Hometown: Maryville, MO
Branch: U.S. Navy
Unit: USS Pillsbury (DE-133)
Military Honors: Medal of Honor, Navy Cross with Gold Star
Date of Sacrifice: September 17, 1945 - Norfolk, Virginia
Age: 43
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945

Lt. Albert David was awarded the Medal of Honor for his courage in leading a boarding party onto a German U-boat—the first capture of an enemy warship on the high seas in 130 years. The confiscated technology, maps, and plans helped Allied forces combat the German U-boat menace in World War II’s Atlantic theater.

Born in Maryville, Missouri, Albert Leroy David enlisted in the United States Navy at Kansas City, Missouri, on September 30, 1919, at the age of 17.

According to the Naval History and Heritage Command, he completed Basic Training at Naval Training Station, San Francisco, California, and received orders to serve on the battleship USS Arkansas (BB-33). For two decades, David served on numerous ships across the U.S. fleet, in-cluding the USS Rochester (CA-124), USS Preston (DD-379), USS Delaware (BB-28), USS Utah (BB-31), USS Texas (BB-35), USS Trenton (CL-11), USS Cincinnati (CL-6), USS Salt Lake City (CA-25), and USS Dobbin (AD-3).

After 20 years of Navy service, Lt. David was placed on Fleet Reserve. Within a month, on September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and plunged Europe into World War II (1939-1945). Although the United States had no official declaration of war, preparations were underway, and Lt. David was recalled to active duty.

The U.S. Department of Defense recounts:

David spent the next few years working stateside and received three promotions. By May of 1943, he was a lieutenant junior grade with orders to help outfit and serve on the newly commissioned USS Pillsbury (DD-133), a destroyer that escorted Atlantic Ocean convoys into Casablanca, Morocco, and Gibraltar. The ship also served as part of a “hunter-killer” task force formed around the carrier USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60).

As a lieutenant junior grade, Albert David was serving as Pillsbury’s assistant engineering and electrical officer when the task force, using sonar technology, located a German submarine about 150 miles off the coast of Cape Blanco—a peninsula in the North Atlantic, on the border of Mauritania and Western Sahara in western Africa.

One of the task force ships launched depth charges to disable the enemy sub. With its rudders damaged and compartments beginning to flood, the sub—identified as German U-boat U-505—was forced to the surface. The German commander ordered the crew to set demolition charges and scuttle the vessel (to keep it out of enemy hands), then abandon ship.

The fast action of Lt. David and a team of nine from Pillsbury is recounted in David’s Medal of Honor citation:

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Lieutenant [then Lieutenant, Junior Grade] Albert Leroy David, United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while attached to the U.S.S. PILLSBURY (DE-133) during the capture of an enemy German submarine off French West Africa, 4 June 1944. Taking a vigorous part in the skillfully coordinated attack on the German U-505 which climaxed a prolonged search by the Task Group, Lieutenant David boldly led a party from the Pillsbury in boarding the hostile submarine as it circled erratically at five or six knots on the surface. Fully aware that the U-boat might momentarily sink or be blown up by exploding demolition and scuttling charges, he braved the added danger of enemy gunfire to plunge through the conning tower hatch and, with his small party, exerted every effort to keep the ship afloat and to assist the succeeding and more fully equipped salvage parties in making the U-505 seaworthy for the long tow across the Atlantic to a U.S. port. By his valiant service during the first successful boarding and capture of an enemy man-o-war on the high seas by the U.S. Navy since 1815, Lieutenant David contributed materially to the effectiveness of our Battle of the Atlantic and upheld the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

The high value to the Allies in capturing the German U-boat cannot be overstated. U-505 had sunk eight Allied ships before its capture. The sub was equipped with the latest German technology in radar, torpedoes, radio code, and other advanced systems. Other valuable finds included charts, codebooks, classified materials, Enigma decoding machines, and even notebooks containing decrypted messages.

After towing the crippled submarine to the United States, it provided a treasure trove of intelligence that helped Allied forces combat the German U-boat threat throughout the Atlantic theater. U-505 was the first enemy vessel captured at sea by the U.S. Navy since the War of 1812 (1812-1815)—130 years earlier.

The U.S. Department of Defense says, “The confiscated materials also allowed the Allies to continue decoding German submarine radio messages in real-time, which led to greater suc-cesses in the European theater.”

While Lt. David’s actions earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor, he would not live to receive the award. He died of a heart attack on September 17, 1945, in Norfolk, Virginia—less than a month before the ceremony that would honor him with the nation’s highest military award for valor. His widow, Lynda Mae David, was presented his Medal by President Harry S. Truman on October 5, 1945, in a ceremony at the White House.

Lt. Albert Leroy David was laid to rest in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California. On December 19, 1964, the U.S. Navy launched the destroyer USS Albert David (FF-1050), named in his honor.

Following the war, U-boat (U-505) was sent to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, where it was restored and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989. The exhibit includes Lt. Albert Leroy David’s Medal of Honor.

Sources
Card Photo: Naval History and Heritage Command—80-G-49177 Captain Daniel V. Gallery, Jr., USN and Lieutenant Junior Grade Albert L. David, USN
Naval History and Heritage Command: David, Albert L.
Congressional Medal of Honor Society: Albert Lee David
U.S. Department of Defense, Medal of Honor Monday: Navy Lt. Albert David
National Medal of Honor Museum: LTJG Albert L. David and the Capture of U-505
Missouri University of Science and Technology, LCDR J. David Rogers, USNR—Capture of the U-505
Burial Site: Find a Grave