Codename Nemo

On June 4, 1944, the course of World War II was forever changed. That day, a US Navy task force achieved the impossible—capturing a German U-Boat. Called Operation Nemo, it was the first seizure of an enemy ship in battle since the War of 1812, one of the greatest achievements of the US Navy and a victory that shortened the duration of the war.

Charles Lachman’s white-knuckled war saga and thrilling cat-and-mouse game is told 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 Chief Motor Machinist Zenon Lukosius (“Zeke”), whose quick thinking saved the day when a hole threatened to sink U-505.

Three thousand American sailors participated in this extraordinary adventure, nine ordinary American men channeling extraordinary skill and bravery finished the job, and then, everyone involved breathed not a word of it until after the war was over. In Berlin, the German Kriegsmarine assumed that U-505 had been blown to bits by depth charges. They were unaware that the U-Boat and its secrets, to be used in cracking Nazi coded messages, were now in American hands. They were also unaware that 59 German sailors were imprisoned in a POW camp, until their release in 1946. Following Operation Nemo step-by-step, author Charles Lachman has crafted a deeply researched, fast-paced World War II narrative for the ages.