The Only German Submarine In The U.S.

The U-505 is one of six U-boats that were captured by Allied forces during WWII, and one of four large German WWII U-boats that survive as museum ships.

In May of 1944, an anti-sub task force (Guaudacanal) was deployed 150 miles off the coast of Rio De Oro, Africa. The codebreakers knew about a German sub in the area, they didn’t know precisely where.

On June 4, 1944, Lt. Cmdr. Dudley S. Knox aboard the USS Chatelain, made sonar contact on an object about 800 yards away. After the Chatelain had attacked the sub the second time, the U-505 had to surface. The crew members (58 out of 59, one was killed) boarded on the Chatlain and another ship called Jenks.

The U-505 was captured. After being towed 2500 miles, the U-505 landed in Port Royal Bay, Bermuda, on June 19, 1944. It was kept there until the war was over.

After WWII ended, the sub was docked at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine, near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It rested there for a decade and was abused.

On May 15, 1954, the sub would be towed 3,000 miles — through 28 locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway, and through four of the five Great Lakes. After landing in Chicago on June 26, 1954, the sub would have to travel 800 miles across land, from Lake Michigan.

On September 25, 1954, the U-505 was dedicated as a war memorial and a permanent exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry.

On April 8, 2004, the museum began moving the sub to its new location. Here’s the video of the move. The restored U-505 was reopened to the public on June 5, 2005.

The final resting place in Chicago is many miles from where the U-505 was first laid down (June 12, 1940), in Hamburg, Germany. The sub was built by Deutsche Werft, and in 1968 it merged and became Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft.