Freecycle

I took a little field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry, where I spent a few hours walking around all by myself. I visited pretty much every exhibit they had. I was particularly taken by their German submarine U-505 exhibit.

During World War II, Germany created a top-notch warship called U-505, which attacked and sank eight ships totaling of 44,962 tons -- three American, two British, and one each Norwegian, Dutch, and Colombian. The US Navy sent a few ships to the European and African coasts to find and destroy US-505. One ship operated by the Guadalcanal task group found U-505 on its way from Freetown, Sierra Leone to Casablanca and sent a couple of fighter planes to attack it.

Not only did the ship successfully destroy U-505, it actually towed the submarine back to the states. The capture of the ship allowed the Allies to study German technology, as well as their codebooks (which Allied cryptanalysts were able to use to break the special "coordinate" code in enciphered German messages and determine more precise locations for U-boat operating areas.) The possession of such top-secret material gave us the upper hand over Germany, which helped us win the war.

Now U-505 (in its entirety after restoration) is at the Museum of Science and Industry. I was absolutely taken by the whole exhibit -- I was like a little kid at the candy store!