Daniel V. Gallery
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Daniel Vincent Gallery (1901–1977) was a distinguished officer in the United States Navy who saw extensive action during World War II. He fought in the Second Battle of the Atlantic, and his most notable achievement was the capture of the German submarine, U-505, on June 4, 1944. In the post-war era, he was a leading player in the so-called "Revolt of the Admirals"--the dispute between the Navy and the Air Force over whether the U.S. Armed Forces should emphasize aircraft carriers or strategic bombers. Gallery was also a prolific author, both of fiction and non-fiction.
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[edit] Early life and career
In 1917, at the age of sixteen, Daniel V. Gallery entered the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. He graduated a year early, in 1920, and went on to compete in the Olympic Games in Antwerp on the U.S. wrestling team.
He had three younger brothers, all of whom pursued careers in the U.S. Navy. Two brothers, William O. Gallery and Philip D. Gallery, also rose to the rank of Rear Admiral. The third brother, John Ireland Gallery, was a Catholic Priest and Navy Chaplain. [1]
Daniel Gallery was an early naval aviator, winning first place at the National Air Races in a race-tuned Douglas Devastator torpedo plane in the late 1930s. Assigned as the Naval Attachė in London prior to America's entry into the war, he earned his flight pay by ferrying Spitfires from the factory to RAF aerodromes; he liked to claim that he was the only U.S. Naval Aviator who flew Spitfires during the Battle of Britain - but they were unarmed.
[edit] World War II
In 1942, Gallery took command of the Fleet Air Base in Reykjavík, Iceland where he was awarded the Bronze Star for action against German submarines. It was there that he first conceived his plan to capture a U-boat.
In 1943 Captain Gallery was appointed commander of the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal, which he commissioned. In January 1944 he commanded antisubmarine Task Group 21.12 out of Norfolk, Virginia with the Guadalcanal as the flagship. Task group 21.12 sank the German submarine U-544.
In March 1944 Task Group 22.3 was formed with the Guadalcanal as the flagship. On April 9 the task group sank U-515 (commanded by the top U-boat ace Kapitänleutnant Werner Henke). After a long battle the submarine was forced to the surface among the attacking ships and the surviving crew abandoned ship. The abandoned U-515 was hammered by rockets and gunfire before she finally sank. Captain Gallery recognized that this would have been a perfect opportunity to capture the vessel and decided to be ready the next time such an opportunity presented itself. The next night aircraft from the task group caught U-68 on the surface, in broad moonlight, and sank her with one survivor, a lookout caught on-deck when the U-boat crash dived to avoid the attack.
On the next cruise of Task Group 22.3 Captain Gallery took the unusual step of selecting and training a boarding party in the event that they could capture a U-boat. On June 4, 1944 the task group crossed paths with U-505 off the coast of Africa. Spotted by two F4F Wildcat fighters flying off Guadalcanal while running on the surface to charge batteries, her captain, Oberleutnant Harald Lange dived the boat to avoid the fighters. They were able to see the submerged submarine and vectored destroyers onto her track. The experienced antisubmarine warfare team laid down patterns of depth charges that shook U-505 up badly, popping relief valves and breaking gaskets, resulting in water sprays in her engine room.
It should be noted that after a brilliant start to her career under Kapitanleutnant Loewe, U-505 had acquired a reputation as a 'bad luck boat.' She had been the object of a systematic sabotage campaign by dockyard workers in the French Resistance. Her previous skipper had been unable to complete a war patrol for more than a year. Every time he took her out, before she had been on patrol more than a few days, materiel failures would require Kapitanleutnant Peter Zschech to turn back for repairs. On her last patrol, following an attack on a convoy Zschech had been cornered by destroyers and killed himself with a pistol in his control room, leaving his executive officer to extricate the submarine from the trap and bring her back to port. Rather than break up the crew, Grossadmiral Karl Doenitz hand-picked Lange as the new skipper in an attempt to keep the story about Zschesch's suicide in action a secret, for reasons of fleet morale. As might be expected under those conditions, crew confidence in their boat was fragile.
When the minor leaks took place in the engine room, the engine gang panicked and rushed forward into the control room, yelling that the hull was cracked and the boat was sinking. Lange had no choice but to blow all main ballast and try to save his crew. Thinking the boat was mortally wounded, he ordered U-505 to the surface, abandoned and scuttled by taking the cover off the sea strainer, standard procedure in scuttling.
Captain Gallery's boarding party from the USS Pillsbury was ordered to board the foundering submarine and if possible capture her. The destroyers in range used their .50 caliber and 20 mm antiaircraft guns to chase the Germans off the sub so the boarding party could get aboard her. They found the cover to the sea strainer and the nuts that held it in place and closed it again, thus eliminating the possibility of the U-boat sinking for the moment. The boarders located the sub's Enigma coding machine and the current code books and removed them (a primary goal of the mission because it would enable the codebreakers in Tenth Fleet to read German signals in clear without having to break the codes first), and got her under control, making U-505 the only foreign man-of-war captured in battle on the high seas by the United States Navy since the War of 1812.
This incident was the last time that the order, "Away All Boarders!" was given by a US Navy captain. Lt. Albert David, who led the boarding party, received the Medal of Honor for his courage in boarding a foundering submarine that presumably had scuttling charges set to explode - the only Medal of Honor awarded in the Atlantic Fleet during World War II. Task Group 22.3 was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation (US) and Captain Gallery received the Distinguished Service Medal for capturing U-505.
He also received a blistering dressing-down from Admiral Ernest J. King, Chief of Naval Operations, who pointed out that unless U-505's capture could be kept an absolute secret, the Germans would change their codes and change out the cipher wheels in the Enigma. Gallery managed to impress his crews with the vital importance of maintaining silence on the best sea story any of them would ever see. His success made the difference between his getting a medal or getting a court-martial. (The line between brilliance and daring and lunatic stupidity is sometimes very fine; and it is interesting that two noted naval historians, Samuel Eliot Morison and Clay Blair, Jr. are on opposite sides of Gallery's case.)
Toward the end of World War II Captain Gallery was given command of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock.
[edit] Post-World War II service
After promotion to rear admiral he became Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations and, later, commanded Carrier Division Six during the Korean War.
[edit] The "Revolt of the Admirals"
During the so-called "Revolt of the Admirals" during Louis Johnson's tenure as Secretary of Defense, Gallery wrote a series of articles for The Saturday Evening Post criticizing Johnson's plans to scrap the carrier fleet, subsume the Marine Corps into the Army, and reduce the Navy to a convoy-escort force. The final article, "Don't Let Them Scuttle the Navy!" was so inflammatory that Gallery barely escaped court-martial for insubordination. Although he was not court-martialed, the episode cost Gallery his third star, a possible shot at the position of Chief of Naval Operations and effectively finished his career, though he served twelve more years on active duty. At the time of his retirement, he was Number 2 in seniority on the Rear Admirals' List.
[edit] Command of the Tenth Naval District
Admiral Gallery's final command was of the Tenth Naval District in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from December 1956 to July 1960. During this command, with the help or the Rotary and Lions clubs, he established the first Little Leagues in Puerto Rico. It was also there that he first heard the steel bands of Trinidad. He was so taken by the sound that he invested $120 in steel drums for the band assigned to him, establishing the first all-American and only military steel band in 1957. Admiral Dan's Pandemonaics—as they called themselves—became the US Navy Steel Band and toured the world as ambassadors of the U.S. Navy until 1999.
Admiral Gallery retired from the Navy in 1960.
[edit] Awards and honors
The guided-missile frigate USS Gallery was named for Daniel V. Gallery and his two brothers, Rear Admiral William O. Gallery and Rear Admiral Philip D. Gallery.
[edit] Literary career
Admiral Gallery was a prolific author on naval subjects, writing nine books and numerous magazine articles and short stories. His books are now out-of-print but are excellent reading and available in libraries and the used book market.
[edit] Non Fiction Books by RADM Daniel V Gallery
- Eight Bells & All's Well (autobiography)
- U-505 (originally 20 Million Tons Under the Sea)
- The Pueblo Incident
[edit] Fiction Books (Naval Humor) by RADM Daniel V Gallery :
- Title: Clear the Decks
- Publisher: Warner Books (1951)
- Language: English
- ISBN 0-446-88312-3
- Book Description
Irreverent but hilarious book about the US Navy in the WWII era by the Admiral who commanded the task force that captured the German U-boat U-505. Contains Epilogue mentioning Vietnam (1967).
- Title: Now, Hear This!
- Publisher: Paperback Library, Inc. (1966)
- Language: English
- ASIN: B000AMCELG
- Book Description
Retired Admiral Daniel V. Gallery tells the tales of Navy seamen who make the best of what's available to them. Riproaringingly funny, you'll love the antics of Bosun's Mate First Class Fatso Gioninni and his cronies as they make trouble at sea when they tangle with brown-nosers and officious stuffed shirts aboard their aircraft carrier.
- Title: Cap'n Fatso
- Unknown Binding: 192 pages
- Publisher: Norton; [1st ed.] edition (1969)
- Language: English
- ISBN 0-393-08579-1
- Book Description
Well written plot with fascinating insights into the operation of the Navy of the 1960's -- how aircraft carriers work, how navies are supplied and resupplied at sea, how spy missions are flown, and how American and Russian navies get along on the high seas.
But at a deeper level, it's a story about how the US Navy can be a family to its sailors. The main plot is the hell that Cap'n Fatso raises afloat and ashore when his fleet abandons him and his LCU and sails for Vietnam. Intertwined with a subplot about how Fatso mentors young sailors -- protecting them. He even sets up a casino, serving beer, so that young marines won't be corrupted by shoreside attractions.
- Title: Away boarders
- Publisher: Norton; [1st ed.] edition (1971)
- Language: English
- ISBN 0-393-03170-5
- Book Description
The saga of Cap'n Fatso Gioninni Continues.
- Title: The Brink
- Publisher: Warner Books (1973)
- Language: English
- Book Description
A chilling novel about an accident aboard a Polaris sub which threatens to start World War III.
- Title: Stand By-Y-Y to Start Engines
- Publisher: Warner Books (August 1978)
- Language: English
- ISBN 0-446-32011-0
- Book Description
The commander that had a "Dirty Tricks Squad" The commander that earned his anchor by being a "Sailor's" commander. The commander that actually regarded his men as more than "enlisted". This commander actually listened to the wisdom of experienced seaman. It was said of Halsey that Halsey was a sailor that was welcome on any ship; at any time; on any sea... the same may be said of Gallery.
Here are tales of Naval Aviation from the Blue Angels to Blue Water Seamen whose names and locations have been changed to protect the innocent(?).... to keep someone from getting a possibly well deserved Court Martial in the midst of extremely plausible circumstances. Anyone that has been in the real Navy around the real shipboard duties knows in their heart of hearts that these adventures are just too good to have been simply made up.
And ANOTHER plus: Here is Naval lore that you can let your nine-year-old can read without reservation as to language or content. When a reference needs to be made of "salty language" Gallery refers to the verbage as exactly that: Salty Language. Specifics are left to the imagination of the beholder as it were. Written in the 1960s, Gallery's stories still ring true. No matter how technologically advanced today's Navy becomes, its still all about ships and men. And both have their foibles. Gallery exposes them all in this funny book.
[edit] Quotations by Daniel V. Gallery
- "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."
- "Some critics have accused the military of being profligate wastrels because we didn't win World War II by killing the last Jap with the last bullet we had in our ammo locker. I would much rather defend myself against such charges than try to explain to my three kids why we lost our liberties because military planners didn't want the war to end with a lot of surplus junk on our hands."
