Loved the experience!

Just make sure to buy an interior tour ticket at least a day in advance. Otherwise, you're just looking at torpedos and the exterior. All of them were sold out my first day here.

It is a lot bigger than you'd expect in real life!

I live in chicago and have been many times i have no idea how ive never seen U-505

Did tour it and thoroughly enjoyed the experience

rockets4kids I doubt the U.S. government stripped out all those parts. Other than the Enigma machine I’m willing to bet it was picked clean by all the American service members who love souvenirs. A known fact.

@@todd5082 so the US government?

Connor no not the government. The term “U.S. Gov” is normally used to mean ordered or authorized. The military servicemen (unauthorized) who love souvenirs tend to take enemy flags, helmets, knobs, even Normandy Beach sand. The official U.S. Gov has no use for used German sub parts. In the past the US military would use captured subs, boats, and tanks as practice gun targets.

@@todd5082 Other than friendly fire, it escapes me why they didn't just put to fight on their side. The Germans used British tanks in WWI after all.

@@JonatasAdoM I hear what u r saying. But tanks r much simpler to operate than say aircraft or in this case a submarine. Lots of training would be required to train a full crew. Simply not worth it. U don’t get the owner’s manual on how to operate an enemy sub when captured. Otherwise, American troops were notorious for repurposing captured weapons.

Tyler Griffin Me too!!! That was back in the late 1960's - maybe early 1970's.

The sub is now indoors and has a spectacular display - highly recommend visiting.

it was out side when i went in it,,,,,its inside now

I saw it as a kid in the 80s!

Me too. I remember the tour guide yelling at someone for touching the periscope.

Crazy that you found a shirt with that on it man👍

Just about the coolest comment ever seen. Sweet!

@@eoin730 It was probably a souvenir shirt from the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, where the U-boat is on display. It's well worth the visit to see it.

That's Excellent. U-505 t-shirt.

I AM JEALOUS!! THAT'S MY SUB!

That was my father! Hans Göbeler! He would go to most military shows with me and my mom. I remember people crowding his table listening to his stories and asking him questions. He passed away in 1999 in Florida. His book is called "Steel Boats, Iron Hearts"

@@Michelle-ri2osamazing.

I just finished reading his book. Highly recommended

Brave beyond crazy.

Big Time.

try getting pulled to the surface and riding out a hurricane in a fast attack for three days - could not re-submerge - everyone but one cook was seasick -

@@artbobik3516 *I'd rather not try that, but thank you anyway.*

Same here,

Arthur Bobik Below the surface it is calm and probably the best place to be in heavy seas

My favorite parts are the .50 caliber hellcat rounds and other rounds.

This comment is 100% wholesome

@@ironwoodnf9128 and funny

I actually heard the accent....lol

My grandfather used to pick up German POWs at Moody Field (now Moody AFB) in Valdosta, Ga during the war and take them to work in the sugar cane fields. I still have a list of 10 of their names and a postcard one sent him soon after the war from England, where he was still being held in 1946.

Also the Bismarck was a nightmare boat for him The commandos that destroyed the French dry dock cutting off the Bismarck from the Atlantic is a crazy story ... It's also a documentary done by formally top gear and now grand tour host Jeremy Clarkson

@@StaceyIsles agreed but the tirpitz really got under his skin

@@steveholmes5207 I forgot that ones name (the tripitz) Both were the reason of the French dry dock being destroyed by commandos during ww2 N I defiantly recommend you watch that documentary

@@StaceyIsles i have seen the documentary with Jeremy Clarkson its well researched and i have seen it on more than one occasion may i also recommend his documentary on the Baltic convoys another excellent documentary

Yeah, the British FINALLY began to unravel the German enigma codes when they captured the U-110 in a similar operation to this with its communicator machine fully intact. America got an enigma machine also with this sub capture. U-505 I'm pretty sure was the first warship captured as a prize by the US Navy in over 100 years!

Whenever I got into town I would visit her at the museum and just contemplate their implications. Definitely the drones of WW2.

Haven't been back to Chicago since +- '73. Someday.

Haven't been to the windy city since 1 1994 I think. Great town! Almost died in Michigan lake when traversing 2xfurther than the booey line suggested .. it started getting shallow again.. I could walk it was so shallow by now.. thank god I Stopped and looked back.. way far away from beach. When I Looked down in front of me.. less than one foot away from my toes was utter blackness.. I extended my right arm and the current I felt was very strong.. One more step.. No thanks. Tip toed back and didn't turn my back on it for 20 feet.. Omfg! That was one of the scariest things I ever did see. Chicago 4tw! Willard school 4tw! Just anout the nicest people I ever met from there.

@@gumunduringigumundsson9344 You have to know where the sandbars are. All the Great Lakes form them except Lake Superior. I grew up on the south shore of Lake Erie and there was always a prevailing Southerly breeze in late October that blew the water to Canada. You could walk out hundreds of yards and try to gauge and survey where the sandbars were for the next years swimming. There are no discernible tides on the lakes so it was pretty magical to naive kids. The goal when swimming was to get to the fifth bar- seldom achieved until I grew to 6'6".

@@BrianNavalinsky Cool! Weren't you scared of the cliff and the torrent near the deep? I wasn't scared.. just knew it would kill me if I didn't respect it.

I heard this too, many years ago (1960), from an article in "The Best from the Reader's Digest" - Italian edition

-Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, many years ago was? one of the very finest museums in all of the world ; Natural History Museum nearby, came in second ... Many long Years ago... ;

That's because they didn't realize the boot was captured intact, enabling the destruction of countless of their comrades.

There's a lot of educational videos and footage taken of the battle and capture of the sub. They said that the mortality rate of u-boat sailors was 75 percent! That means only 1 in 4 survuved..Ugh.

@@whiskeybuilder6335 Roughly 40.000 German submariners went to sea, only about 10.000 came home.

@@Pow3llMorgan My God. A foot soldier had much better odds.

@@whiskeybuilder6335 Their odds were terrible, especially from 43 till the end. Of note however; more than 30.000 (of a rough total of 175.000) merchant sailors also were also lost during the war, so while the uboat campaign ultimately (thankfully) failed, it was at a dire cost.

And to think they built almost 2000 of them!!!

Still, it is very cramped inside. I visited it in the late 1950's when I was about 11 years old and was surprised how little space there was.

The Type nine was an oversized long range U-boat.

James Behrje The Germans operated less than 1,200 U-boats during WWII, with more than half Type VII variants (703 in all), at 1,070 tons (VIIC) significantly smaller than the Type IX (1,540 tons for IXC) like _U-505_ (193 of all variants). Only about 860 actually went on patrol. US submarines of the war were over 2,000 tons submerged. These carried about double the torpedoes of a Type VIIC (10 + 2 overload internal, 2 external, 14 total), and while they had about the same number of torpedoes as the Type IXC (12 + 3 overload internal, 10 external, 25 total), all 24 US torpedoes were inside the pressure hull and available without sitting on the surface for several hours manhandling heavy weapons down narrow hatches.

Senkan Yamato 🅱️

Thank god this episode didn’t end with, “it was scrapped after the war”

A T yea at least half of the stories end with that depressing note

Yes and her exhibit is beautiful. It's modeled like a u-boat pen. She still smells strongly of diesel and it gets hot in there with a small tour group after just minutes. I can't imagine life on that ship. The whole museum is incredible honestly.

Chicago also used to have a WWII U.S. Navy submarine on display on the lakefront. The USS Silversides. Unfortunately it was evicted from its display location by then Mayor Harold Washington. It is now in Muskegon, Michigan.

He is actually a professional.. see Hitler's steal beast on Netflix.. Mark is it that one

warren zevon?

I saw a 12oclock high episode where the Navy had an aircraft carrier. They needed the B-17s for escort. Now I just saw this.

For a long time U-505 was an outdoor exhibit. Glad to see she's inside.

Its all different now. Its enclosed inside the museum. Wife and I went in the late 90's when it was still outside and I was surprised when i took our kids last year that they had built a building around it.

and if you do not vent the gas from charging the batteries then there will be a very large boom -

I walked her probably several thousand times as a child/youth. I knew everything about it, and my mom saw them tow it across Lakeshore Drive.

My mom has a relative that was on the Pennsylvania during the attack. His name was Kendrick "Bud" Wies, from Iowa. I me him when I attended ceremonies for 60th anniversary in Hawaii 2001.

RESPECT to your pops!!!!

My grandfather was also in WW2, also awarded for bravery but of course, been Italian, it was on the "other" side. He also would share with me only the "good" stories. My respect goes to ALL combatant that endured suffering, death, and losses...regardless of side. Respect from Italy and God may bless you all.

@@ZAGOR64 -Family member by marriage, was Italian soldier. In retirement from military, he went back to opera and successful international performances. Not describing the war, even to his children, he passed away quietly, leaving no stories ;

My neighbor was on the Arizona Saturday December 6,1941. He wanted to go ashore for church service’s the next day. He couldn’t go until all his responsibilities were fulfilled. He missed five opportunities to go. Finally in the evening, the mail boat came around. He caught a ride with them. The next day, Sunday December 7,1941, he was in a early morning mtg when he heard and felt the explosions. He told me a torpedo entered the area he would have been sleeping in. Had he been there he would have been killed instantly. All of his friends were killed. I wanted to join the marines. He would shake his finger while tearing up and tell me “ you don’t know the horrors of war!” “I pulled the burned, battered, bloody, and destroyed bodies of shipmates and friends from the water. I have felt helpless looking into their dead eyes! YOU DO NOT WANT TO JOIN THE MARINES OR ANY BRANCH OF SERVICE!” By this point tears would be streaming down his aged face. I only mentioned it a few times because I got the same response. Don’t get me wrong, he loved this country with great intensity. He just said wait till they draft you. His name was Gordon Douglas. One of the few survivors of the Arizona, because he wanted to go to church.

They moved her indoors about 10+ years ago. They even filmed on how they moved her. You can easily find it on KZfaq.

I know a few of the guys who helped move her

You Are Correct Sir

I got to see her back in the 1960's as a kid, when the sub was exhibited outdoors. They used to sell slices of her anchor chain, sawn from chain links & stamped with U-505, in the museum's gift shop, along with whole links from the chain. The Science & Industry was my favorite Chicago museum.

Urbicide u might not want to go back and see the museum now. It was my favorite place growing up. Most of all the great exhibits r gone.

Most of the bad luck the crew on U-505 had was from sabotage when the submarine was in the U-boat pens in France. I highly recommend you check out Steel Boat Iron Hearts: A U-boat Crewman's Life Aboard U-505.

@@Jermster_91 will do.... thanks, Jermster...

Some of the crew though that the U-505 suffered bad luck due to the U-boat sinking a sailing ship.

then read Blind mans Bluff -

Goebler and the rest of the crew were held in secret, sequestered from other prisoners, and incommunicado (to prevent the Germans learning of the captured Enigma) in Camp Ruston, a POW camp just west of Ruston LA, my hometown. Growing up there in the 60s I never knew it and only found out half a century later on visiting the exhibit in Chicago which references Camp Ruston. Artifacts are today viewable on the museum floor of the Louisiana Tech Library in Ruston.

What’s noteable in the Steelboats recounting is how much interpersonal violence there was amongst the Germans

He was a friend of mine.

I just read that book. Absolutely fascinating. Mr. Goebeler's voice came into my head when Mr. Felton said that the U-505 was an "extremely unlucky boat." We know Mr. Goebeler thought quite differently!!!

My father grew up in Chicago. In February of 1944, at the ripe old age of 17, he dropped out of Farragut High School, & tried joining the Marines with a friend who was 18. Marine recruiters told him to come back when he was 18. Dad was afraid that the war would be over before he got in to fight the Japanese. He ended up enlisting in the Navy, who decided to send him to Farragut, Idaho for boot camp. Dad's friend ended up in the 5th Marine Division. Charles (Chuck) Hlavaty was Killed In Action, on February 19, 1945, on the island of Iwo Jima during the first day of the US invasion. The 5th Marine Division's assigned landing beaches were the ones closest to Mount Suribachi. Chuck, along with father & mother, had emigrated to the US from Czechoslovakia after Adolph Hitler annexed the country. Chuck was their only child. He is buried in Wooodlawn Cemetery near Chicago.

@@Urbicide what a great read....I salute your dad and his friend Chuck...what a generation they were

If ever in Germany? tour U 595. That was an experience. Forgot to mention-it's the only type VII-C still in existence. It's on Laboe beach and until his death-it's original Kdt used to conduct tours on that boat. He was Dr. Hand-George Hess. Was also a Knights Cross Recipient. Just a couple miles away in Moltenort-is the German U Boat Memorial. It has a plaque of every U Boat from WWI and WWII lost in action-including the crew's names.

My father was on destroyers (Royal Navy) and had no sympathy for u boat crews .

@@keithrose6931 Rightfully so. To everyone in the Royal Navy, the U boats were a terror to their supply lines by sinking so many merchant ships.

Three out of four Kriegsmarine submariners-were killed in action.

75% of the U Boot crews did not survive the war. Highest death rate of anything but perhaps Japanese Kamikaze pilots.

This is as lucky crew they were captured and by the us navy wich treated their prisoners better

The scuttling and destruction of the French Navy at port by the British so that they couldn’t be handed over to the Germans would make a good video. Also, that act of sabotage had something to do with it.

Absolutely, this is something that I think we'd all love to hear your take on it.

Gallery received a severe reprimand from Admiral King, with court martial being mentioned, for not sinking U-505 after recovering the enigma material - its capture, rather than destruction, potentially compromised vital Allied intelligence sources on the eve of D-Day.

Define freedom.

The longest battle in WW2 (battle off the Atlantic '39-'45) cost alot on men, material and equipment. (36.000 sailors lost on 3.500 merchant ships + their cargo!) Those sailors who sailed on the UK and Murmansk routes from the America's are the unsung hero's of that conflict. Winston Churchill knew if he lost the battle of the Atlantic, Britain and the allies would lose WW2 . Even Stalin himself praised the sturdy and loved by the Red Army Studebacker 2.5T Trucks who were brought by those convoys to Murmansk. Those convoys made sure the Allies on all fronts where supllied to win the war.

@@Lensman864 Liberals out of power.

I totally agree with every thing you said, and I also feel that all of us lucky bastards, that live in free countries, owe so much to our war veterans, who fought and many paid the ultimate sacrifice so that pricks like Adolf Hitler aren't governing our lives.

@@benjigray8690 hahahaha say that again mate

Todd Rey, yup and I have to say, there are times when nostalgia makes me wish I could find a spay bottle of that scent to use around the house, LOL,...like those bottles of 'new car smell'.

I think it's Brasso, or similar polish.

-The electrical wiring insulation, for just one aroma, in addition to lubricants, emits the initial chemistry vapors long after the time of original installation. ;

Paul D. I went aboard an old USN diesal electric boat as a Cub Scout in Norfolk in 1960-or there abouts. I later served as in the USN and served on CV62, the LPH 7, as a "guest officer" aboard the HCMS Nipigon, along with a navy tug and a squadron of PBR's. Odd. Every USN ship I ever went aboard smelled exactly the same as that old submarine. It was uncanny how they all have the same distinctive but identical smell. If I close my eyes I can smell it still after all these years.

terry lober I’ve been in a icbm missile capsule as well and it also has a “metal smell” very similar to a sub. U can’t say it’s diesel because I was also on a new navy nuclear attack sub which had a nicer metal smell. Lol

They went and captured Wismar on the Baltic riding on the tanks of the Royal Scots Greys

There's a story in that too!

MrYoungGun yep and it featured Jon Bon Jovi! I’m not making this up.

@@mattkaustickomments no way ill have to check

@@mattkaustickomments WHAT? I've watched it like 20 times, often fragments while eating meals and I never noticed.

@dave johnson & AliveC4T hahaha! Yes really! What’s funny is I went back to check out the cast and I had totally forgotten McConaughey Harvey Keitel & Bill Paxton were in it- I had only remembered JBJ because he was such an anomaly! He played one of the Lts. I think it was the first time he cut his hair since the 80’s. I actually saw the movie on the big screen and haven’t seen it since.

MrYoungGun It might have been entertaining but from an historical accuracy view point it was a laughable piece of crap!

The coal mine exhibit was pretty neat too. Shedd Aquarium was fun. The moray eels used to always creep me out.

I hope you have read the memoir Steel Boat Iron Hearts: A U-boat Crewman's Life Aboard U-505.

It is very small!

I can hardly believe like 70 men were in there for months on end

Steven Wiederholt I remember seeing it as a young boy in the early to mid 1960’s. Even as small as I was as a boy, I couldn’t believe anyone could live in it especially while submerged. Like you said “so cramped “.

I went to see it about 7 years ago with my parents and a cousin. My cousin and I weren’t very big(at least for 13 and 10 yr olds) and we could barely stand side by side in the LARGER portions of the sub

Should I mention 65 guys 1 toilet, which was used to store food. I'm thinking STINK doesn't even begin to cover it.

Even better if you read the memoir of one of the crew members on U-505 and then tour it.

Just like to say its not classified. It was during the war

@@donwall9632 basically is CLASSIFIED, because 1, it is true that the allied want that u boat so badly but, not capture only to get information. 2 the American for the first time they got a German u boat. And these information is not to show the public, so is CLASSIFIED. But if you say is during the war, I respect your words. I shake your hand like friends. 🤝

Hasn’t been classified since the end of WWII.

Knew. Plating. Hull. Their.

You mean knew

Overpriced printers?

@@purplefood1 It's like one joke, with the punchline from some other joke thrown in for no reason.

@@Brok. apparently so.

My respect for serving on a sub very WW2 salido he served on a submarine deserved a medal

That's correct. Nearly 75 percent of all U-boat personal never returned. At the start of the movie Das Boat gives the actual figure. According to the short spiel no other armed forces units in WWII Axis or Allied lost so many personal.

@@barrythatcher9349 -'Sound of Music', Christopher Plummer was being ordered, sent to sea, as a U Boat commander. Good thing that he escaped ;