The Enigma of U-505

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The enigma machine was supposed to be Nazi Germany’s unbreakable code machine. It’s network carried the bulk of the German secret communications from the 1920’s through the end of WWII in May of 1945. The machines carried by German Naval units, including U-Boats, were a complex gizmo of gears and wheels and keys, that required the correct plug in board to produce the encrypted messages that controlled the communications of the German Wolfpacks and other military units. The German military believed that the Enigma code was utterly unbreakable.

During the course of the war, two Nazi U-boats were captured with their Enigma machines intact. First by the British in May of 1941, provided the allies with the information that would come to be known as “Ultra.” This intelligence, derived from reading Enigma messages, helped the Allies turn the tide of the Battle of the Atlantic (it is also the source of the controversial film, U-571).

By June of 1944, the Germans had updated their codes with newer machines and better codes, which while penetrated, were becoming more secure again.  On June 4, 1944, Task Group 22.3, led by Captain Daniel Gallery of the USN, detected a German U-boat off the Cape Verde Islands.

The U-505 was not a “lucky boat” in the strictest of sense, although until this day she had always managed to survive the predicaments in which found herself. This day… would change history…