On 4
June 1944, a hunter-killer group of the United
States Navy captured the German submarine U-505.
This event marked the first time a U.S. Navy vessel
had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the
nineteenth century. The action took place in the
Atlantic Ocean, about 150 miles off the coast of Rio
De Oro, Africa.

The task group itself was awarded the Presidential
Unit citation, in part because of the unique and
difficult feat of boarding and capturing an enemy
warship on the high-seas--something the U.S. Navy
had not accomplished since the 19th-century. More
significantly, however, the capture of codebooks on
U-505 allowed American cryptanalysts to occasionally
break the special "coordinate" code in enciphered
German messages and determine more precise locations
for U- boat operating areas.

In addition to
vectoring in hunter-killer task groups on these
locations, these coordinates enabled Allied convoy
commanders to route shipping away from known U-boat
locations, greatly inhibiting the effectiveness of
German submarine patrols.

U-505--as
the only Type IX-C boat still in existence--was
designated a National Historic Landmark.

Like all
our submarine models, this U-505 Uboat
model has the following qualities:

- Plank-on-frame, hollow hull construction, weighing
less than 7 lbs (A solid hull of this model
would be over 20 lbs.)