Ear on Chicago; U 505 II German Submarine; Part 1

This is Hugh Hill speaking from aboard the U -505, a captured German submarine taken by the United States Navy on June 4, 1944. The German sub was the first man of war actually boarded and captured by the Navy since the war of 1812. The U -505 is now on display at the Museum of Science and Industry. We're going to talk now to Dick Frytag, who is the supervisor of demonstrators aboard the U -505. Dick, when was the ship brought to the Museum of Science and Industry? It was brought here in August of 1954 and September the 25th of 1954. We opened to the public for the first time. And now it's on display here on the east side of the Museum and is ready for people to come aboard and take a look at the captured German U -boat. That is correct. In fact, we have close to 2 million people through the submarine already. Now a moment ago we heard of Bell ringing. What is that Dick? That Bell is the German system for the crash dive alarm. When that Bell rings within 40 to 50 seconds the men are at their stations and the submarine should be completely submerged. That

Bell rings through the whole submarine and these men are alerted immediately. All right, now Dick, you and I ought to take a tour of the same as people who come aboard from the Museum of Science and Industry. Now, do they normally come through this engine tractor? Yes, they do, you. We've cut away this side of the submarine for the convenience of the public, but it serves another purpose. By coming through this way you can see the double hull construction, which is typical of all submarines. And the space between these two hulls is used for the storage, a fuel oil, and water for water balance to make the submarine heavy enough to dive. Dick, what's down here to our left? Which way do we go first? This way. From here, we're right now at the stern of the submarine near the stern and we'll be going forward through the motor room, the diesel engine room, the control room, officers quarters and the galley, and then petty officers quarters and up to the forward torpedo room. All right, where's the first stop then? The first stop will be up in the diesel engine room, we'll talk a little bit about the diesel engines here. All right, let's go up there. Now that sound you're hearing is the

sound of ventilating fans that Dick has just turned on. Dick, we're standing now in the diesel engine room, is that correct? We're now in the diesel engine room, you'll. The engines are man engines, they're nine cylinders each. There goes that warning bell, we're going to dive here now. It looks like it. They're nine cylinders each, 2170 horsepower, 470 RPMs, and they're a beautifully running engine. We were able, after about a year, to get these engines started and we do not run them for the public at the present time, it takes too much help, but we do run them one night a week now that we have started them. Dick, I understand that you were actually a submarine or yourself. That's correct, I was in the submarine service for three years in a Pacific. During World War II. During World War II. All right, then, you ought to know a little bit about some of the equipment that they have on here. I see around me, beside the engines, a number of dials and gauges, for example, this one over here, the green thing with the pointer pointing around in a circle. What does that mean? That is what is called the engine order telegraph, which

is used in all navies. It's simply a speed indicator when the skipper wants more speed put to the engines. He relays a message by the electrical system to the men in the engine room, and therefore they can add or take away speed, depending on the skipper's order. By the way, there's a group of youngsters coming aboard the U505 and a guide is bringing them up. Come on right on up here, and maybe we can talk to a couple of the youngsters who are aboard this U505, if you don't mind. Dick, before we start talking to some of these youngsters here, I'd like to ask just a few more questions about some of the equipment here. What's this hatch right in front of us here? That hatch is one of the escape hatches on the submarine, actually, to escape from the submarine. You'd have to have some way or means of doing it, and in the engine room here is where the men could get out if they had to. By flooding this compartment and putting their escape mass on before they flooded the compartment, they could

equalize the pressure against the outer sea pressure to open the hatch and up they go if they're in shallow enough water. Is this one of the hatches that was flooded when the ship was attacked? No, it wasn't. We'll be seeing that when we get up into the next compartment. But the submarine was flooded through the engine room and back after we just walked through. Now we're standing at an area way here, which is very narrow. I'm going to move down Ederson here and pass the guide. And first of all, let me ask the guide's name. Kio, Tom Kio. Tom? You don't mind if I talk to a couple of your students here. Go right ahead, that'll be fine. Could we have your name? Betty Richway. Where are you from, Betty? Marshall High School. And the next girl? Page Genic. Marshall High School. Are you all from Marshall High School? Well, just give me a couple of more names here. Albert Diener? The next one I can't reach him. Come up closer. Robert Manson. What do you think of this submarine? Oh, it's fabulous.

There's that bell again. I guess that's time for recess. Let me move up here. Get past them. As I said, that was very narrow. It's only about, what is it, about a foot and a half across there? Two feet, maybe? Not two. It's not much room to get by, and you have to come down at single file. Well, we're going to move on in from the diesel engine room and move up forward. Is that where we're going next, Dick? Right. We'll be going into the control room right now. And just as we enter the control room to your right on the deck is the sea strainer. And the filter cover that the Germans had removed in attempt to scuttler sink the submarine. And that's the same cover you will see in just a minute that Zinenlokosius from Chicago here, who was on the boarding party that helped capture the submarine, replaced and helped to save the submarine for us and make an exhibit here at the museum. All right, fine. Dick, let's move up and take a look at that. Dick and I have come up the hatch up to the tower, the conning towers. This is the conning tower. Maybe I'm calling it the wrong. That's right. This is the conning tower of the submarine. Now, this is actually the hatch through which we came and also

the hatch through which the Germans escaped when the submarine surfaced. And I'm standing right by the periscope, which the captain of the German submarine would have used when the ship was attacking with its torpedoes. And this periscope, as Dick showed me a moment ago, can be raised and lowered manually. Now, Dick, what else goes on in here? While the conning tower here is really the center of activity when the attack run is being made on enemy ships. Behind you, Hugh, is a torpedo data computer. I told you about. It's commonly called the TDC in the submarine service. And this is a mechanical brain, which is set up by the torpedo officer, as the captain is taking his bearings through the periscope. The TDC signals are then transmitted to either torpedo room, so that the standby torpedoes can set their torpedoes for the depth that the skipper wishes for, and also the gyro setting for the course of the torpedo, which is so very important for the all -important hit. Now, this periscope that we're

standing in front of right here, as Dick pointed out a moment ago, is manually operated. Where's that crank again? This crank right here. This crank raises our lowers to periscope. And now we're lowering it, taking her down. And then, of course, we can raise it here. Okay, fine, Dick. I just wanted to see how that worked. Now, is the periscope working, Dick? I'm looking through it right now, and I can see that cross right in the center of the scope, but I can't see anything out there. Oh, I'm sorry to say the periscope is not in working condition. This conning tower is about 10 % of the sermon, which we have not renovated at the present time. Is this another periscope here to our right? Yes, it is, Hugh. The one behind us is called the operational or main periscope. Now, this periscope is raised or lowered hydraulically. Now, the main periscope also has a longer range and a wider vision. This would be used in your initial contact or for sighting for the enemy. And once you've made contact with the enemy,

this would be lowered and you'd use the auxiliary periscope then for your attack run. It has less of a feather wake going through the water because the eyepiece of the main periscope is a lot larger. Now, Dick, I said a moment ago that this is where the Germans actually came through the hatch and up and over the overboard. They jumped overboard, of course. And this is also the hatch through which the American semen came in. Is that right? It's very true. This is the very same hatch. In fact, it was the only way they could get aboard at that time. And it normally is the only way you would enter or leave a submarine right up through the counting turn and up to the main bridge. And our boys came down this hatch with about two to three minutes to spare to try and save the submarine. And it took an awful lot of guts for these American sailors to do this. What about this hatch right over here that we came through now? There is a lid which closes down and tightens. And therefore closes off the bottom part of the submarine. Was that open or closed? At the time of the capture,

of course, it was open because the men down below had to open it to get out. Normally, this is another watertight compartment. But after the skipper has made his attack run, for instance, on a convoy and the destroyers might be bearing down on him, the men would secure from the conning tower, securing this hatch and go down to the control room. So that from there, they would have to steer the submarine in the control room and take their bearings by the sound system or sonar. And the game of chess starts between the enemy and the skipper. I see the skipper of this submarine had a bicycle seat over here on which he probably sat when he was looking through this periscope. That is right. These bicycle seats, you'll notice also when we get to the control room, are used by the men who sit at the Hansmann station and also for the bow and stern diving planesmen for handling the submarine and servicing and diving. Well, Dick, we've got a lot more to talk about aboard the submarine. We better move on down and go on with our story from down below. Down below to the control room, which is called the heart of the submarine.

Dick and I have now come down to the control room and standing just about over this little hole here, Dick and I are looking down at the very place that this seaman from Chicago closed up that hatch. Now you go ahead and tell us that story, Dick. Well, this sea filter was where the Germans in attempt to scuddle or sink the submarine, remove this cover we're looking at right here. And for some unknown reason, never threw it over the side, just left it on the deck. And they opened a valve to let the sea water come in. If they had taken a few more seconds to open that valve wider, the water would have been gushing in and they'd end stream it. And eight end stream of water was flowing into the submarine from sea now. But they hadn't opened that valve all the way. So it was bubbling in. So when Xenolakosius got down here, it was the first thing he noticed was his cover. He replaced the cover and helped to save the submarine. Because the water had already started to go af, flooding the submarine almost need deep. Let's take a closer look at that cover. Covers got four prongs on each side of it. It's around cover

and it's got a handle here. It's heavy, all right? How much does it weigh? I have no idea, but I wouldn't doubt that it weighs a good 30 pounds, maybe a little bit more. These are the four dogs that would be used to put over the cover and secure it. That is sort of heavy piece of iron. So it is. Well, Ed and Laconia sure did a good job in covering this up and saving the submarine. He sure did. I asked him three years ago when I first came here, what he thought about the day that he went aboard to save this submarine. And he said, heck, I wasn't thinking about anything. It's just how many souvenirs I could get. Well, that lets you and I move back a little ways. You go around that way and I'll go around here to the left. And we can move on back into the control room where a lot of the brain work of this submarine took place during World War II. By the way, did this submarine sink any of our ships? This submarine sank eight Allied ships, one which was ours, the other Dutch and

English to a total tonnage of 42 ,000 tons, in the three years that it operated in the Atlantic Ocean. That was a dangerous little light amount there, wasn't it? I'll say it was you. All right, now we're in the upper end of the control room. And first of all, Dick, let's take a look at this big map over here. This I suppose is a map of the sea lanes of the Atlantic Ocean. This is a map of the sea lanes, you. Also, all these red markings you see on the chart show the Allied shipping routes. The German high command had these all mapped out for latitude, longitude, and the different wolf packs would be sent out along these red routes that we see on the chart to intercept our convoy going over to Europe or Mansk, whichever it should be in World War II. And as we well know, they did a terrific job against us while they were in their peak efficiency. What's this great wide path of red here? Is that our shipping lanes? Is that where we sent our convoy? This wider path that you just pointed out is interesting to note that at least from New York, from Long Island Sound,

going all the way across the waters over to England. And that's where our ships, I suppose, traveled during World War II and they do today. And they still do today. Now, Dick, moving away from the map over here, let's move over where there is a good deal of communications, aboard the ship itself. First of all, for mass communications, you have this telephone over here. Let's take that off the hook. This telephone here is a sound -powered phone. It goes to every main compartment of the submarine. The selector switch I'm holding on to right now, I have moved to the conning tower. Maybe we can pick up the ringing when I ring up the conning tower up above us. Maybe we can hear that. Now, of course, all they have to do. I think we could hear that up through the conning tower, yeah. Then they just answer the phone like you would at home. Oh, I see. And you've got a little button here to press on your talking. We must press the button so that we can talk through it. Well, I'll hang up the phone here. This little microphone is part of our PA system, or public address system throughout this German submarine, which is, again, and goes through every compartment of the submarine. You may use this from the motor room, from

the torpedo room, to answer back in case an order was given this way through the PA system. Why don't you give us a typical order over that microphone? Whatever a typical order might be. Well, let's say that we're going to... I will do it this way. Now hear this. Now hear this. Make all preparations for getting underway. Manoeuvring or electric motor rooms stand by to answer all bells. All hands not unwatched report to the chief of the boat, topside handle lines. Well, you know what you're talking about, don't you? Well, a few years of being aboard these, you sort of live with it, you know. Now, that's heard throughout the ship, isn't it? This is heard throughout the whole submarine, through the boat. Now, there's another communication over here, which is not heard throughout the boat, but it is communications between the compartments. Now, this is no more than just a speaking tube, is that right? That is correct, you know. It is a speaking tube, which goes to each individual compartment. And, of course, they're named so that you know which tube to speak to. If you want to, for instance, just call up to the bridge if you're on the surface. You blow through here, and there's a whistle that gets the bridge's attention, and then you talk just in a normal voice, and your voice

carries through. What compartment would this... This one here goes to the rear torpedo room. Why don't you say something through that, and I'll see if I can pick it up. Go right up close if you can. All right. Rear torpedo room. Rear torpedo room. Make ready all tubes. Make ready all tubes. Stand by to fire. All right, now, if we were in the rear torpedo room, we would have heard that. We would have heard that just the same as we're hearing it right now. Well, so much for communications, Dick, let's talk about guiding this. Now, you call it a boat, and I call it a ship. Why do we differ here? I thought the Navy men always called the vessels that they were aboard ships. I'm very glad you asked me that question. A submarine sailor's prerogative is to call his submarine a boat. This comes back from World War I, from the old term pig boats, because when you're out to sea from three to four months, they do smell or resemble something of a pig boat. Well, now we have a couple of more bicycle seats here, and right in front of the seat on which somebody sits, I guess they call it a planesman, is a large

wheel. And there are two of these, two wheels and two bicycle seats. What goes on here, Dick? This is a very important part of the submarine, and this you will see in any submarine, the bow and stern diving plane station. Two men sit here, one to guide the forward or bow diving planes, and one to guide the stern or rear diving planes. These planes control the submarine for diving and surfacing. They act like fins of a fishwood. And also over here you'll see the gauge for the bow diving planes right above the wheel, and the gauge for the stern diving planes. So the shoulder men that they're on the right angle of diver's surface are at even keel when they wish to attain a certain depth that the skipper ordered. I see that arrow would point to what? It would be ten degrees up or ten degrees down. Either way. It goes all the way down to 35 and up to 30. Would you ever go that high or that low? You'll notice, I'm glad you asked that. You'll notice a red line here above the 20 degree mark on the dive. And these submarines, if they took too steep of a dive angle, could lose the acid out of the

batteries. There's going to be a dangerous thing to go over the dive angle, allotted for the submarine itself. And usually a ten degree dive is sufficient enough to get down fast enough. This is your gyro compass over here in the corner to tell you which direction you're going. This gyro compass is a very important part of the submarine for your navigation. And in this particular case, we know that a magnetic compass would not work down here very well with all the steel surrounding it. But there is a magnetic compass up on the main deck outside of the submarine housed in aluminum. And we take a reading from the magnetic compass right here over the helmsman station. Right above us, you'll notice this glass. Now this has a set of prisms reflecting the reading from the magnetic compass right down inside the submarine. Is this very similar to an American submarine? Principally, it is. All submarines are approximately the same. Though our submarines are more compact, we have a little bit more room. And as far as the steering, our steering is a little different. And as you notice here, we have two

buttons which the helmsman would use to control the twin rudders at the stern of the submarine. And our submarines, we have a wheel which we use. This system here is something like the old trolley cars, you know, at the real stat. Dick, let's assume that we go back to June the 4th, 1944. And you and I are German seamen aboard this submarine. And all of a sudden we run into this huge task force. What do you think happened? Well, at a particular time, through the logs and events compiled with Admiral Galerie's log and events, and Oberleintner Lang, who was skipper of the U505 at the time, shows that the U505 had been converging for the last three days towards Admiral Galerie's task force, unbeknowing to both of them. So I think in this case it was a twist of fate. So now we're right in the middle of the task force as we saw in that movie. And by the way, a very excellent

movie. The submarine is right in the middle of the task force and all of a sudden it's spotted. And they start throwing depth charges. And according to the film, the U -boat turned 180 degrees. Now what do you suppose was going on aboard that submarine when they felt these depth charges? At the time that the attack began, the U -505 was taken at surprise. The crew was sitting down to the Sunday dinner, 11 o 'clock, and unsuspecting of what was going on above them. And I think we could imagine the confusion that must have run rampant through the submarine as the first row of depth charges were thrown at them. At this particular time, I wouldn't doubt that the men went to their battle stations and did everything that was expected of them. I know myself, if I were a German skipper and saw five destroyer escorts on top of me, I would have tried to save the men too. In other words, when the skipper decided the ship was the boat, I'm sorry, was just about gone. He decided to surface and save the men. That was his principal idea. Also, this is something

well worth while to note. In a letter to Admiral Galerie years later, when the Admiral had asked him why he didn't do a better job in scuttling the submarine, the German skipper who was still alive today in Germany said, quote, who would have thought the crazy American sailors would try to save a sinking submarine? That sort of operation was a complete surprise to the Germans and it had been planned for many months in advance, hadn't it? This had been definitely a planned operation. Admiral Galerie had it in the back of his mind for months to capture a German new boat. Dick, I'm afraid that we've run completely out of time and although we're going to come back next week and take a tour of the second part of the boat, why I think we've seen pretty much of the business end. Except for the torpedo room, I don't think we've been up there and we haven't even talked about it, and also some of the quarters were the men's stay. But before we leave today, Dick, you have something which you display for the children when they come aboard the boat. And I'd like to hear that before we leave. Well, this is a boson's whistle, of

course, which I usually pipe for the future admirals of the United States Navy. Now hear this. Okay, Dick, thank you very, very much for taking us on a tour of part one of the story of the U -505. Next week we will be back to tell you the second part of the captured German submarine taken by the United States Navy on June the 4th, 1944. This is Hugh Hill speaking.