WWII hero shares story with sub vets

ELLENSBURG - The annual Submarine Veterans of Central and Eastern Washington picnic this Saturday, Aug. 16, will feature a visit by a man who participated in a daring capture on the high seas in 1944.

Al Neely of Puyallup was a 19-year-old sailor serving aboard the USS Guadalcanal and a member of one of the boarding parties that was able to stop flooding, disable explosive charges, capture a Nazi German submarine and tow it to American shores.

The Nazi German submarine U-505 was captured on June 4, 1944. It was the first time an enemy warship had been captured by the United States on the high seas since the War of 1812.

U-505 was forced to the surface and was captured by Task Group 22.3, headed by the Guadalcanal (CVE-60), an escort carrier. The U-boat's crew had tried to scuttle her, opening valves to cause the submarine to sink, and setting timed charges to blow her up. All hands abandoned ship.

"The capture was very important to the war effort," the Sub Vets' Gary Brown said. "Our intelligence forces got all the code books, an Enigma machine, which the Nazis used to encrypt messages, and her armament. Disassembly and analysis of her ultra-modern acoustic homing torpedoes helped us learn how our ships might employ countermeasures to avoid being sunk by similar weapons."

Having the enemy's codes allowed the Allies to de-crypt German messages, especially to their submarine fleet.

Allies learned where they were scheduled to patrol, and the vulnerable non-military merchant fleet was able to avoid them.

"No American lives were lost in this amazing battle," Brown said. "All but one of the Nazi sailors survived. The one who was lost was killed by gunfire before he could jump overboard."

The U-505 submarine has been on display at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry since the 1950's. She has recently been completely refurbished and moved to a climate controlled facility.

Neely will address the U.S. Submarine Veterans at the picnic at a member's home near Ellensburg. Submarine Veterans and their families are invited to attend. They may call Mark Briggs at 480-8245 for details.