One of the most impressive things in Chicago is the complete German Submarine the u505. it has tours and a film and it crossed the outer drive to it resting place at he Museum of Science and industry. one of the prime movers was a man named Carl Stockholm who in his day was a great Bicycle racer. he opened a string of dry cleaners, and I was an officer in the Carl Stockholm bn of the US Navy Sea Cadets. when in Chicago go see the sub :lol:
I'd love to. Unfortunately, such a trip is currently outside my budget range and likely to remain so.
U505 has a new home O my prophetic soul... No sooner do I post and the armchair general ( a new magazine ) has an article about the Museum building a new building to house it. this will insure that the environment will not destroy the sub and provide additional display space to teach museum visitors what the U-boat menace and the battle of the Atlantic were all about http://www.msichicago.org
There is a U Boat on display Birkenhead England. It's not in the greatest condition since it was pulled off the sea bed. http://www.historicwarships.org/displaypage.asp?page=13 This place also has two Veterans of the Falklands war. The HMS Plymouth and the submarine Onyx which justifiably enjoyed the nickname the Sardines Revenge.
I forget where exactly,but in Michigan you can find the U.S.S. Silversides.You can even spend the night on it for a price.This WWII sub is still somewhat seaworthy.I was told a long time ago during a tour(when it was still in Chicago) that it could do everything but dive.
I live in Hawaii and at Pearl Harbor they have a sub called the bowfin, I think it is a gato-class sub, not sure though. Its in excellent condition, but is overshadowed by the Arizona and Missouri.
Yes indeed, and a very successful campaign at that. Read "Silent Victory" by Clay Blair for the full story.
I have, and it was a very excellent account. Mr. Blair now has a two-volume work out on the U-boat war from the German side.
Both of those volumes are on my shelf waiting to be read - need to carve out a big chunk of time to do that !
I need to carve out enough money to buy them; unfortunately, my wife and I have to give priority to the things we need.
U-505 Type IXC Laid down 12 Jun, 1940 Deutsche Werft AG, Hamburg Commissioned 26 Aug, 1941 Kptlt. Axel-Olaf Loewe Commanders 26 Aug, 1941 - 5 Sep, 1942 KrvKpt. Axel-Olaf Loewe 6 Sep, 1942 - 24 Oct, 1943 Kptlt. Peter Zschech 24 Oct, 1943 - 7 Nov, 1943 Oblt. Paul Meyer (in deputize) -- acting 8 Nov, 1943 - 4 Jun, 1944 Oblt. Harald Lange Career 12 patrols 26 Aug, 1941 - 31 Jan, 1942 4. Flottille (training) 1 Feb, 1942 - 4 Jun, 1944 2. Flottille (front boat) Successes 8 ships sunk for a total of 44.962 GRT Fate Captured at sea west of Africa on 4 June, 1944 by ships and Wildcat aircraft of the US Navy task force 22.3, escort carrier USS Guadalcanal, destroyer escorts USS Pillsbury, USS Chatelain, USS Flaherty, USS Jenks and USS Pope. 1 dead and 59 survivors. see - http://uboat.net/boats/u505.htm or the home page - http://uboat.net/index.html FNG
It was very interesting to visit a Gato class fleet sub after reading so many accounts of the submarine campaigns in the Pacific. One can climb all over the boat and explore below decks. If travelling I-10 through Mobile Alabama take an hour to visit the USS Drum - 13 war patrols and sunk 80,000 tons of Japanese shipping.
Looking forward to visiting Chicago someday and seeing U-505. Some years ago, I toured USS Pampanito in SF - nicely preserved (and a little too clean !). Thing about a sub is that it's all forward and backward inside - you can't go anywhere sideways. I visited USS Torsk a few years ago, but she had been thoroughly modernized and no longer resembles her WWII days. Last year, I went to see USS Bowfin in Honolulu but she was closed for maintenance. In the Navy Yard in Washington DC, the conning tower of USS Balao is on display ashore.
The U-boats did run kinda small, most of the classes that saw combat. The American fleet boats were a good deal larger.
