The First Warship Captured by the US in 122 Years

By some calculations, it had not been since the War of 1812 that the United States military had such a unique opportunity fall into its lap. Nearly 122 years after that conflict, at 11:09 on the 4th of June, 1944, the American hunter-killer Task Group 22.3 made contact with the German submarine U-505 near Cape Verde in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Following a brief skirmish in which the U-boat took fire from torpedoes, depth charges, and hedgehog mortars, the badly-damaged German vessel was forced to surface. The German crew took orders from their captain to abandon and scuttle U-505, but in the confusion that followed, it seemed that not all of the correct valves had been opened to totally flood the submarine. Instead, U-505 spun in a slow circle on the surface as its engine continued running and its rudder stuck in a deflected position.

The sailors of TG 22.3 quickly recognized the possibility of recovering secret documents and codes, and they boarded the German U-boat to seize whatever could get their hands on. Once in control of U-505, the Americans further realized that it wasn’t going to sink after all. Instead, they would claim a prize that had not been won in over a century and would tow the enemy submarine back to Bermuda. The feat, the capture of an enemy warship, would allow the United States to analyze the cryptic Enigma machines onboard and gain valuable intelligence that would bring the end of World War II one step closer...

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Thumbnail is actually U-858... the first enemy ship to surrender to the United States forces following the defeat of Germany in World War II. I searched, but I couldn't find any color photos of U-505. Let me know if you know of any! I actually wanted to use an image of a "German" flag and the US flag together over U-505, but that imagery is frowned-upon here, even in historical context.

Видео The First Warship Captured by the US in 122 Years канала Dark Docs