NAVY DEPARTMENT
  
 
MAY 16, 1945
  
  IMMEDIATE RELEASE  
  PRESS AND RADIO  
 
 
CAPTURE OF NAZI SUBMARINE IN NINTEEN FORTY-FOUR REVEALED
 
 
                 One of the best kept secrets of the war was revealed today by announcement that on June 4, 1944, a U.S. Navy escort carrier task group reverted to the tactics of the early Continental Navy and hunted down, attacked, boarded, and captured the Nazi submarine U-505, 150 miles west of Cape Blanco in French West Africa. The Task Group then towed their prize 2,500 miles to Naval Operating Base, Bermuda. This was the first time the U.S. Navy had boarded and captured a foreign enemy man-of-war in battle on the high seas since 1815.
 
                 The Task Group consisted of the baby flattop USS GUADALCANAL and her five destroyer escorts, The group was commanded by Captain Daniel V. Gallery, U.S.N., a veteran Naval Aviator of 1256 McAllister Place, Chicago, Illinois, and Vienna, Virginia, who was also Commanding Officer of the GUADALCANAL.
 
                 Other units of the Task Group were the U.S.S. PILLSBURY, commanded by Lieutenant Commander George W. Cassleman, U.S.N.R., of 1020 Barthelme Street, Joliet, Illinois; USS CHATELAIN, under command of Lieutenant Commander Dudley S. Knox, U.S.N.R., of 1512 34th Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C.; USS POPE, under Lieutenant Commander Edwin H. Headland, Jr., U.S.N., of Henriette, Minnesota; USS FLAHERTY, under Lieutenant Commander Means Johnston, Jr., U.S.N., of Greenwood, Mississippi, and USS JENKS, under Lieutenant Commander, Julius F. Way, U.S.N., of Stonington, Maine. Commander Frederick S. Hall, U.S.N., of 16 Elm Avenue, Wyoming, Ohio, was the destroyer division commander and Lieutenant Norman D. Hodson, U.S.N., of 1508 G. Street, San Bernardino, California, commanded the GUADALCANAL's aircraft squadron.
 
                 The capture occurred while the U-505 was returning to her base after an 80-day commerce destroying raid in the Gulf of Guinea. The U-boat was running completely submerged and was in perfect position to attack the GUADALCANAL when first detected by the sound gear of the CHATELAIN in the GUADALCANAL's screen. Fighter planes from from the carrier spotted the deep running sub from the air and guided the destroyers to the attack by firing their fixed guns into the water and zooming the spot directly over the submerged sub. Following directions given from the air by two fighter pilots from Composite Squadron Eight, flying from the GUADALCANAL, Lieutenant Wolffe W. Roberts, U.S.N.R., of 611 10th Avenue, Lewiston, Idaho, and Lieutenant John W. Cadle, Jr., U.S.N.R., of 212 Ottawa Avenue, Dixon, Illinois, the CHATELAIN delivered a damaging depth charge attack which forced the U-boat to the surface right in the middle of the task group.
 
                 The task group immediately deluged the cornered U-boat with fire from small caliber automatic weapons. In accordance with previously laid plans for driving the crew overboard without doing serious structural damage to the sub, only anti-personnel ammunition was fired instead of the usual armor piercing shells. The Nazis tried to man their guns and fight it out on the surface but they were soon driven overboard by the hail of machine gun bullets from the task group. They left their U-boat circling at speed on the surface, and rapidly filling with water through the scuttling valves which they opened when they abandoned ship.
     

 

   
 
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                 All ships of the task group dropped whale boats in the water with trained boarding parties as soon as the Nazis began abandoning ship. These boats raced after the circling submarine, while the GUADALCANAL dodged the one torpedo which the Nazis were able to fire before leaving their ship.
 
                 The PILLSBURY's whale boat, commanded by Lieutenant Albert L. David, U.S.N., of 4175 36th Street San Diego, California, was the first to get alongside the runaway submarine. Lieutenant David, who was Assistant Engineering and Electrical Officer of the PILLSBURY, and eight enlisted men from the PILLSBURY leaped aboard the submarine and plunged down the conning tower hatch with tommy guns and hand grenades to fight it out with any Nazis left on board. They found only one dead man. This boarding party was soon reinforced by a larger party from the GUADALCANAL under the command of Commander Earl Trosino, U.S.N.R., of 241 Sunnybrook Road, Springfield, Pennsylvania.
 
                 The boarding parties performed numerous heroic and remarkable acts in preventing their damaged prize from sinking. They took over the U-boat in a foundering condition, with water pouring into the hull in many places. Most of the boarders had never set foot on a submarine before, but despite the danger of booby traps, and working against time, which was rapidly running out, the boarding parties plugged all leaks, found and closed the scuttling valves. The flooding was checked just in time to prevent the U-boat from plunging to the bottom, and taking the boarding parties with her. To prevent the seas from washing down the conning tower hatch as the sub sank in the water, it had been necessary to close the hatch behind the boarding parties, thus barring their only avenue of escape in case the U-boat foundered.
 
                 Captain Gallery, who is an ordnance expert as well as a flyer, boarded the sub and opened a suspected booby trap on the water tight door to the after torpedo room, to enable the salvage parties to stop the flooding in that part of the sub.
 
                 The original boarding party from the PILLSBURY consisted of the following men in addition to Lieutenant David:
 
                 Arthur William Knispel, Torpedoman, Second Class, U.S.N.R., 344-1/2 South 12th Street, Newark, New Jersey.
 
                 Stanley Edward Wdowiak, Radioman, Second Class, U.S.N.R., 124 Maeserale, Brooklyn, New York.
 
                 Chester Anthony Mocarski, Gunner's Mate, First Class, U.S.N.R., 7706 Star Avenue, Brooklyn, New York.
 
                 Wayne McVeigh Pickles, Jr., Boatswain's Mate, Second Class, U.S.N., 647 Wheaton Road, San Antonio, Texas.
 
                 George William Jacobson, Chief Motor Machinist's Mate, U.S.N.R., 7234 North Wabash Avenue, Portland, Oregon.
     

 

   
 
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                 Zenon Benedict Lukosius, Motor Machinist's Mate, First Class, U.S.N., of 14105 South Edbrooke Avenue, Riverdale, Illinois, whose mother, Mrs. Barbera Wngalis, lives at 128 East 104th Place, Chicago, Illinois.

 

                 William Roland Riendeau, Electrician's Mate, Second Class, U.S.N., 1157 North Main Street, Providence, Rhode Island.
 

                 Gordan Fritz Hohne, Signalman, Second Class, U.S.N.R., of 28 Marconi Road, Worchester, Massachusetts.
 

                 The crew of the PILLSBURY's whale boat were:
 

                 Philip Norman Trusheim, Coxswain, U.S.N., of Costa Mesa, California.
 

                 Robert Rosco Jenkins, Motor Maschinist's Mate, Third Class, U.S.N.R., of Gypsy, West Virginia.
 

                 James Ernest Beaver, Jr., Seaman, First Class, U.S.N.R., of 22 Ohio Street, Atco, Georgia.
 

                 After flooding had been stopped the U-boat was taken in tow by the GUADALCANAL. Because the task group was in submarine infested waters the GUADALCANAL maintained continuous air patrols, conducting flight operations day and night with her prize in tow. The Fleet Tug ABNAKI, was rushed to the scene by orders from Admiral R.S. Ingersoll, U.S.N., Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet, and relieved the GUADALCANAL of the towing job four days after the capture.
 

                 Among the many amazing and ingenious feats performed by the salvage parties was that of recharging the submarine's batteries. Commander Trosino disconnected the sub's disels from her motors in order to allow the propellers to turn the shafts when the sub was being towed. Ensign Fred Middaugh, of Los Angles, California, traced out the sub's electric wiring and set the main switches for charging the batteries. The GUADALCANAL then towed the U-505 at high speed, thus turning the electric motors over, causing them to operate as generators and to recharge the batteries. This enabled the salvage parties to run all the electric machinery in the boat and to use her own pumps and air compressors to bring her up to full surface trim.
 

                 The ABNAKI, escorted by the task group, towed the U-boat 2,500 miles to the U.S. Naval OPerating Base, Bermuda, where she was turned over to experts from the Office of Naval Intelligence flown out from Washington. The technical and operational information obtained as a result of the capture are said to have played an important part in clinching the Battle of the Atlantic and thus shortening the war by some months. The U-505 is now in the service of the Navy, manned by a U.S. Naval crew, in the category of a captured enemy vessel.
 
                 Fifty-eight survivors (including the captain) from the U-505's crew of 59 were rescued and imprisoned in the United States.
 
                 The only other German submarine ever captured at sea in this war or in World War No. 1, was a Nazi U-boat which was beached on the south coast of Iceland in 1941, after her surrender. This U-boat was crippled by an RAF plane and surrendered to a British trawler in a storm several hundred miles south of Iceland. The crew of this U-boat cooperated with the British in towing the submarine to the spot where she was beached after the surrender. They were in full control of the U-boat while she was being towed and were able to destroy nearly all material which had any intelligence value. The U-505 was taken intact, just as her crew had left her, believing that they had scuttled her in accordance with standard practice.
 
     

 

   
 
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                 Captain Gallery says, "I consider this capture to be proof for posterity of the versatility and courage of the present day American sailor. All ships in this task group were less than a year old and 80 percent of the officers and men were serving in their first seagoing ship. All hands did their stuff like veteran sea dogs, and airplane mechanics became submarine experts in a hurry, when the chips were down. I'm sure John Paul Jones and his men were proud of these lads and of the day's work when the U.S. colors went up on the U-505."
 
                 Admiral R.E. Ingersoll, U.S.N., Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, cited the Task Group as follows:
 
                   "For outstanding performance during anti-submarine operations in the eastern Atlantic on June 4, 1944, when the Task Group attacked, boarded and captured the German Submarine U-505.
   
                   "Setting out on an anti-submarine sweep with the stated purpose of capturing and bringing back to the United States a German submarine, all units of the Task Group worked incessantly throughout the cruise to prepare themselves for the accomplishment of this exceedingly difficult purpose. Locating a single U-boat after a long period of fruitless searches, the entire Task Group participated in further intensive search and hold down operations which terminated in the sighting of the submerged submarine by an airplane. An extremely accurate initial depth charge attack by the USS CHATELAIN forced the U-boat to the surface where it was subjected to the combined automatic weapons fire of three destroyer escorts and two aircraft. This anti-personnel attack completely achieved its pre-conceived objective in forcing the entire enemy crew to abandon ship while inflicting relatively minor material damage on the submarine.
   
                   "Completely unmindful of the dangers involved all units of the Task Group then proceeded to carry out their assigned duties in accomplishing the actual capture. The USS PILLSBURY, badly damaged in a series of attempts to go alongside the erratically maneuvering submarine in order to transfer a mass boarding and repair party, was forced to withdraw and to transfer necessary personnel by small boat. Undeterred by the apparent sinking condition of the U-boat, the danger of explosions of demolition and scuttling charges, and the probability of enemy gunfire, the small boarding party plunged through the conning tower hatch, did everything in its power to keep the submarine afloat and removed valuable papers and documents. Succeeding, and more fully equipped, salvage parties, faced with dangers similar to those which confronted the first group to enter the submarine, performed seemingly impossible tasks in keeping the U-boat afloat until it could be taken in tow by the USS GUADALCANAL. After three days of ceaseless labor the captured U-boat was seaworthy and able to withstand, with constant care, the vigors of a twenty-four hundred mile tow to its destination.
     

 

   
 
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                 "The Task Group's brilliant achievement in disabling, capturing, and towing to a United States base a modern enemy man-of-war taken in combat on the high seas is a feat unprecedented in individual and group bravery, execution, and accomplishment in the Naval History of the United States."
 
                 Lieutenant David was awarded a Navy Cross for his part in the episode, Captain Gallery, for his services in the Atlantic anti-submarine warfare, was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal.
 
                 (Photographs available in Photographic Library, Office of Public Relations.)
 
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