The journey from New Hampshire to Illinois vaulted Earl Trosino into the public eye. As the “commander” of U-505 the media naturally focused their attention on him at each stop. Gallery had already ensured Trosino’s everlasting connection to U-505 by attributing to him the boat’s survival at sea in 1944. This attention, of course, was not intended to diminish the role played by the other men who participated in the capture: a Medal of Honor, two navy crosses, and six silver stars forever enshrined their brave efforts. But from the moment the towing of U-505 to Chicago began, the media attention on Trosino and his salvage efforts mistakenly morphed into stories of how he had led the initial boarding party—which he had not. The articles were repeated, twisted, and passed along as fact, much to Trosino’s everlasting dismay.
Hounded at every stop for a story, the forty-seven-year-old former navy officer warmed up to his role, meeting with mayors, governors, and other VIPs. He did everything he could, however, to explain he was only one of many who had participated in the capture: “we came upon U-505 and drove it to the surface with a series of depth charges. The German crew tried to scuttle the sub but we kept them too busy by firing all around them. We boarded the sub in time to close the sea-cocks and stop the water from pouring in.” But it was the next sentence (or a minor variation thereof) printed in newspapers that triggered a misconception of his original role: “It was Trosino who led the boarding party…”80 This statement and others like it raised bile in several throats and triggered a rift among members of the Guadalcanal Task Group (and modern historians) about who was responsible for the factual misstatements. Ultimately Trosino would take most of the heat, much of it unfairly.
The division between the carrier and DE (Destroyer Escort) personnel over issues relating to the capture of U-505 did not begin with the move to Chicago. They can be traced all the way back to 1945 when U-505 was on a war bond tour with an American crew along the East Coast. Trosino was a star attraction when the boat stopped in Philadelphia because he hailed from Pennsylvania. Trosino was also the subject of many news articles at the time and was the victim of inaccurate news accounts. He never claimed he was the first man to set foot aboard the submarine. He did, however, lead the salvage parties from USS Guadalcanal that played a distinctly different role than the nine-man boarding party from USS Pillsbury. To the ears of the uninitiated, however, there was little or no difference between “the boarding (or salvage) party from Guadalcanal,” and the “Pillsbury boarding party.” When the press learned Guadalcanal was the main ship around which the Task Group was assembled, the phrase “Guadalcanal boarding party” was assumed to mean that the carrier had launched the crew that captured the submarine. In reality, the carrier had turned away from the action and headed for the horizon at top speed (as it should have done to avoid being sunk in a desperate last act by the trapped enemy submarine). Earl Trosino’s salvage men did not set foot on U-505 until some 70 minutes after the boat had been secured by Pillsbury’s crew. But the media was not interested in the finer details of how Hunter-Killer task groups operated, and the hectic dockside interviews conducted by Trosino were not the place for scholarly instruction. Sadly, the lack of understanding only served to exacerbate a situation in which everyone involved had room to bask in the glory of their remarkable achievement.81
Daily reports kept Chicagoans abreast of the progress during U-505’s journey from New Hampshire. On May 16 Captain Jones radioed his position and speed as 30 miles west of Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, at eight knots. The wind, he reported, was blowing at 28 mph.82 It increased over the next two days, building dangerous ocean swells which, coupled with fog, forced Jones to slow down to a crawl southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the way to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.83 Jones intended to cut through the Strait or Gut of Canso between Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia. Though more difficult to navigate (especially in the fog), it was shorter than going around Cape Breton Island and into the more navigable waters of the Cabot Straight. Without warning, contact was abruptly lost with U-505 and Pauline L. Moran.
The worsening weather, coupled with the sudden loss of contact on May 18 quickened the heartbeat of everyone following the boat’s progress. Officials decided if the tug was not heard from within 24 hours, aircraft and ships would be dispatched to locate Jones and his important charge. For the mayor’s committee it was nail-biting time. Had they been too eager to get the boat to Chicago by insisting on an early spring passage? Would the final product of their impatience be the loss of U-505? 84
Matters were indeed serious, but thankfully not as critical as many presumed. For 36 hours Jones’s tug and U-505 weathered a heavy storm. Powerful gales and high waves caused the submarine to roll so heavily radio transmitters had flooded and were temporarily out of service. To the relief of everyone contact was reestablished on Wednesday, May 19, when Admiral Gallery finally got through on a radio telephone. Trosino answered his first question by reporting the boat was in good shape after the pounding and had not taken on any significant amount of water. They were at the Cabot Straight heading into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which meant the heavy fog had convinced Jones to bypass the Straight of Canso and use the longer route around Cape Breton Island. The good news, explained Trosino, was the tug and U-boat were in calm waters and heading for the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Everyone exhaled a long sigh of relief.85
On Friday, May 21, U-505 approached Cape des Rosiers on the Gaspe peninsula on the way to the first official stop at Baie Comeau, Quebec.86 U-505 was not the first U-boat to visit the St. Lawrence area. Many other submarines, including U-69, U-106, U-132, U-165, U-517, U-536, U-553, U-802, U-1223, U-1228 had traveled these waters during World War II. Several scored heavily here; many of them litter the ocean floor off the Canadian coast. This was the first time any of that country’s citizenry, however, had an opportunity to see what had been lurking in the depths of the lower St. Lawrence only 10 years earlier.87
Canadian media, naturally enough, were very interested in the progress of U-505, and the people of Baie Comeau put out a grand welcome for the former enemy boat. The 15-piece Baie Comeau brass band assembled in full uniform on the wharf to salute its arrival. Mayor J. A. Duchesneau proudly presented a wooden key to the city mounted on a piece of spruce log to Earl Trosino during a brief ceremony on deck. Some 2,000 curious visitors toured U-505’s interior that day. The next stop was Father’s Point, Quebec, where Jones picked up two river pilots to guide U-505 and his tug on the 342-mile trip to Montreal.88 The boats arrived in Quebec on Monday, May 24, and reached Montreal the following afternoon. There, U-505 encountered the first five of the 28 locks its would have to transit during her voyage up the St. Lawrence River.89
The mighty St. Lawrence flows easterly from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, a long and natural border between Canada and the United States touching eight states and two provinces. The waterway experiences a 578.5-foot drop in elevation from Chicago to the Atlantic—325 feet of which is accounted for by the Niagara Falls system in the Welland Canal. The drop between Lake Ontario and Montreal alone is 226 feet. The waterway also boasted several unnavigable rapids.90 In 1954—five years before the completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway Project—ships passing through the waterway traversed a system of locks and canals known as the St. Lawrence/Great Lakes canal system. Each of the 28 locks through which U-505 had to pass had a depth of 12.5 feet—barely deep enough to move the boat up the river and into the Great Lakes.
Professional seamen from the International Seafarers Union were hired by Trosino to help handle the lines and move U-505 through the Lachine canal system. The transit took place without incident and on May 26 the German submarine cleared the remaining three locks in the Lachine system before heading for the Soulange Canal locks, which were cleared that afternoon. The journey continued a few more hours to Cornwall, Ontario, where the tug and submarine stopped for the night.92
Nine Cleveland naval reservists met U-505 in Cornwall to provide a volunteer reinforcement for th
e deck crew until it reached Cleveland. Two days later Admiral Gallery made a surprise visit and was briefed by Trosino on the progress and the boat’s condition. The next day Gallery rode U-505 through the locks at Morrisburg, Ontario, marking the official half-way point of the long journey from Portsmouth to Chicago. By noon that day tug and boat were moving at seven knots and approaching Ogdensburg, New York. City officials rode out on a U.S. Coast Guard ship to greet U-505. A delighted Gallery and four excited Sea Scouts were being interviewed by a local radio station when the river pilots were switched for the next leg of the journey to Buffalo.94
The passage through the small Canadian locks nearly proved impossible. U-505 was 23 feet wide and Jones’s tug Pauline L. Moran was 29 feet wide, a total of 52 feet of width. The locks along the river route, however, were only 45 feet wide. The Canadians insisted the only way through was to use a smaller Canadian tug at the added expense of $5,000. Captain Jones scoffed at the idea and told his employers to save their money: he could do it himself. Both the tug and U-505 bulge out a bit underwater, but the tug’s sides ride higher than those of U-505. With winches and old sailor know-how, Jones tied his tug up so tightly next to U-505 that the tug boat was pulled slightly up onto the hull of the submarine. This pushed the U-boat down a few feet but still allowed the tug’s propellers to move both boats forward through the locks and canals. Lashed together, the two vessels had only six inches to spare on each side! The locks varied in length, with some as short as 252 feet—the same length as U-505. This problem was solved by inserting the submarine diagonally, or corner-to-corner, instead of simply guiding the boat in head first. It was indeed a tight squeeze, both width- and length-wise.
Back home in Chicago on May 29, the U-505 Committee announced the good news received thus far and added more of its own: the Coast Guard had agreed to tow U-505 with its cutter Kaw at no charge on the final leg of the trip from Buffalo to Chicago. The only stipulation was that official business came first: if Kaw’s services were required, the tow would have to be interrupted.95 That same day U-505 reached the end of its journey up the St. Lawrence and entered Lake Ontario, the first of the four Great Lakes it would transit (Lake Superior was the only lake the U-boat did not enter on its way to Chicago). The first major American city to host the boat’s arrival in the Great Lakes system was Buffalo.96
The last group of locks left to traverse was designed to bypass Niagara Falls and connect Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. The Welland Canal, as the various locks are known, was a much wider system than the smallish Canadian locks and thus easier to negotiate. Jones pulled into Port Colbourne, Ontario, on the night of May 31 and entered Lake Erie. All 28 locks were now behind him. The tug pulled out at daybreak on June 1 for Buffalo, where it turned over U-505 to the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Kaw. 97
The difficult transit of lock and canal system had attracted thousands of Canadians and Americans, all of whom eagerly lined the waterway to watch the boats pass. Almost 30,000 people were said to have looked on as the boat moved through Montreal, and many thousands more witnessed the historic journey at other points along the way. None of them would ever forget it.98
Captain Jones and his Pauline L. Moran had performed flawlessly. Under his guidance U-505 had passed through an Atlantic gale with 48 mph winds without damage and transited 28 locks on the St. Lawrence River in one-half the time the Canadians predicted it would take—all without significant incident. It was indeed a remarkable bit of seamanship.99
Towed by the cutter Kaw and escorted by the tug Aubrey (which arrived to lend assistance after the submarine had developed difficulty steering), U-505 pulled into the Cleveland harbor and tied up to the 9th Street pier on the morning of June 3.100 Thousands of onlookers cheered the arrival, and 15,000-20,000 more would view the boat over the next three days. Mayor Anthony J. Celebrezze’s welcome ceremonies were attended by Gallery, who had flown in from Chicago to join the celebration.101
The first man to board the German boat in Cleveland was no stranger to U-505. Chester Mocarski had been a Gunner’s Mate aboard USS Pillsbury’s boarding party when U-505 was captured in 1944. The attempt to board the submarine during the war did not go well for Mocarski, who slipped and severely injured his back when trapped between the grinding whaleboat and submarine hull. He was lucky to escape with his life. Fellow boarder Wayne Pickels and Zenon Lukosius pulled Mocarski onto U-505 and put him back into the whaleboat. He was eventually delivered to Guadalcanal for further medical treatment. Mocarski was awarded a Silver Star for gallantry but refused a purple heart because his legs and arms were intact where others were not so fortunate.102
The next day, June 4, 1954, marked the 10th anniversary of the boat’s capture. A ceremony was held aboard the boat and crowds of onlookers elbowed closer to listen while Gallery, Mocarski, and Trosino enthralled everyone with their recollections of the event.103 “We are gratified by the great public interest in U-505 all over the country,” commented Committee Co-Chair Robert Crown from his home in Chicago. “After years of war time secrecy and an almost forgotten feat of bravery, the submarine’s capture has become the most talked about engagement in United States naval history.”104
U-505 spent several days in Cleveland, during which disappointed visitors learned that because of safety reasons, they would not be allowed on deck or inside the boat. A close-up examination of the boat would have to satisfy the curiosity seekers. Rust holes in the outer hull, especially at the stern, and the dreadful condition of its paint, convinced the committee to give the old war boat a quick paint job so it would look presentable for its triumphant arrival in Chicago. House painters Michael Homyak and Russell Stevenson were flown by commercial airliner from Chicago by Local 396 of the AFL Painter’s Union to perform the most unusual request for their services they would ever receive. Their union paid the airfare, Glidden Manufacturing supplied 50 gallons of paint, and Binks Manufacturing Company supplied the compressor and paint spraying equipment. Unfortunately, no effort was undertaken to document how U-505 was originally painted, so it ended up standard U.S. Navy black—the paint scheme used on many American boats at that time.105
A much cleaner looking U-505 departed Cleveland on Monday, June 7, her restoration fund $3,000 richer thanks to donations from citizens of Cleveland and local businesses. In fact, donations were solicited and received at every stop along the way from Portsmouth to Chicago. The fund was now bulging with $175,000—the goal of $225,000 well within striking distance.106 After spending two days in Toledo, Ohio, U-505 left for Detroit and arrived there late in the day on June 10. Sanabria’s luxury yacht Airbanas, which had left Chicago on May 26 and would accompany the boat back to that city, was on hand to greet it. The submarine spent the weekend tied up at the Brodhead Naval Armory, where visitors again were forced to view the boat from afar rather than from atop or within. This time the slick black finish impressed most of those who saw it. Ironically, the U-boat tied up behind the landlocked USS Tambor, a veteran of the Pacific submarine war relegated for use as a training ship for naval reservists. Gallery flew to Detroit a few days later for the final journey to Chicago.107 However, the media-savvy officer found himself overshadowed by a former opponent. German submariner Hans Wollschlager had sailed on U-504, a sister ship to U-505. Wollschlager, an employee of Ford Motor Company, brought his wife and two daughters to see the boat “because he couldn’t stay away.” He told the press if given a choice to serve on Tambor or U-505 he would select the more superior German boat, “because the American sub is too large for quick submerging.”108
With the Coast Guard cutter Arundel now in command of the tow, U-505 departed Detroit early on Monday, June 14, with Airbanas carrying members of the media, Admiral Gallery, and the Sea Scouts. Arundel’s route took the boats north along the “thumb” of Michigan on the western shore of Lake Huron. The plan was to stop overnight in Alpena, a small community about 250 miles north of Detroit. The announcement sent hundreds to the harbor to catch a glimpse of the German submarine. It was no
t to be, however, because the schedule was getting too tight to allow the convoy to slip into the small town, even for a few hours. Gallery wisely pulled into Alpena to explain personally the change in plans and play a hand at damage control.109
U-505 spent a calm night at Mackinac Island on the 16th of June between the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan before departing the next day for Milwaukee.110 With Gallery’s two-star flag flying proudly above the conning tower, U-505 cleared the Lake Michigan breakwater, entered the Milwaukee River under a host of spouting fireboats, and tied up at the city dock. Mayor Frank Zeidler and a contingent of officials welcomed the boat and Trosino with a large crowd and appropriate speeches. In recognition of the efforts of Milwaukee to raise money in an attempt to bring the U-boat there instead of Chicago, the U-505 committee had graciously agreed to display the submarine for one week before beginning the final leg of the trip to its new home.111
The week in Milwaukee witnessed an extraordinary media event. Sol Polk, a local business leader, arranged to sponsor a one-hour live TV broadcast on WBKB from inside the U-boat. The affair was hosted by local “ace” newscasters Spencer Allen and Austin Kiplinger. What made it unique was how the broadcast came about. As explained by a Chicago paper, “[The] Crew will actually dismantle a TV camera, haul it piece by piece through the tiny hatch of the captured U-Boat, and put it together to show you via video what it’s like inside.” Given the size of TV cameras in 1954, it was indeed a remarkable effort on the part of the TV crew.112 The smashingly successful Milwaukee visit ended in the very early hours of June 26, 1954, when the U-boat was taken under tow by Arundel and headed for Chicago.
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