 | ubootwaffe.net is pleased to bring you this excerpt from the upcoming book Hunt and Kill: U-505 and the U-Boat War in the Atlantic, kindly provided courtesy of Savas Beatie This book features contributions by Erich Topp, Lawrence Paterson, Timothy Mulligan, Eric Rust, Jak Showell, Jordan Vause, Mark Wise and Keith Gill. Here, Jordan Vause examines the decisions that were made—and not made—in the fateful moments leading to the capture of U-505 from the German perspective. Read an interview with Theodore P Savas here |
| "Lange tried to exit as fast as possible, was severely wounded in the attempt, declined to try to defend a doomed boat, and instead issued the command to abandon ship. It was his penultimate decision and perhaps his most controversial, for once the crew abandoned the boat it was much more vulnerable to being captured. Should he instead have ordered the crew to stay on board and fight back?" |
Jordan Vause
| NOTE: This excerpt is from an unedited galley proof of the forthcoming book Hunt and Kill: U-505 and the U-boat War in the Atlantic, Theodore P. Savas, ed. (Savas Beatie, June 2004). This excerpt is copyrighted to the full extent of the law, and may not be duplicated or shared without the permission of the publisher. End notes follow this chapter. |
The capture of U-505 was as surprising to the United States Navy as it was to the crew of the boat. Only Daniel Gallery believed such a thing truly possible. His superiors were skeptical and the U-Bootwaffe considered the seizure of a U-boat at sea so difficult as to be impossible and not worthy of serious consideration.(1)
How, exactly, did it take place? How did Gallery's task group and Albert David's boarding party pull off such a high risk maneuver when all the odds for success were against them? Why wasn't the boat blown up or sunk? Was it Gallery's careful planning and audacious execution, as widely advertised in most popular histories, or was there a complete breakdown of discipline and morale inside the boat, as was whispered in the U-boat community?
Most of what has been written about the capture of U-505 is from an uncritical American point of view. This essay examines the dramatic event from the overlooked German perspective. It concentrates not on the ...