Quote:
Originally Posted by GH85Carrera
A U.S. Navy salvage crew attempting to keep this abandoned German U-Boat (U-505) afloat in order to gain access to critical data.
- 1944
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And they succeeded in securing the sub and the enigma machine etc inside. Some of my earliest memories are of my father's friend talking about the seamanship it took to get it to Lake Michigan and the engineering work he'd helped with to get it out of the lake and into the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry. I finally got to see it in 2017.
The Germans opened the valve (sea chest) above and came very close to sinking her so the Americans couldn't get her secrets. It turned out that there were a few first generation American of German decent in the US Navy at that time who could read some of the controls, and by towing U505 they were able to recharge her batteries by windmilling the prop, and then they could pump out all the water and get her to float properly.