This film NOW IT CAN BE TOLD tells an astonishing story, one of the most interesting U.S. Navy actions of WWII. On June 4, 1944, an American anti-submarine squadron accomplished an incredible feat, capturing the German U-boat U-505 and all hands. This film celebrates the achievement and explains how it happened. It certainly wasn’t a fluke. Commander Daniel Gallery, of the USS Guadalcanal, was convinced he could surface and capture an enemy submarine, and he drilled his crews in the art of boarding. When the aircraft carrier USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60) and its destroyer escorts, USS Pillsbury (DE-133), USS Pope (DE-134), USS Flaherty (DE-135), USS Chatelain (DE-149) and USS Jenks (DE-665), got a contact, they worked in close concert to achieve the capture. German submarine commander Harald Lange and his crew were neatly captured, and their boat towed to Bermuda. Today this Type IXC U-boat rests in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, a nice war prize delivered in style by the U.S. Navy.

A bit more on this … Ultra intelligence from decrypted German cipher messages had informed the Allies that U-boats were operating near Cape Verde. The Navy dispatched Task Group 22.3, a “Hunter-Killer” group to the area. At 11:09 on 4 June 1944, TG 22.3 made sonar contact with U-505 off the coast of Río de Oro. The sonar contact was only 800 yards (700 m) away off Chatelain’s starboard bow. Chatelain was so close to U-505 that depth charges would not sink fast enough to intercept the U-boat, so instead she fired Hedgehogs before passing the submarine and turning to make a follow-up attack with depth charges. 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. Less than seven minutes after Chatelain’s first attack began, the badly damaged U-505 surfaced less than 600 metres (700 yd) away. Chatelain immediately commenced fire on U-505 with all available automatic weapons. Believing U-505 to be seriously damaged, Oblt.z.S. Lange ordered his crew to abandon ship. This order was obeyed so promptly that scuttling was not completed, and the engines were left running. With the engines still functioning and the rudder damaged by depth charges, U-505 circled clockwise at approximately 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph). While Chatelain and Jenks collected survivors, an eight-man party from Pillsbury led by Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Albert David came alongside U-505 in a boat and entered through the conning tower. The body of Oberfunkmaat (Signalman First Class) Gottfried Fischer, the only fatality of the action, was found on the deck. U-505 was otherwise deserted. The boarding party stopped the water coming in, and they also stopped her engines. While the boarding party secured U-505, Pillsbury attempted to take her in tow, but collided repeatedly with her and had to move away with three compartments flooded. Instead, a second boarding party from Guadalcanal rigged a towline from the aircraft carrier to the U-boat. Commander Earl Trosino joined the salvage party. He disconnected U-505’s diesels from her electric driving motors, while leaving these motors 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 U-505’s 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. After three days of towing, Guadalcanal transferred U-505 to the fleet tug Abnaki. On 19 June, U-505 entered Port Royal Bay, Bermuda, after a tow of 1,700 nautical miles (3,150 km; 1,960 mi). This action was the first time the US Navy had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the War of 1812 (in 1815). Fifty-eight prisoners were taken from U-505, three of them wounded (including Lange). U-505’s crew was interned at Camp Ruston, near Ruston, Louisiana. The cipher materials captured on U-505 included the special “coordinate” code, the regular and officer Enigma settings for June 1944, the current short weather codebook, the short signal codebook, and bigram tables due to come into effect in July and August respectively.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com