Evening star., 1945-06-24
Bond Buyers Get Look at U-Boot's Secrets
BY GEORGE KENNEDY.

top secrets of the war is berthed for
public inspection for the price of
War Bond at the Coast Guard
dock at Maine avenue S.W., near
the foot of Fifth street. 1t is the
German submarine U-505.
The black, 250-foot, deadly look
ing raider-now flying the Stars
and Stripes-is one of the Navy's
greatest prizes. 1t is the first enemy
man-of-war boarded and captured
at sea since 1915 when Commodore
Stephen Decatur, who once lived att
748 Jackson place NV, and his
bearded tars captured the Algerian
flagship Mashuda of Cap de Cat in
the Mediterranean.
The U-505 Is here for the Seventh
War Loan campaign after appear
ances in New York, Philadelphia
and Baltimore. Bond buyers may see
it inside and out-from noon until
pm. today and from 10 am. until
8 pm. tomorrow through Thursday.
A crowd of fascinated citizens,
young and middle aged, went
through it yesterday, examining
more gadgets than were ever
dreamed of by the creators of Flash
Gordon and Buck Rogers. |
Special Program From Sub.
Radio Station WWDC will broad
cast special War Bond programs, di-
rectly from the submarine, station
officials announced. The first will
be at 1l:15 am. today, and others
will be at tbs pm. Monday through
Thursday:
The Navy's possession Of the
U-5O5 throughout the last II
months of the war with Germany
was kept from the knowledge of all
but a necessary few. Her low-lying
hull was screened from the eyes
of the curious by the coral cliffs
of Bermuda cove. The American
crew members working on her
weren't even allowed to go into
Hamilton for a beer. Beer was
brought to them.
Until the end of the war the
German U-boat wolf packs hunt
ing in the Atlantic went on using
the same cryptic radio talk un-
aware that listening American and
British warships were translating
it without difficulty, thanks to a
code book found on the U-505. AS
a crew of German-speaking Ameri-
cans was being trained to operate
here, 1t apparently was planned to
send the U-505 back to mix with
her former hunting mates and be-
tray them. The wars end pre-
cluded that.
Built In 194I.
The U-5O5 was built in Hamburg
in 1941. She ranged along the At
lantic Coast of the United States
in 1912. She was one of the pack
responsible for the wreckage of
tankers washed up at Rehoboth,
Del. Ocean City, Md, and Virginia
Beach, Va.
In December, 1912, while in the
Mediterranean. according to her log,
the U-505 was crippled by a depth
charge exploding abeam her sub
merged hull. 1t almost sprung her
plates. She limped into Brest, the
French port on the tip OF the Breton
peninsula, and spent the year 1943
in drydock.
She came out in 1914 and on a
hunt of 30 days duration she
ranged the Gulf of Guinea with two
sister ships. She was captured on
June 4. 1914, of Cape Blanco, French
West Africa.
SPAR Band Plays.
Yesterday the U-505 show opened
with a little ceremony. A SPAR
band played. Wilmer ]. Weller,
chairman, and Hugh Lynch, execu-
tive manager, of the District War
Finance Committee, were on hand
and arranged to have j. j. O'Con-
nell, jr., acting Secretary of the
Treasury, accept the submarine for
the 7th War Loan from Capt.
Daniel v. Gallery, U. S. N, of
Vienna, Va.
1t was Capt. Gallery, veteran
naval aviator, who, as commander
of the baby fat top Guadalcanal,
headed the task force that cap
tured the U-505. On May Is, 1914,
the Guadalcanal left Norfolk es-
corted by the destroyers and de-
stroyer escorts, Pillsbury, Chatelain,
Pope, Flaherty and jerks.
1t was one of several such groups
hunting the hunters. They had no
convoy of merchant ships to screen.
They were free to make their ovn