[Milsurplus] Chicago Museum U-505

Fri Aug 24 14:38:31 EDT 2012

It's a shame that the current generation doesn't hold Dan Gallery's 
catch in the awe that MY generation did. I'm old
enough that I remember the time when the boat was first installed 
next to the Museum. The papers and Chicago TV
were full of it.

Admiral Gallery fought to save her from being sunk in deep water by 
the Navy, as surrendered U-boats were, arguing
that U-505 was NOT a surrendered vessel; she was instead a Prize of 
War, captured in battle on the high seas.

Gallery was assisted in his fight to save her by Arthur Godfrey, at 
the time a big TV personality (and incidentally, a
Ham and ex-Coastie radio operator who wiggled a pretty mean bug; I 
worked him once!).

U-505 was hauled down the St. Lawrence Seaway into the Great Lakes by 
a tugboat to the old Inland Steel plant on
the lakefront in Gary, where they cut out a humongous amount of steel 
ballast weight that obviously wasn't needed
in her keel anymore. After that, she was hauled up the lake to the 
55th Street beach.

There were rather whimsical detour signs made up for the event; I 
understand they're quite the collectors item now.
They declared the presence of the Lake Shore Drive "Submarine Crossing"!

Lake Shore Drive was closed, and railroad tracks were laid up the 
beach, across LSD, and into the park next to the
museum. There was continuous live TV coverage as she was hauled 
ashore; I remember it well.

A critical part of the moving operation kept everyone on the edge of 
their seats; once the boat was in the park, it was
necessary to rotate her 90 degrees for the final travel to her 
parking pad next to the Museum. The big fear was that in
the process of turning her, she could possible collapse the cradle 
that was carrying her...  but all went well.

Incidentally...  it wasn't until the 1970s or 1980s that the TRUTH 
about the capture of U-505 was revealed, via Freedom of
Information Act request.

Dan Gallery came close to being COURT MARTIALED for taking her.

Gallery was a bit of a cowboy and a loose cannon. HE came up with 
this plan on his own, based on his experiences
with antisubmarine patrol work in Iceland, and tales of a successful 
British capture of a German boat he'd heard there.

Luckily, Gallery's plan WORKED.

Unbeknownst to him at the time, the codebreakers at Bletchley Park 
had FINALLY cracked the ENIGMA cipher and were
routinely reading U-boat radio traffic.

Had word of the capture of U-505 leaked back to Doenitz headquarters 
in France, they would have assumed the capture of
the boat's ENIGMA machines...  and the cipher would have been CHANGED 
on the spot, requiring Bletchley to start at
square one to beak the NEW cipher.

Gallery's ENTIRE force was pointedly sworn to TOTAL SECRECY, and 
U-505 was towed to Trinidad and hidden there. The
Powers That Be went so far as to hold a surprise inspection of the 
ENTIRE task force to recover any "souvenirs" that the
boarding party grabbed from the boat.

Instead of court martial...   Gallery and his men were DECORATED. But 
IN SECRET. They were NOT allowed to wear their
decorations, or even admit to their existence, until after VE Day!

Amazing stuff here...

Mr. T,  W9LBB

At 12:22 24-08-12, w8au at sssnet.com wrote:
>Hue:
>
>Its tough to swallow the decisions of business organizations, and the Museum
>of Science and Industry definitely is a business when it comes to attracting
>visitors who pay to get in.
>
>A few years ago they moved U-505 inside, established a huge addition to
>cover the boat, decorated the interior to establish the atmosphere of a sub
>in the open sea, (tilted) and precedes this with three large displays
>and videos
>preparing the visitors for the grand entrance into the boat location.
>
>What they have done is eliminate most of the necessary maintenance items
>that were formerly needed when it sat for years in the water.
>
>I do think they missed a great opportunity for selling or auctioning
>the material,
>however.   And as for the UC-97, they probably can't undertake the project for
>budget reasons.
>
>Such is life....
>
>Perry
>
>At 06:53 AM 8/24/2012, Hue Miller wrote:
> >"We were trying to get a fix on the location of the only known WW I German
> >U-Boat sunk in fresh water; that of UC-97 sunk in Lake Michigan off
> >Wilmette.
> >We approached the Museum of Science and Industry and the Director, Vic
> >Danelov,
> >about an expedition to raise UC-97 and put her next to U-505.  When he asked
> >why,
> >I told him that this Museum would be the only one in the world with a WW I
> >and a
> >WW II German U-Boat.  "I don't even want this one!" was his reply.  And he
> >paid a
> >scrap dealer to come to the Museum and cart off TWO ENTIRE storerooms full
> >of
> >spare parts from U-805 that were to be used to keep U-505 in repair!  Just
> >threw
> >this priceless stuff in the trash!"
> >
> >Harry Cooper, 1983.
> >via: Hue Miller
> >
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