across the steel beneath them.
13:28Around them, the battle had fallen strangely quiet.
13:32German survivors floated in the water awaiting rescue,
13:35while American warships watched from nearby, ready to react if something went wrong.
13:41Everything now depended on the men boarding U-505.
13:45They quickly moved toward the open hatches left behind by the departing crew.
13:49Looking down, they could see only darkness.
13:52One after another, they disappeared below deck.
13:56Inside, the submarine felt completely different from the open sea above.
14:01Narrow passageways stretched through the pressure hull,
14:04lined with unfamiliar valves, gauges, switches, and machinery marked in German.
14:10Every compartment had been designed for a crew that knew the boat by instinct.
14:14To the Americans, it was an unfamiliar maze where every wrong turn cost precious time.
14:20Water was already spreading through parts of the submarine.
14:23The boarding party could hear it before they saw it.
14:26Seawater poured through open flooding valves,
14:29while pumps sat silent after the engines had stopped.
14:32Some compartments were already partially flooded,
14:35while others remained intact for the moment.
14:37No one knew how much longer that would last.
14:40The objective was simple to describe,
14:42but extraordinarily difficult to accomplish.
14:45Find the source of the flooding.
14:47Stop it.
14:47Keep the submarine afloat.
14:49As the sailors divided into small teams,
14:52each man searched as quickly as possible
14:54without overlooking anything that might threaten the mission.
14:57The possibility of hidden demolition charges could not be ignored.
15:01German submarine crews had been trained to deny their vessels to the enemy.
15:05Although the crew had abandoned ship in haste,
15:08no one could assume every scuttling measure had been interrupted.
15:11Every compartment demanded careful attention.
15:14Every hatch opened revealed another unfamiliar space.
15:17Every delay allowed more water to enter the submarine.
15:22Among the officers taking part in the operation
15:24was Lieutenant Albert L. David of USS Pillsbury.
15:28David quickly assumed a leading role inside the submarine,
15:32directing efforts to understand an enemy vessel
15:35that only moments earlier had still been fighting against them.
15:38His calm leadership helped transform a desperate race
15:42into an organized effort to save the boat
15:44before the Atlantic reclaimed it.
15:46Working together,
15:48the boarding party began locating the flooding valves
15:50that had been opened during the scuttling attempt.
15:53One by one,
15:54they closed them wherever they could.
15:56Damage from the earlier attack complicated every decision.
16:00Equipment had shifted under the force of explosions.
16:02Some controls no longer functioned properly.
16:05Others required considerable effort simply to move.
16:10Gradually, the flow of seawater began to slow.
16:13It was not enough simply to stop new flooding.
16:16The submarine still carried thousands of gallons of water
16:18inside her hull,
16:20and without power,
16:21many systems could not operate as intended.
16:24The Americans improvised wherever possible,
16:27checking compartment after compartment
16:29to make certain they had not missed another route
16:31through which the Atlantic continued to invade the vessel.
16:34Outside,
16:35the rest of Task Group 22.3
16:38could do little except wait.
16:40From the decks of the surrounding ships,
16:42sailors watched the damaged submarine drift
16:44while hoping the men below would emerge with good news
16:47rather than in order to abandon ship.
16:50Minute by minute,
16:51the balance slowly shifted.
16:53U-505 was no longer sinking as rapidly as before.
16:57Against remarkable odds,
16:59the boarding party had managed to interrupt
17:01the German attempt to send the submarine to the bottom.
17:03The impossible seemed to be happening.
17:06An enemy U-boat was being saved
17:08by the very Navy that had just defeated her.
17:10But keeping the submarine afloat
17:12solved only the first problem.
17:15Now, the Americans had to discover
17:16exactly what they had captured
17:18and whether it was valuable enough
17:20to justify every risk they had taken.
17:22With the immediate danger of sinking beginning to ease,
17:25the mission entered an entirely new phase.
17:29The boarding party was no longer focused solely on survival.
17:33Now they had to determine whether U-505
17:36contained the information Captain Gallery
17:38had hoped for all along.
17:40The search moved quickly but methodically.
17:43Documents were gathered before seawater could destroy them.
17:46Charts, logs, operating instructions,
17:49and other records were carefully secured
17:51whenever they were found.
17:52In another compartment,
17:54equipment associated with the submarine's communications
17:57and operational procedures
17:58was examined before being removed for later analysis.
18:02To an outside observer,
18:04these objects might have appeared ordinary.
18:06To Allied intelligence officers,
18:08they represented something entirely different.
18:11Every recovered document helped build a clearer picture
18:14of how German submarines operated across the Atlantic.
18:17Patrol instructions revealed procedures
18:20rather than isolated events.
18:22Navigation material helped explain
18:24how crews planned long voyages.
18:26Technical manuals showed how equipment
18:28was intended to be used and maintained
18:30under combat conditions.
18:32The submarine herself became an intelligence source,
18:35unlike wreckage.
18:37Recovered from the seabed,
18:38U-505 remained largely intact.
18:41Engineers could examine machinery
18:43exactly as German crews had operated it.
18:46They could study the layout of compartments,
18:48inspect equipment in its original position,
18:51and better understand the practical strengths
18:53and limitations of one of Germany's
18:55most important naval weapons.
18:57Damage from battle often destroys
18:59the very evidence investigators hope to study.
19:02An intact submarine,
19:04preserved relationships that scattered wreckage
19:06never could.
19:07It revealed not only individual components,
19:11but how an entire combat system
19:13functioned as a whole.
19:15For the Allied navies fighting
19:17the Battle of the Atlantic,
19:18that distinction mattered enormously.
19:21Every improvement in anti-submarine tactics
19:24depended upon understanding the enemy
19:26as completely as possible.
19:28Knowing how German crews organized equipment,
19:31communicated during patrols,
19:33responded to emergencies,
19:34and maintained their vessels
19:36could influence future operations
19:38across thousands of miles of ocean.
19:41The capture of U-505
19:44therefore offered something much greater
19:46than a collection of souvenirs.
19:48It provided knowledge.
19:50Knowledge that could shorten future hunts.
19:53Knowledge that could improve training.
19:55Knowledge that could help protect
19:57the convoys carrying soldiers,
19:59fuel, food, and equipment
20:00toward Europe during one of the most
20:02critical moments of the war.
20:04By now, the extraordinary objective
20:07Captain Gallery had envisioned
20:08had become reality.
20:10An enemy submarine
20:12had not merely been defeated.
20:14She had been captured.
20:17For the first time,
20:18American sailors stood inside
20:20an operational German U-boat
20:22that remained afloat
20:23under their control.
20:24It was a remarkable achievement,
20:26one earned through speed,
20:28discipline,
20:28and no small measure of courage.
20:31But success brought with it
20:32an entirely different challenge.
20:35The Americans now possessed
20:36one of the most valuable
20:37intelligence prizes of the war.
20:39Their greatest task
20:41was no longer capturing U-505.
20:44It was making certain
20:45Germany never learned
20:46that the capture had happened at all.
20:48The battle had ended.
20:50The boarding was complete.
20:52The intelligence had been secured.
20:54But if U-505 could not be brought home,
20:57everything the boarding party
20:59had accomplished
20:59might still be lost.
21:01Although the flooding
21:02had been slowed,
21:03the submarine remained
21:05badly damaged.
21:06Seawater still filled
21:07parts of the hull,
21:08many of her systems
21:09were inoperative,
21:10and she had no crew
21:12capable of navigating
21:13under her own power.
21:15Left alone,
21:16she would eventually
21:16succumb to the Atlantic.
21:19Now the Americans
21:20faced a challenge
21:21unlike any they had expected
21:22when the hunt began.
21:24They had to tow
21:25an enemy submarine
21:26across the ocean.
21:27Keeping U-505 afloat
21:29demanded constant attention,
21:31damage control teams
21:32continued working
21:33aboard the submarine,
21:34checking compartments
21:35for new leaks,
21:37monitoring the flooding
21:38that remained,
21:38and making temporary repairs
21:40wherever possible.
21:41Every change in sea conditions
21:43threatened to place
21:44fresh strain
21:45on the damaged hull.
21:47Every passing day,
21:48tested whether
21:49the improvised repairs
21:50would continue to hold.
21:52The towing operation itself
21:53was slow and demanding.
21:56Unlike a normal naval vessel
21:58under its own power,
21:59the submarine
22:00could not respond
22:00to changing seas
22:01or adjust her course
22:03independently.
22:04She followed only
22:05because another ship
22:06pulled her forward.
22:07Heavy towing cables
22:08remained under
22:09enormous tension,
22:10and the crews involved
22:11had to ensure
22:12that neither rough weather
22:13nor mechanical failure
22:15turned their prize
22:16into a wreck.
22:17The voyage became
22:18an operation of patience
22:20rather than speed.
22:21Each mile carried U-505
22:24farther from the battlefield
22:26where she had been captured
22:27and closer to Allied ports
22:28where specialists
22:29could examine
22:30everything she contained.
22:32Yet another danger remained,
22:34one that could not be seen
22:35on the horizon.
22:36What would happen
22:37if Germany discovered the truth?
22:39From the beginning,
22:41Allied commanders understood
22:42that the greatest value
22:43of U-505
22:45was not the submarine alone.
22:47It was the information
22:48she represented.
22:49If German naval authorities
22:52learned that one
22:53of their submarines
22:53had been captured intact
22:55instead of destroyed,
22:56they would immediately
22:57begin asking
22:58difficult questions.
22:59Had confidential documents
23:01survived?
23:01Had communications material
23:03fallen into enemy hands?
23:05Had operational procedures
23:06been compromised?
23:08Even uncertainty
23:09could force change.
23:10New instructions
23:11might be issued
23:12to submarine commanders.
23:13Existing procedures
23:15could be abandoned.
23:16Equipment might be modified.
23:18Security measures
23:19could be tightened.
23:21Any intelligence advantage
23:23gained from U-505
23:24could disappear
23:26almost overnight
23:27if Germany realized
23:28what had happened.
23:29For that reason,
23:30secrecy became
23:31as important
23:32as the capture itself.
23:33The German survivors
23:35rescued from the water
23:36became prisoners of war,
23:38isolated so they could not
23:39reveal the submarine's fate.
23:42Officially,
23:43U-505 had simply failed
23:45to return from patrol.
23:47Like many other submarines
23:48lost during the Battle
23:50of the Atlantic,
23:50she disappeared
23:51into silence.
23:53German naval headquarters
23:54never received confirmation
23:56that the submarine
23:57still existed.
23:58As long as they believed
24:00U-505 had been lost
24:02beneath the Atlantic,
24:03there was little reason
24:04to assume that her equipment,
24:06documents,
24:07or procedures
24:07had fallen into
24:08Allied hands.
24:10That misunderstanding
24:11protected the capture's
24:12true value.
24:13The boarding party
24:14had achieved
24:15something remarkable.
24:16The men responsible
24:18for preserving the submarine
24:19had done their job.
24:21Now, the Allies had to
24:22preserve something
24:23even more fragile,
24:24the secret itself.
24:26Germany surrendered
24:27on May 8, 1945.
24:30Only then could one
24:31of the most extraordinary
24:32naval operations
24:33of the Second World War
24:34finally be revealed
24:36to the public.
24:37For nearly a year,
24:38the capture of U-505
24:40had remained hidden
24:41behind a wall of secrecy.
24:43The submarine had vanished
24:45from German records
24:46as simply another boat
24:47that failed to return
24:48from patrol.
24:49Her surviving crew
24:51spent the rest of the war
24:52as prisoners of war,
24:54isolated from the outside world.
24:56The men who had boarded
24:57the submarine
24:58returned to their duties
24:59without public recognition,
25:01knowing that the success
25:02of their mission
25:03depended as much on silence
25:05as it had on courage.
25:07The secrecy had achieved
25:09exactly what Allied commanders hoped.
25:11As far as the German Navy knew,
25:13U-505 had been lost
25:15somewhere in the Atlantic,
25:17much like hundreds
25:18of other submarines
25:19that disappeared
25:19during the long campaign
25:21beneath the waves.
25:22There was little reason
25:23for German commanders
25:24to believe that
25:25confidential documents,
25:27operational procedures,
25:28or technical equipment
25:30had fallen into Allied hands.
25:32Because they believed
25:33the submarine had sunk,
25:35there was no immediate reason
25:36to overhaul
25:37every security measure
25:38or radically alter
25:40submarine operations.
25:42The intelligence gained
25:43from U-505
25:45remained valuable
25:46precisely because its capture
25:48was never suspected.
25:49When the war finally ended,
25:52those involved
25:53could at last receive
25:54the recognition
25:54they had earned.
25:55Among the most celebrated
25:57was Lieutenant Albert L. David
25:59of USS Pillsbury.
26:02During the boarding operation,
26:04David had played
26:04a leading role
26:05in directing the effort
26:06to secure and save
26:07the submarine
26:08while working inside
26:09an unfamiliar vessel
26:10that could still have sunk
26:12beneath him at any moment.
26:13His calm leadership
26:15under extraordinary circumstances
26:17became one of the defining
26:19moments of the mission.
26:20For his actions,
26:22he was awarded
26:23the Medal of Honor,
26:24the highest military decoration
26:26of the United States.
26:28Tragically,
26:29David never lived
26:30to receive it.
26:31Only a few months
26:32after the capture
26:33of U-505,
26:35he suffered
26:36a fatal heart attack.
26:37The Medal of Honor
26:38was awarded posthumously,
26:40making him the only member
26:42of the boarding party
26:43to receive America's
26:44highest award for valor.
26:46His story serves
26:47as a reminder
26:48that history sometimes
26:49remembers its greatest heroes
26:51only after they are gone.
26:53Captain Daniel Vith Gallery
26:55also secured
26:56a lasting place
26:57in naval history.
26:59Long before U-505
27:01appeared on the surface,
27:03Gallery had imagined
27:04a possibility
27:05that many experienced officers
27:07considered unrealistic.
27:09While most anti-submarine commanders
27:11measured success
27:12by the number
27:13of enemy submarines destroyed,
27:15Gallery believed
27:16that capturing one intact
27:17could produce intelligence
27:19far more valuable
27:20than another sinking.
27:22His insistence
27:23on preparing boarding parties
27:24before the opportunity
27:25even existed
27:26meant that when
27:28the impossible
27:28finally happened,
27:29his men were ready
27:31to act without hesitation.
27:33Without that preparation,
27:35U-505 would almost certainly
27:37have slipped beneath
27:38the Atlantic,
27:39becoming just another wreck
27:40among thousands
27:41scattered across
27:42the ocean floor.
27:43The broader significance
27:45of the capture
27:46becomes even clearer
27:47when viewed against
27:49the scale of the Battle
27:50of the Atlantic itself.
27:52Between 1939 and 1945,
27:56Germany commissioned
27:57well over a thousand U-boats,
27:59hundreds were destroyed
28:01by Allied aircraft,
28:02warships, and mines.
28:03Others were scuttled
28:05by their own crews
28:06in the final days
28:07of the war
28:07to prevent capture.
28:09Many still lie
28:10on the seabed today,
28:11silent reminders
28:12of one of history's
28:13longest and most
28:14demanding naval.
28:16Campaigns.
28:17Very few survived.
28:19Fewer still were captured
28:20at sea by an enemy navy
28:21while still largely intact.
28:24That is what makes
28:25U-505 unique.
28:27She was not merely
28:28another surviving submarine
28:30or a wartime trophy
28:31displayed to celebrate victory.
28:33She became something
28:34far more valuable,
28:35a complete physical record
28:37of how Germany
28:38fought its submarine war.
28:40Engineers could study
28:41her construction,
28:42historians could examine
28:43her equipment,
28:45future generations
28:45could walk through
28:46the same narrow compartments
28:48where German sailors
28:49had lived, worked,
28:51and fought beneath the Atlantic.
28:53Today, U-505 remains
28:56one of the only surviving
28:58German submarines
28:58from the Second World War,
29:00preserved as a reminder
29:02of both the Battle
29:02of the Atlantic
29:03and the remarkable operation
29:05that saved her
29:06from the sea.
29:07Visitors can stand
29:09inside the vessel
29:10and appreciate
29:10just how confined
29:12life aboard a wartime
29:13U-boat truly was.
29:15What was once
29:16one of Germany's
29:17most dangerous weapons
29:18has become one of history's
29:20most valuable artifacts.
29:22In the end,
29:23the story of U-505
29:25is not simply the story
29:27of a captured submarine,
29:28it is the story
29:29of preparation,
29:31discipline,
29:31and the willingness
29:32to seize an opportunity
29:34that appeared
29:34for only a matter of minutes.
29:36It is the story
29:37of intelligence
29:38proving just as important
29:40as firepower.
29:41And above all,
29:42it is the story
29:43of a handful
29:44of American sailors
29:45climbing onto
29:46a flooding enemy submarine,
29:48knowing almost nothing
29:49about what waited
29:50below deck.
29:51They did not know
29:52whether demolition charges
29:53were still active.
29:54They did not know
29:55whether hidden crewmen
29:56remained aboard.
29:58They did not know
29:58whether the Atlantic
29:59would claim the submarine
30:00before they could save her.
30:02What they did know
30:03was that the next few minutes
30:05could change the course
30:06of the naval war.
30:07History would prove
30:08they were right.