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Glenn Larson was a 19-year-old North Dakota farm boy when the United States entered World War II. He volunteered for the U.S. Navy in December 1942. He could have gotten an agricultural deferment, but wanted to serve. Later, he was aboard the USS Guadalcanal when it captured the U-505 German submarine.
“A World War Two Secret: Glenn P. Larson and the U-505” by Beverly Larson Christensen tells his story. Larson participated in the capture of the first enemy warship taken on the high seas by the U.S. Navy since the War of 1812.
Christensen gives a picture of her father growing up on the family farm. She recounts Larsen's naval career when he joined up: boot camp in Idaho, training as an electrician, assignment to the Guadalcanal when not yet in commission, and how Larson became part of the submarine’s capture.
Christensen puts the U-505’s capture in context, discussing the Battle of the Atlantic, the construction of that submarine, and of the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal, one of 50 “jeep” carriers built on civilian hulls in less than two years.
Larson's brothers also served in the military. Duane was an Army Air Force pilot in Europe and Wayne worked with communications in the U.S. Army.
Larson married Clara Schweigert, a North Dakota girl, and Christensen’s mother. This background helps readers understand how the war affected everyone’s lives, especially their postwar careers.
The heart of the book is Larson’s service aboard USS Guadalcanal. He was part of the crew that brought the ship into commission, and he remained with it until May 1945. Christensen describes Larson's participation in the capture of the U-505, including his onboard visit after its capture, and his experiences on the Guadalcanal following the capture.
Larson participated in eight anti-submarine cruises, including one where an Atlantic storm damaged the Guadalcanal. Larson went on to become an oiler in the Pacific and carried out occupation duty in Japan.
Christensen writes a family history, one representative of the over four million men who joined the Navy during World War II. Like Larson, these young men left farms and factories to serve their country. Many had moments of high adventure, like Larson’s participation in the capture of the U-505. Like Larson, most of their career consisted of everyday activities.
“A World War Two Secret” reminds readers of that war. These stories were familiar to the sons and daughters of those who served but are being increasingly forgotten as the World War II veterans pass from the scene.
“A World War Two Secret: Glenn P. Larson and the U-505,” by Beverly Larson Christensen, L&R Publishing, LLC, 2022, 164 pages, $12.95 (paperback) $4.99 (e-book)
This review was written by Mark Lardas who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com. It appeared in a different form in Epoch Times.
Discussion (6)
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The U-505 capture is one of my all-time favorite stories mostly because it is just so improbable, but also because Daniel Gallery's Clear the Decks was one of the first two books I ever read about WW2 (the other was Pat Reid's Escape from Colditz). At 7-8 years old, I didn't really have a clear idea of what WW2 was, but even then I appreciated the book's adventure and story telling. Those two were also probably the first non-children's books I read and helped cement my life-long love of reading.
The U-505 capture was really about planning. Gallery had a goal in mind and planned to make it happen. It was not just luck, although there was a lot of that. He got volunteer boat crews and trained them as best he could to keep a U-boat afloat once they got inside. He trained his fighter pilots to not sink a surfaced U-boat, but to scare the crew into abandoning ship quickly so they didn't have time to set scuttling charges. He encouraged his men to think on their feet and not wait to be told what to do.
I will definitely get this book and savor it.
CONTRIBUTOR
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I also wrote a book about the capture of U-505. It focuses on the planning.
By the way, I doubt Admiral King was angry about Gallery's capture of U-5o5. King gave Gallery command of an Essex-class carrier after the capture. That was a very un-Ernie King thing to do if he bore a grudge against Gallery. That story only emerged after the Revolt of the Admirals (in which Gallery participated). By then King was dead and could neither confirm nor (more importantly) deny the story. My theory is Frog Low invented it at that time.
CHARTER MEMBER
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King was pretty peeved, but the war in Europe ended before Gallery got command of the Essex-class Hancock in September of 1945. The problem was that King knew that the German naval codes were compromised by Enigma. Gallery wouldn't know that; Enigma was the Big Secret of the war. But if the Nazis got wind that one of their U-boats had been taken, they would assume the worst and change the settings on all their cryptographic equipment. King was worried that the crews of Gallery's task force wouldn't be able to contain themselves since they had lived through the ultimate sea story. And if you think about it, the crew of the USS Pillsbury heard the command "Away all boarders," an order that hadn't been issued in battle conditions since the nineteenth century.
CONTRIBUTOR
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Was King really peeved or was that a story Frog Low made up years later? When I was writing The Capture of U-505 I looked hard for any evidence of King's supposed ire circa 1944-1946 and came up blank. The earliest report of that anger came after the Revolt of the Admirals. Had Gallery really been in King's bad graces Gallery would not have been given command of an Essex-class carrier. King did not abandon grudges easily and there were plenty of other captains that could have gotten it instead.
Yes King was worried about security leaks, but that is different than threatening to court-martial Gallery (the story Low told). Gallery was one of King's fair-haired boys before WWII and seems to have remained one after the capture of U-5o5. The supposed threat to court-martial Gallery smacks of a sea story that plays into King's reputation for a volcanic temper.
Gallery died in 1977. Frederick Winterbotham's book The Ultra Secret was published in 1974. Gallery published his last book in 1973, a year before that (the novel The Brink).
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Gallery and King had another, little-known, connection that probably helped with their professional relationship. They were classmates in the same Navy flight school. See Gallery's Eight Bells and All's Well, p.95.
USS Pillsbury had the distinction of participating in two U-boat surrenders. The second was the U-858, which surrendered on 14 May 1945 to the Pillsbury after the war ended. It was taken to Ft. Miles at Lewes, Delaware, where the captain, Thilo Bode, was made to formally surrender two more times, to the Coast Guard and to the Army because why not?
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