The Hunt for Enigma and the U-Boat Carrying It in World War II

We welcome writer and Executive Producer of Inside Edition Charles Lachman to talk about his new book, Codename Nemo: The Hunt for a Nazi U-Boat and The Elusive Enigma Machine.

The book is a white-knuckled saga of a maverick captain, nine courageous sailors, and a US Navy task force who achieved the impossible on June 4, 1944–capturing Nazi submarine U-505, its crew, technology, encryption codes, and an Enigma cipher machine. 

Two days before D-Day–the course of World War II was forever changed. The hunters of the Atlantic Ocean had become the hunted, and US antisubmarine Task Group 22.3 seized a Nazi U-boat, its crew, and all its secrets. Led by a nine-man boarding party and Captain Daniel Gallery, “Operation Nemo” was the first seizure of an enemy warship in battle since the War of 1812, a victory that shortened the duration of the war. But at any moment, the mission could have ended in disaster.

Charles Lachman tells this thrilling cat-and-mouse game through the eyes of the men on both sides of Operation Nemo–German U-boaters and American heroes like Lieutenant Albert David (“Mustang”), who led the boarding party that took control of U-505 and became the only sailor to be awarded the Medal of Honor in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Three thousand American sailors participated in this extraordinary adventure; nine ordinary American men channeling extraordinary skill and bravery finished the job; and then–like everyone involved–breathed not a word of it until the war was over.

In Berlin, the German Kriegsmarine assumed that U-505 had been blown to bits by depth charges, with all hands lost at sea. They were unaware that the U-boat, its Enigma machine, and its Nazi coded messages were now in American hands. They were also unaware that the 59 German sailors captured on the high seas were imprisoned in a POW camp in Ruston, Louisiana, until their release in 1946.

A deeply researched, fast-paced World War II narrative for the ages, Charles Lachman’s Codename Nemo traces every step of this historic pursuit on the deadly seas.

We’re grateful to UPMC for Life and Tobacco Free Adagio Health for sponsoring this event!