Author(s): Mark Lardas; Irene Cano Rodriguez (Illustrator)

Military History

The submarine U-505 was the first enemy warship the US Navy captured at sea since the War of 1812, and it stands apart from every other German submarine capture of World War II. On his own initiative, Captain Daniel V. Gallery set out to capture a U-boat and seize its Enigma equipment intact. His task group planned, trained for, and executed the operation without authorization. On June 4, 1944, they succeeded - finding, crippling, and then boarding U-505, and ironically, their success almost exposed the Bletchley Park codebreaking secret. Naval historian Mark Lardas analyzes in detail Gallery's dangerous idea, the training and planning that went into the operation, and how Task Group 2.23 managed to pull it off. Researched from both German and American sources, and illustrated throughout with archive photos, specially commissioned artwork and maps, this book is the most accurate reconstruction to date of one of the most remarkable raids of the Second World War. Book jacket.