Daniel V. Gallery: A Biography of Chicago’s Favorite War Hero
“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.”
If you live in the Chicago metropolitan area (or “Chicagoland”), you’ve likely heard the name of the man who uttered this tough-as-nails quote.
Perhaps you’ve visited eponymously named Gallery Park in Glenview, IL. It’s possible you’ve seen the German U-505 submarine captured by the U.S. during World War II on display in the city’s famous Museum of Science and Industry.
Or maybe, just maybe, you’ve read his post-war memoirs, his books of war fiction, or his controversial articles criticizing the U.S. government’s treatment of the U.S. Navy.
He is none other than Rear Admiral Daniel V. Gallery. He served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1960, and is best remembered for his service in the campaign of the Atlantic during the Second World War.
His role in battling U-boats, including the Navy’s 1944 capture of Germany’s U-505 submarine, made him a war hero. But his involvement in post-war opposition of the government during the Cold War, in what is known today as the Revolt of the Admirals, led to him becoming a controversial figure.
Nonetheless, the country and the city where he was born and raised in have been proud to remember him.
He was born Daniel Vincent Gallery, Jr. on July 10, 1901 in Chicago. Born into a prominent family, his mother Mary Ohanan Gallery (1866–1941) was a writer and literary critic who contributed to multiple Chicago newspapers, and was notable for her effort to portray the Catholic church in the U.S.. His father, Daniel V. Gallery, Sr., was a lawyer who married his mother in 1898. The second of seven children, his brothers William (1904–1981) and Philip (1907–1973) all served in the Navy and held the rank of Rear Admiral. His third brother John was a Catholic priest who served as a military chaplain. He also had two sisters, Margaret and Marcia, and an older brother who died during childhood.
The younger Daniel Gallery, a second-generation Irish American, was raised in Chicago. At the age of 16 he made the decision to join the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. While at the academy, he honed his athletic abilities in wrestling. While still on track to become a military officer, Gallery found enough time to qualify to represent wrestlers of the United States at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp (but did not medal).
After Gallery graduated from the academy in 1920, he began his military career as a naval aviator. As the world spent the 1920s and 1930s reeling from the effects of the First World War, the profession of test piloting had spread in popularity from post-war U.K.. During this time, Gallery flew amphibious-landing craft such as torpedo bombers and seaplanes. Gallery competed in the National Air Races and delivered a winning performance flying a Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber, which had entered service in 1937 and was once considered to be the most lethal bomber in the world for its time.
In 1941, after a well-documented period of non-interventionism followed by the Japan-led attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war and entered World War II. But before the war, the Navy assigned Gallery to the U.S. Embassy in Great Britain. In his role as a naval attache, he flew single-engine Spitfire fighter planes from factories to military training grounds.
After the U.S. entered the war, Gallery was named captain of the carrier USS Guadalcanal, and received the Bronze Star after commanding numerous task forces that sank German submarines (or U-boats) in the Atlantic. However, the defining moment of his military career was soon to come.
While leading the Guadalcanal and its task force fleet, Task Group 22.3, on a patrol through the coasts of the heavily occupied regions of North Africa, the German U-boat U-505 was spotted by the task group’s air support of Wildcat fighters.
The U-505 had first been laid down by Germany in 1940. From then until 1944, the U-boat had been considered a man-of-war. It was equipped with six torpedo launchers, 22 torpedoes, three guns, and over 180 rounds of ammunition. Despite weighing approximately 1,120 tonnes, it could reach speeds of up to 18.3 knots (21.1 miles per hour). In its operational history, the U-505 had been led by four different captains and sank eight different Allied vessels over twelve voyages. However, the twelfth would be a fateful one.
After spotting the American fleet on June 4, 1944, the U-505 attempted to dive into the waters. But Gallery’s team of air fighters and waterborne destroyers attacked the submarine, laying down depth charges. Heavy damage was inflicted on the U-boat and the crew began abandoning ship.
The Task Force received a radio signal from the air fighters: “You struck oil!” and turned their attention at what appeared to be a malfunctioning submarine and a visibly distressed enemy crew. Seeing the Germans evacuate the submarine, the USS Pillsbury destroyer began firing onto the deck of escapees (who neglected the possibility of scuttling the U-boat), clearing the deck as the crew forced to quickly both evade gunfire and abandon the submarine. The U-505’s engines were still running as the submarine had been urgently abandoned. As a result, another destroyer, USS Chatelain, fired a torpedo at the still-moving submarine. After missing, Lieutenant Albert David led the Pillsbury boarded the submarine. After discovering only one fatality, he and the crew on board the submarine confiscated the Germans’ onboard Enigma message encoder and translation books while the Chatelain took the U-505’s 58 remaining surviving crew members as POW’s.
The submarine, along with its crew, was eventually tugged to the U.S.. Meanwhile, Lt. David won the Medal of Honor for leading the Pillsbury, while the Task Force 22.3 won the Presidential Unit Citation.
But the reception of commanding officer Gallery was surprisingly less welcoming.
Navy Admiral Ernest King, who served as Chief of Naval Operations, expressed concern with Gallery’s decision to attack a German man-of-war, primarily with regards to Germany’s code translations. King believed that if Germany would have caught wind of the attack, they would change the meanings behind the Enigma codes; a risk that could compromise the Allies’ code translation efforts that had been in the works throughout the campaign for the Atlantic. As a result, the details of U-505’s capture were kept classified throughout the war and Gallery was ordered to maintain absolute silence regarding the matter, with the probability of facing court-martial if the story were ever to come out.
Nonetheless, Gallery would later spend the rest of the war commanding the USS Hancock carrier and receive the Distinguished Service Medal, after never uttering a word about the face-off that highlighted his military career.
After the war, Gallery continued his military service. He was promoted to his highest rank of Rear Admiral (also known as a two-star Admiral) and began serving as Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations. He also returned to serve in the Korean War, where he commanded carriers once again. Additionally, from 1956 to 1960, Gallery was in charge of the Tenth Naval District. Located in San Juan, Puerto Rico and now defunct, the Tenth Naval District was one of multiple Naval Districts, that served as naval commands for the United States’ commonwealths overseas.
However, his days post-World War II were more defined by his penmanship than by his continued service.
Between 1951 and 1973, Gallery published 10 books, half of which were humorous works of military fiction. Two of his nonfictional books centered on the U-505 capture. Additionally, Gallery, in a similar manner to his mother, published short stories and magazine critiques. But this is when he began stirring controversy.
Louis Johnson served only one year as United States Secretary of Defense under President Harry Truman. But in that year alone, his stances involving nuclear weapons and reducing military expenditure led him to come into conflict with high-ranking servicemen. Ultimately, the outspoken opposition to Secretary Johnson among military officers became known as the Revolt of the Admirals.
In light of the post-World War II establishment of the United States Air Force, Johnson began favoring that nuclear bombing operations be handled by the fledgling branch over established branches. He quoted, “There’s no reason for having a Navy and Marine Corps…amphibious operations are a thing of the past. We’ll never have any more amphibious operations. That does away with the Marine Corps. And the Air Force can do anything the Navy can do, so that does away with the Navy.”
It was statements like this that rubbed multiple Naval Admirals the wrong way.
Gallery himself published numerous articles for the The Saturday Evening Post where he described his public disagreement with both Secretary Johnson and President Truman. The final article, targeted at the Truman administration, was titled, “Don’t Let Them Scuttle the Navy!”
Johnson expressed public outrage at the articles, and called for Gallery to be court-martialed for insubordination. Ultimately, Gallery was neither court-martialed nor one of the numerous military officers called to testify before Congress’s Armed Services Committee (which included his former commanding officer, Admiral Ernest King).
But nonetheless, Gallery would face consequences. Despite being one of the most experienced Real Admirals in the Navy (having served 12 years of active duty), he was denied his third star and promotion to the rank of Vice Admiral. From the resignation of Johnson in 1950 until Gallery’s retirement from the Navy in 1960, he remained in the rank of Rear Admiral.
Gallery’s post-military life saw him continue his writing career, but was largely away from the public eye. He died on January 16, 1977 at the age of 75 at the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He was laid to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, where he is buried next to his two fellow Naval veteran brothers.
When it comes time to remember the legacy of Admiral Daniel Gallery, what will be our memory? Will it as the brave Admiral who led the capture of a German man-o-war as the Allies campaigned the Atlantic in the Second World War? Or will it be as the Admiral who risked his reputation to speak his mind against the commander in chief?
In the end, he was just like any other military leader: wanting the best for his fellow servicemen. That’s exactly the mindset that led him to go as far criticize a presidential administration and a Secretary of Defense that had openly spoken out against the Navy. In the process, he risked his career and reputation.
But the risk paid off, to a degree. While the federal governments’ budget cuts were approved prior to the Korean War, plans to reduce to Navy to cargo and escort ships never materialized. After the Korean War broke out, President Truman realized that in order to lay down a naval blockade of North Korea, he had to increase military spending due to prior budget cuts reducing the strength of the Navy. Additionally, the same year the Korean War broke out, Louis Johnson resigned as Secretary of Defense and was replaced by five-star Army General and future Nobel Peace Prize laureate George Marshall.
And as for the story of the U-505, what seemed like the heroic capture of the enemy had to stay under wraps due to the concern of a potential German retaliation. Since then, the decision for the U.S. military to maintain silence regarding the defeat of a U-boat has seen viewpoints from both sides come to the table. Author Clay Blair, Jr. criticized Gallery’s Task Force for attacking a German vessel containing one of their Enigma encoders, thus potentially risking Germany retaliating by changing the meanings behind the codes and negatively affecting the work the U.S. had done in translating the meanings behind the encodings. Meanwhile, naval historian Samuel Eliot Morrison praised Gallery’s naval spirit and combat valor.
But what does the city he grew up in think of him?
Little other than pride in saying a war hero was born in it.
Before it closed in 1998, Naval Air Station Glenview in Glenview, IL trained numerous Naval Aviators who went on to become household names in America, including NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong and future U.S. Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. Additionally, Gallery was in charge of the Naval Air Reserve Training Command at the station during the Korean War. Today, the runways have been removed but much of the original facility has been historically preserved. It is known today as Gallery Park.
Additionally, there is also the USS Gallery, a Naval frigate named after Gallery as well as his two Naval brothers, Philip and William.
But then comes the biggest reminder of all.
Today only 4 U-boats have been preserved and turned into museum ships. One of them, of course, is the U-505.
After its initial capture, the U-505 had been kept in the U.S. and disguised as a USS submarine to keep its status as a U-boat a secret. After the war, Gallery’s brother John Gallery contacted Lenox Lohr, the President of the Museum of Science and Industry, and discussed the U-505. As the museum had been planning to exhibit a war submarine, Lohr agreed to exhibit the U-505.
And so the museum acquired the submarine from the U.S. government and were able to transport it to Chicago thanks to the city raising an estimated $250,000 for the job. The components that had been stripped from the U-boat’s interior were replaced with new parts. Additionally, the submarine’s periscope was removed and given to the Arctic Submarine Laboratory in California. After additional restorations and repairs, the Museum dedicated the U-505 submarine as a war memorial. Today, it is recognized as a National Historic Landmark.
And close to its designation plaque at the museum, is another plaque detailing the attack and including the name of none other than Daniel V. Gallery.
In the end, the story of Daniel V. Gallery may not be eye-popping enough for middle school history classes. But his capture of the U-505 can’t be forgotten when discussing America’s Atlantic campaign during the Second World War.
His story is that of a classic American military leader. His upbringing introduced him into the military, and his command position during the Second World War tested his leadership capabilities. And while his criticism of the government post-war brought him controversy, it just showed how much he loved his country.
In the end, the city of Chicago will always be proud to say that they are the place where the story of Rear Admiral Daniel V. Gallery all began.
