Daniel V. Gallery > Quotes

“The balance sheet for U-boats during the whole war can be summarized as follows:. On hand at start: 57 Built: 1102 Sunk: 781 Captured: 1 (U-505) Scuttled: 215 Surrendered: 162 (Incl. U-570) Total: 1159 The personnel losses in the U-boat flotillas were staggering. Out of 40,000 U-boat sailors only 12,000 survived the war. The rest went to the bottom with their boats. On the other side of the ledger, 5,700 Allied ships totaling 23,000,000 tons were sunk and 48,000 merchant seamen went down with them.”
― Daniel V. Gallery, Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea: The Daring Capture of the U-505

“But after it became apparent that the only damage being done was to the town, the townspeople were pretty bitter about it, some directing their bitterness toward the British, some toward the Germans. Many reasoned that their own country had been defeated and surrendered, and they had a right to be left in peace now. Community life was chaotic and families were often split into factions with lethal designs on each other. Many of the old folks, knowing the best part of their lives was behind them were content to live what was left to them in whatever way was the easiest. They had no further interest in the war, one way or the other, after France collapsed. They knew France was dying and hoped to live out their own lives in peace before she did. The younger generation took sides violently. Some through hatred of the British or for”
― Daniel V. Gallery, Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea: The Daring Capture of the U-505

“The Germany Navy immediately launched a tremendous U-boat building program which by the end of the war produced a total of 1102 new boats. Production rose from two boats per month in 1939, to over thirty a month in the middle of the war.”
― Daniel V. Gallery, Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea: The Daring Capture of the U-505

“But a U-boat, like any other ship, is just so much cold metal until her crew comes aboard. Then each man in the crew loans her a little piece of his soul to keep as long as he serves in her — and often longer if she’s a good ship. These little pieces all added together make up the soul of the ship, bring her to life, give her personality, and make her a member of the seagoing community of ships.”
― Daniel V. Gallery, Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea: The Daring Capture of the U-505

“Submarines were treated as rattlesnakes by anyone who sighted them.”
― Daniel V. Gallery, Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea: The Daring Capture of the U-505

“the citizens of Lorient had every reason”
― Rear-Admiral Daniel Vincent Gallery, U-505

“You can tell that sound is of great importance to a submariner from reading any book about submarines. It is full of words designed to suggest the noises heard under the sea. Kachung, kachung, kachung is the day-long beat of the diesels. Thum, thum, thum is the noise made by high speed propellers approaching for an attack. Ping is the ominous warning from a destroyer’s sonar gear. Kerblam . . . crump . . . whang is a salvo of depth charges close aboard. To a great extent, sound takes the place of sight as the main link with the outside world to the men who live inside a pressure hull.”
― Daniel V. Gallery, Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea: The Daring Capture of the U-505

“The definition of a calculated risk is a gamble which military men take when they can’t figure out what else to do and which turns out to be right. When it turns out wrong, it wasn’t a calculated risk at all. It was a piece of utter stupidity.”
― Daniel V. Gallery, Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea: The Daring Capture of the U-505

“bailiwick.”
― Daniel V. Gallery, Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea

“he might go deep under cover of the”
― Rear-Admiral Daniel Vincent Gallery, U-505