Product details
- ISBN 9781472849366
- Weight: 260g
- Dimensions: 182 x 246mm
- Publication Date: 24 Nov 2022
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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U-505 was the first enemy warship the US Navy captured at sea since 1812. This is a new account of how Captain Gallery planned and executed the raid on his own initiative, and how his success almost endangered the war against the U-boats.
On June 4, 1944 a US Navy antisubmarine task group in the Atlantic captured an enemy U-boat on the high seas. It was not the first time the Allies had taken a German U-boat as a prize, but the capture of U-505 was different. Captain Gallery and his Task Group 22.3 devised a risky plan to capture scuttled U-boats.
This book analyses in detail Gallery’s dangerous strategy, using contemporary sources to explore why he thought the reward was worth the risk: instead of attempting to sink the next U-boat that surfaced among them, a destroyer escort would send off its whaleboat. Everyone else was to smother the U-boat with light gunfire to encourage its crew to abandon quickly.
Unaware that the Allies had already cracked the German’s codes and the capture of a U-boat could endanger that secret, Gallery hoped to capture the vessel’s codes and coding equipment to read U-boat message traffic. The plan culminated in the capture of U-505 in early June, which nearly caused the exposure of the Bletchley Park codebreaking secret.
Featuring contemporary photographs, specially commissioned artwork and 3D maps, this book is a fascinating exploration of one of the most controversial and dangerous raids, which could have changed the outcome of World War II as we know it.
Mark Lardas holds a degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. An amateur historian and a long-time ship modeler, Mark currently lives and works in League City, Texas. He has written extensively on naval, maritime, and military history.
Irene Cano Rodríguez (known as Araire) is a freelance artist working and living in Spain. Since 2014, she has worked as a specialized historical illustrator, recreating historical scenes for museums, studios, editorials and magazines.
