[Milsurplus] David Kahn's "Seizing the Enigma"

[Thomas Adams]

At 02:41 PM 12/17/2007, Thomas Linbeck wrote:
>To all,
>
>David Kahn published a follow-on book entitled Seizing the Enigma, 
>copyright 1991, published by Barnes and Nobel, ISBN 0-7607-0863-0 
>(casebound) and ISBN 0-7607-2672-8 (paperback).   The book deals 
>with the race to break the German U-Boat codes, 1939-1943.  If you 
>are interested in the Enigma and its history, the book is worth 
>reading.  I found it at B&N, but it might be in you local library.
>
>73,
>Tom, K4TEU
>

I'd like to find a copy of that one, mainly to see if he covers a 
rather bizarre story that I've heard
repeatedly over the years.

Rear Admiral Daniel V. Gallery was a swashbuckler at heart, and 
without consulting higher authorities he
began drilling his Jeep Carrier group in the South Atlantic for a 
specific mission; capturing a German
U-Boat on the high seas.

It's well known that Gallery and his people were successful; they 
managed to capture U-505.

What's less well known is the subject of the story I've 
heard...  that Gallery was very nearly COURT
MARTIALED for doing it!

Supposedly the Bletchley folks, after a long break, had FINALLY 
managed to get back into the U-Boat
version of the ENIGMA and they were reading it pretty good at the 
time of the Gallery capture. It was
feared by both US and British high commands that word of the intact 
capture of U-505 would leak out, and
prompt Doenitz to once again CHANGE his codes, locking them out of 
U-Boat traffic intercepts again!

Truth? Fiction?

Who knows?

Personally, I'm of the opinion that Gallery SHOULD have been court 
martialed; he was too much of a
cowboy, and his unauthorized stunt proves it to me.

The story goes on to claim that the only reason he WASN'T court 
martiled was that he managed to tow
U-505 to Bermuda without word of her capture reaching Doenitz, and 
they were able to hide her until
the end of the war. If they'd tried Gallery, the trial itself might 
very well have blown the secret.


Mr. T., W9LBB


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