Hunt and Kill

U-505 and the Battle of the Atlantic

Theodore P. Savas

• Publisher: Savas Beatie
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781611211283
• eBook ISBN: 9781611210019
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

One of WWII's pivotal events was the capture of U-505 on June 4, 1944. The top secret seizure of this massive Type IX submarine provided the Allies with priceless information on German technology and innovation. After the war U-505 was transported to Chicago, where today 1,000,000 visitors a year pass through her at the Museum of Science and Industry. Hunt and Kill offers the first definitive study of U-505. The chapters cover her construction, crew and commanders, combat history, general Type IX operations, naval intelligence, the eight fatal German mistakes that doomed the boat, and her capture, transportation, and restoration for posterity. The contributors to this fascinating volume--a Who's Who of U-boat historians--include: Erich Topp (U-Boat Ace, commander of U-552); Eric Rust (Naval Officers Under Hitler); Timothy Mulligan (Neither Sharks Nor Wolves); Jak Mallman Showell (Hitler's U-boat Bases); Jordan Vause (Wolf); Lawrence Patterson (First U-boat Flotilla); Mark Wise (Enigma and the Battle of the Atlantic); Keith Gill (Curator, Museum of Science and Industry), and Theodore Savas (Silent Hunters; Nazi Millionaries).

Notes

No Target Too Far: The Genesis, Concept, and Operations
of Type IX U-Boats in World War II

by Eric C. Rust

1. An online version of the treaty text exists at: http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/versailles.xhtml.

2. Arguably the best, constantly updated and most convenient resource for information on German submarines in both World Wars is the U-boat Net website at: http://uboat.net.

3. Article IV of the Washington Treaty regulated the size of the naval establishments of Britain, the United States, Japan, France and Italy in a ratio of 5:5:3:1.75:1.75. In other provisions, the treaty placed limits on the tonnage and armament of certain classes of warships. The full text of the treaty is available in print, and online: http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/pre-war/1922/nav_lim.xhtml.

4. This was evidenced in Germany’s endless improvisations, compromises, and experiments all the way into the later stages of the Second World War.

5. A summary and discussion of the Z-Plan can be found in Jak P. Mallmann Showell, The German Navy in World War II: A Reference Guide to the Kriegsmarine, 1935-1945 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1979), 23-24.

6. For a detailed list of Germany’s actual and anticipated naval building program, consult Erich Gröner, Die Schiffe der deutschen Kriegsmarine und Luftwaffe 1939-45 und ihr Verbleib, 7th rev. ed. (Munich: Lehmanns, 1972).

7. To avoid possible national embarrassment in case it was sunk by the enemy, the Deutschland was later renamed Lützow. Scheer and Spee were prominent naval leaders in World War I.

8. August K. Muggenthaler’s work, German Raiders of World War II (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1977), remains one of the finest on the subject.

9. Four additional experimental designs were labeled V80, V300, WA201 and Wk202. They relied on the revolutionary “Walter turbine” concept and never saw frontline deployment.

10. Numerous publications and internet websites offer statistics on the characteristics and wartime fate of German submarines. One of the best-researched is Axel Niestlé, German U-Boat Losses during World War II: Details of Destruction (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1998). For a reasonably accurate listing of Axis submarine successes against Allied shipping consult Jürgen Rohwer, Axis Submarine Successes, 1939-1945, rev. ed. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1999).

11. National Archives Microfilm Publication T 1022, roll 1724, item PG 32173, Supplement to KTB 1/Skl, Teil C, Heft IV, “Ubootkrieg” (1941), 5.

12. Operation Deadlight involved the deliberate scuttling of surviving German U-boats after the war by the British in the eastern Atlantic, often after or as part of weapons experiments.

13. U-Boot-Archiv Cuxhaven-Altenbruch, “Wasserbombenschäden an U-Booten Typ IX,” in Folder “Untersuchungen über Wabo- u. Fliebo-Schäden,” 37.

14. Corraborating evidence in Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv (BA-MA), RM 98/358, KTB U-154, entry for July 3, 1943, and post-war testimony.

15. See “The Monsun Boats,” at: http://uboat.net/ops/monsun2.htm.

16. Michael Gannon, Operation Drumbeat: The Dramatic True Story of Germany’s First U-Boat Attacks along the American Coast in World War II (New York: Harper & Row, 1990).

17. Two areas receiving increased attention are the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. A fine account of operations here is Gaylord T. M. Kelshall, U-Boat War in the Caribbean (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994).

18. A slightly dated but generally reliable account of these operations and Allied countermeasures is L. C. F. Turner, War in the Southern Oceans, 1939-1945 (Capetown: Oxford University Press, 1961).

19. The best and most comprehensive book on the May 1943 tragedy is Michael Gannon, Black May: The Epic Story of the Allies’ Defeat of the German U-Boats in May 1943 (New York: HarperCollins, 1998).

A Community Bound by Fate: The Crew of U-505

by Timothy Mulligan

1. Karl Dönitz, Die U-Bootswaffe (Berlin: E.S. Mittler & Sohn, 1940), 27.

2. Clay Blair, Hitler’s U-Boat War, Vol. II: The Hunted, 1942-1945 (New York: Random House, 1998), 550.

3. Eric C. Rust, Naval Officers Under Hitler: The Story of Crew 34 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1991), 64, 68, 89.

4. Most information is taken from Axel-Olaf Loewe’s letters to Daniel Gallery, September 29 and October 18, 1955, among Gallery Papers in the Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD (hereafter Gallery Papers); additional data from Konteradmiral a.D. Albert Stoelzel, ed., Ehrenrangliste der Kaiserlich Deutschen Marine, 1914-1918 (Berlin: Marine-Offizier-Verein e.V., 1930), 211, 214.

5. Data taken from Loewe’s letter to Gallery of September 29, 1955; the official publication Rangliste der Deutschen Reichsmarine Nach dem Stande vom 4. November 1932, 9, 56; and Walter Lohmann and Hans H. Hildebrand, Die Deutsche Kriegsmarine, 1939-1945: Gliederung, Einsatz, Stellenbesetzung (3 vols.; Bad Nauheim: Podzun, 1956-64), III, 291/211.

6. Hans Jacob Goebeler with John P. Vanzo, Steel Boats, Iron Hearts: The Wartime Saga of Hans Gobeler and the U-505 (Holder, FL: Wagnerian Publications, 1999), 24, 68.

7. Loewe’s letter to Gallery, October 18, 1955; Goebeler, Steel Boats, 38-39, 56, 65; and Daniel V. Gallery, U-505, rev. pb. edition of Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea (New York: Paperback Library, 1967), 91-92.

8. Kriegstagebuch (hereafter KTB) U-505, August 26, 1941-August 25, 1942, reproduced through November 7, 1943 on National Archives Microfilm Publication T1022, rolls 3065-66, record item PG 30542/1-7 (hereafter cited as T0122/3065-66/PG 30542/1-7); a copy of the KTB for November 8, 1943 - June 4, 1944, is available at the U-Boot-Archiv, Cuxhaven, Germany. See also Loewe’s letters to Gallery, September 29, and October 18, 1955.

9. Data on Förster taken from the Crewbuch 33, p. 35, maintained by the Wehrgeschichtliches Ausbildungszentrum at the Marineschule Mürwik (with thanks to Mr. Eberhard Schmidt); the Navy Ranglisten for 1935-38; and Loewe’s letter to Gallery, September 29, 1955.

10. Rainer Busch...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Also by Theodore P. Savas
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Maps and Photographs
• Editor’s Preface
• Foreword
• Introduction
• No Target Too Far: The Genesis, Concept, and Operations of Type IX U-Boats in World War II
• A Community Bound by Fate: The Crew of U-505
• From the Lion’s Roar to Blunted Axe: The Combat Patrols of U-505
• Deciphering the U-boat War: The Role of Intelligence in the Capture of U-505
• Collision Course: Task Group 22.3 and the Hunt for U-505
• Desperate Decisions: The German Loss of U-505
• Project 356: U-505 and the Journey to Chicago
• Appendix A: Type IXC U-boats: Technical Data
• Appendix B: U-505 Combat Chronology
• Appendix C: Statement of Harald Lange Regarding the Capture of U-505
• Notes
• Contributors