 The DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of better things for better living through chemistry, presents the Cavalcade of America. Away all boarding parties. An age-old naval battle cry was only heard once in the 20th century. It was during World War II. Tonight's cavalcade recreates the action in which that battle cry was heard. Our star, Wendell Corey. My name is Dan Gallery. In World War II, I was captain of a ship, a simple frail and homely little baby flat top. Her official name was Guadalcanal, the we called her can-do. Among the battleships and cruisers and the great carriers of the Essex class, she seemed like a tiny Cinderella. But she was handy, happy-go-lucky, and didn't know the meaning of the word impossible. We are operating against enemy submarines in the North Atlantic. Our task group had just sunk one of Hitler's crack-you-boats, and we were headed home with her captain and crew. After securing our prisoners below, my executive officer, Commander Johnson, reported to my sea cabin on the bridge. Prisoners secured and submitted a preliminary questioning, Captain. Getting the answers? Now just the usual. Name, rank, and shift. Refuse to answer all other questions. Plant that mic in their quarters, as I suggested. Oh, yeah, yeah. All we got was some hot telephone numbers in Hamburg. Seems they like them blonde and plump. All right, Johnson. Now, bring in their skipper. I'll have another go at him. Aye, aye, sir. In here, Captain Hanking. Good to see you, man. Happy day. Morning, Captain Hanking. Sit down, please. Thank you. Cigarette? Thank you. I think it's going. Water's comfortable. Anything you need? We have no cause for complaints. Good. Now there's just a few questions. I'd like that. Captain Gallery, I must remind you that under the laws of war... I'm glad you mentioned that, Captain Hanking. Because you and your crew have been accused of shooting survivors in violation of the laws of war. Those charges are false. Yes, I can prove it. Good. I hope you can. Then answer my questions and I'll do what I can for you. I think I know what you want. The key to our codes and cold changes. Correct? Well... I don't know it. I swear it on my honor as a chairman officer. Who does know it? No one. The code books went to the bottom with my submarine. I see. Do all your submarines operate on the same code system? Yes. Mm-hmm. Well, thank you, Captain Hanking. You've been very cooperative. Any more questions? Not at present. I've warned you. This information will do you no good. Why? Because you will never lay hands on one of those code books. You seem very sure of that. You think you sank my submarine, don't you? With all due respect, Captain. As long as she's sunk, I don't care who sunk it. With all due respect, that is why you are losing the battle of the Atlantic. Oh, come now. I know you opened the sea vows before your abandoned ship is nothing unusual, Matt. But you do not know the extra precautions we take. Oh, something really ingenious of that, like a... Time bomb? Bought in demolition bombs. Set to go off automatically within minutes of abandoning ship. Why do you volunteer this information? Just in case, Captain. In case you're entertaining any... rash ideas. My U-boat skipper made a couple of shrewd guesses. But he gave me more information than he realized. If only we could get our hands on the German code books, we'd know the movements of every Nazi U-boat. I turned Henkei over to Naval Intelligence at Norfolk. And at the next departure conference of my task group, I outlined a plan for getting one of those code books. It was a hundred to one shot, but we decided to try it. On the way to the submarine hunting ground, we checked out the new air squadron off the flight deck of my carrier. Launch aircraft! Launch aircraft! One by one, we got our planes in the air. Fighter directors got busy below the flight deck, charting radar scopes, broadcasting vectors of the pilots. All the brains of a modern fighting carrier went to work. About the chute house and the bridge of our van destroyer, Chateau Lane, the man of the sonar watch were listening in on the underwater sub-detecting equipment. Hey, listen, we got something. There's an echo. Oh, it's nothing. Probably just a whale. Bing! Man, I'm getting so high. I hear that noise in my sleep. Yeah, it's getting monotonous. When that thing stops being monotonous, you'll wish it stayed monotonous. Oh, get a load of him. And how many wolfpacks have you sunk, Admiral? Plenty. But we won't run into any wolfpacks in these waters. Well, that's something to be grateful for, eh, Mike? And the only thing I'll be grateful for is Casablanca, chief. I wonder if we'll get ashore and get a chance to see it. Yeah, how about that? Casablanca. Man, I always wanted to see that place. What's so special about Casablanca? You been there, chief? I've been in this man's navy 15 years. If it's a seaport, I've been there. Hey, I'd like to see that joint. You know, from the movie of the same name? What joint? In Casablanca. Remember, this dame shows up. She's escaped from the Nazis. Yeah, you remember the song. You must remember this. A kiss is still a kiss. A sigh is just a sigh. The fundamental things are life. Hey, look, the only fundamental things in your life right now is them sonar sounds. What gets me is how a tone-deaf guy like him ever got on the sonar. Who's tone-deaf? You are, Junior. Oh, yeah? Knock it off, you guys. And we're hunting submarines, and that's big game hunting, and don't forget it. We ain't making moving pictures, you know. A whole month and nothing. But if this was the movies, we'd have seen a dozen sub-wolf packs by now. Don't worry about wolf packs. It's the subs that run alone. A sub alone can be more dangerous than the ones that hunt in packs. Yeah? How you figure that? You ever see a cornered rat? The same with a sub. I seen one left loose with six fish right while she was sinking. And those torpedoes were running wild. Contact! Bridge. Check bearing. Zero, four, three. Hey, this sounds good. It's good, all right. Doppler is up. It's coming toward us. Where is it? Zero, four, five, two thousand yards. Sonar to bridge. We have a possible contact. Bearing zero, four, five, two thousand yards. Bridge to sonar. Classify contact. Sonar to bridge. Contact solid metallic. Classified submarine. Brace the sonar. Very well. Reporting contact to task group commander. In a matter of seconds, I received by the TBS the Chattelaine's contact report. I pick up the bridge mic. Task group commander to Chattelaine. Proceed on firing run. Acknowledge, over. Chattelaine to task group commander. Will Cole, out. Commander Johnson. Aye, aye, sir. Sound general quarters. All hands to general quarters. Manual battle stations. All hands to general quarters. Manual battle stations. The ship became alive as men hurried to their stations. On the bridge above the flight deck Johnson and I watched the planes. Our combat air patrol circled trying to sight the sub. I listened to the bridge monitor, the VHF, directing their movements in their own peculiar lingo. Or by Tomcat, under mattress, Angel's sake. I'm at a Wildcat, Brandon, closing vector zero, nighter zero, buster. Right here, out. Reduce speed, Johnson. Come around a port. Aye, aye, sir. Task group commander to all ships. Stand by to move in on target according to plan. Casino. Aye, aye, sir, standing by. Down on deck and take over your boarding party. Aye, aye, sir. Boarding party. Yeah, that's what I said. Aye, aye, sir. Also check those planes out there. See if they've sighted that sub yet. Aye, aye, sir. Can do to Cato. What's C? There's a dog. There we go. What's C? Sub commander to Chattelaine. Wildcats are over target. Commence and coordinate depth charge attack. Chattelaine group planes still circling overhead. The Chattelaine tossed their first depth charge into the water. The other destroyers moved in to form a rough semi-circle about the submerged target. They rode the swells as the first charges exploded. Great geysers of salt water shot into the air. Before they'd subsided, others rose a few yards away. On the bridge of the carrier, we waited. Listening on the VHF to the voices of our pilots as they watched the attack from the air. Cato to Chattelaine, over wide. Pass group commander to all ships. Proceed as directed by planes. Well, Johnson, here we go. If we can scare that sub to the surface without damaging it too much... Robert, it's Chattelaine. That last one shook her. She's trying to dive deeper. If we sunk her out... She's straightening out again. She's just below the surface. That badly damaged... Tell me that, Mike. Pass group commander to all ships. See if we can bring her to the surface without further damage. I want to capture this buzzard. Our planes dived to indicate the new position of the submerged U-boat. The Chattelaine moved in closer with her sun. At that moment, one of the planes, Cato pushed down his transmitter button. His voice rang out on the VHF. It was shock oil. Just 12 and a half minutes after the Chattelaine's original report... The black shape of the submarine conning tower hope itself up out of the water. Less than 700 yards from our van destroyer. She's good and hit all right. I don't think she'll do any fighting. I'm not taking any chances. Commence firing. Commence firing! 50 caliber machine guns blazing, sending torrents of steel ripping across the sub deck. Destroyers just through small stuff calculated to scare the crew into the ocean... without actually inflicting a fatal wound on the sub itself. Commander Johnson kept his glasses focused on the conning tower hatch. At 11.25. The hatch is opening, Captain. Sub's crew is coming out. Look, they're going over the side. All ships and planes cease fire. Cease fire! All ships and planes cease fire! Lower boats to pick up survivors. Lower boats to pick up survivors. There's our prize, Johnson. How's she look to you? The way she's riding, I'd say her after torpedo room is flooded. She's got four more torpedo tubes in her snout. And she's still moving. Think they left a suicide watcher border? I think he was right. They've left more than that aboard. Look, she's moving in circles. The rudder must be jammed. She's probably lost steerage weight. It makes blessings. She might just flounder around to where she could aim one of her fish-outters. This is about where we came in on Captain Henke said. Then minutes, he said. What's that, sir? 14 demolition charges. Validate our lives against those code books. With them, we'll be able to save thousands. I guess it's worth the risk. Survivors are being picked up, Captain. Shall I secure them below? No, let them stay on deck. I'd like them to see this show. All right. Alert your boarding party, Trucino. Ready to go. Aye, aye, sir. Oh, and Earl. Sir? Good luck. Thank you, sir. Johnson? Looks like we made it. Yes, sir. Well, here goes. Attention all ships. Put this on all squawk boxes so all hands can hear it. How's our timetable running? Three seconds. Okay. Now, away all boarding parties. Away all boarding parties. All that hadn't been heard in our Navy in over 130 years. Even over modern loudspeakers had had a salty ring to it and recalled the days of piracy of hand-to-hand fighting on the decks of sailing ships and of enemy vessels claimed as prizes of war. Our enemy crew abandoned ship and the U-505 was ours. Ours, that is, if she didn't sink or blow up. You are listening to the DuPont Cavalcade of America starring Wendell Corey and our Bill Hamilton speaking for the DuPont Company. When you turn on the lights of your home with a flick of a switch, it's hard to believe that in this day and age the lantern is still an important source of light. But when floods and other disasters cut power supplies gasoline lamps come into their own and campers, hunters, farmers and people in isolated areas still use them. But one of the best-known lanterns burns with a brighter glow today because of a small rayon bag that is tied onto the burner. Treated with chemicals, the rayon leaves a glowing residue as it burns. One reason rayon is used is because it is chemically pure and contains no impurities that might cut down the light. Thus rayon, one of DuPont's five man-made fibers demonstrates once again its versatility as one of DuPont's better things for better living through chemistry. And now we return to our cavalcade play away all boarding parties starring Wendell Corey as Captain Gallery. As skipper of the aircraft carrier Guadalcanal leading a task group against Nazi submarines in the Atlantic, Captain Daniel Gallery has conceived the daring plan to gain possession of the code books by means of which the movements of all U-boats are controlled. As our story continues, he has forced the U-505 to service but instead of sinking her after she has been abandoned by her crew, he plans to board her and take her in tow as a prize of war. At the sound of that ancient battle cry of the sea away all boarding parties, half a dozen whaleboats from the ships of our task group streak toward the abandoned Nazi sub. The boat from the Pillsbury with Lieutenant David and a party of eight men scrape the side of the dangerously pitching sub at approximately 1155. Lieutenant David, torpedo man's Maid Al Nispel and radio man Sam Doiak manage to scramble aboard. Doiak, got that hatch. Keep that Tommy gun ready. There may be more crops below. Aye, aye, sir. Nispel, take a look up foreign. Aye, aye, sir. Look up here but one dead German, sir. Okay, let's have a look below. Nobody here, sir. Doiak, check the forward compartments down here. Aye, sir. Nispel, come with me. So far so good. Nobody in this compartment either. At least we're lucky so far. You better... Hey, listen. There's water pouring in somewhere. I'll go check. It's up here pouring. What is it? Sea valve. All compartments flooded and more pouring in and it's coming in fast. Can you stop it? I don't know. The high knees yank the lid off the sea valve just to make sure she's safe. Water's pouring in so fast I'm not sure we can get it back on. We've got to... Where's the lid? Probably right around here. Somewhere under the water. Better feel around for it. You got something? A thing. A metal. Kind of heavy. You read German? Yeah. It's a can of beans. Hold on. I think this is it. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Now if I can just fit it on here. That seemed to get it all the way. There's so much pressure here. Let me give you a hand. Yeah. All right. Take it easy. Watch it. I'm trying to get the lock on. Now hold it a second. Hurry up. I can't hold on much longer. Wait. I've got it. Get the light going. I'll turn it off. Hey. There's a humming noise. You hear it? Yeah, that's the sub's electric motor. You've got to stop it. Come on. I hope the remote circuits aren't piled up. There's the main control panel. There ought to be one of these master switches along here. Yeah. Wait a minute. Don't touch it yet. Not till Doiak checks it for booby trap wires. It's about to get this sub wire to explode after she's abandoned. Come on. Let's see if he's found anything. I didn't meet any crouts up for it. Have that gun ready when I open this door. Oh. Very pretty, Doiak. Now take off that crout hat and come in here. I want this control panel checked for booby trap wires. Aye, aye, sir. And figure the first thing we do would be to stop the motor. Did you find anything? Well, these plates are welded on. There are no marks in the back. Looks clean to me, sir. Okay, Mr. Bull. Stop the motors. Okay, sir. There goes nothing. What's going on? She's rocking like a steer. That fluid momentum must have been keeping her up now that she's dead in the water. She's getting... She's settling there by the star. All right, never mind. Let's start yanking up those floor plates. A demolition charge is planted somewhere aboard and wired to a time detonator. Don't worry, sir. I'm an expert on clock type detonators. Yeah, but we don't know what time it is by the German's clocks. Lieutenant David's men set to work fast and furiously, disconnecting electric leads from demolition charges, looking for other booby traps and closing the sea valves. At 12.30, Commander Tresino went aboard with a party on the Guadalcanal. Good work, David. All you men did a good job. Thank you, sir. You taking over now? Yes. Pillsbury will take the sub until... In the meantime, we'll see if we can center that rudder with the hand steering apparatus. The hand steering outfit is in that compartment over there, sir. But the door is jammed and we've got a tag that's a suspected booby trap. Have you tried to debug it? No, sir. Why not? Captain Gallery's orders were not to monkey with booby traps. We've got to get that door open. If we don't get this sub fast, we're going to lose it. Doyac, signal the Guadalcanal. Say we want the skipper's permission to operate on a booby trap. At 13.12, we secured a tow line to the vial of the U-505. Two minutes later, Earl Tresino's message about the booby trap was delivered to me on the bridge. I've been itching for an excuse to get aboard that sub ever since we captured her. Now I had it. My executive, Commander Johnson, took over the bridge and I took over the U-505. Oh, Captain, we've got to get that hand-steering outfit rigged. She just won't tow. Is that where your suspected booby trap is? Yes, the door's jammed. And we... Who spotted it? I did, sir. Doyac, radium in second. How do you figure it? Well, sir, the way the metal's jammed in there, it looks like the wire might be rigged from under the door handle. You see the marks on the screw there? Well, if they screwed the handle back on without setting off any explosions, it stands to reason we... I see what you mean. Let's have that screw, then. The battered hull of the pitching submarine was still leaking sea water in a dozen places. It was hard to keep steady and hard to keep a foothold standing in four inches of oily water. As I started work on the door handle, a wave of tension rose and the men group around me. I saw it and their figures shattered against the bulk head by the flickering emergency light. The seas seemed to be pressing in against the weakened plates of the hull. They resitated, wondering whether to clear the man out before going on with it. Then the sub gave a sickening lurch and Lieutenant David yelled down the hatch. Captain? Captain? The sub is shearing the starboard. The line's pulled tight as a fiddle string. She's ready to snap. That settled it. With our stern already on the water, the pull of the tow line could roll us over. If the tow line snapped, it might slide backwards to the bottom. I lifted my foot at right angles to the door and kicked. All right. Get somebody on that rudder. Well, Diane, how'd I do as a booby trap actually? You get plenty on nerves, sir, but I think you took a terrible chance. I was pretty sure it wasn't a booby trap. I wasn't thinking of that, sir. The compartment might have had a big leak in it. We might have been flooded out. That's what scared me. The arrow come with me. I want to have a look at that crowdskipper's personal correspondence. This will collect it. Give it here. Yes, sir. Here it is. We dug it all out, Captain. Here's the ship's locks, Illinois' transcripts of radio messages. Codebook, man. You haven't got the codebook? It's the very thing we're after. Come on, let's get back to the Captain's cabin. This is desk. Oh, where could that thing be? Look at his locker. Now, here it is. Ah, secret compartment. Good. No pages torn out. It's OK. Now, all we have to do is convince a few skeptics back in Washington. Skipper, if we get to Bermuda with a German sub-into, they'll believe anything we tell them. When I climbed the sea ladder again on the Guadalcanal, we hoisted the traditional broom in our masthead and squared for Bermuda. We were proud to be the only American ship in modern times to have taken an enemy submarine at sea as a prize of war. We were proud, yes, but we couldn't even spin sailor's yarns about it, because the whole operation was top secret and stayed that way. It had to. Now that it can be told, I'm proud to report that we all kept that secret, and that the code books from our captured sub became a major weapon in our final victory in the battle for the Atlantic. Thanks to Wendell Corrie and the Cavalcade players for the night story, away all boarding parties, and now Bill Hamilton speaking for the Dupont Company. Francis Bacon, the famous philosopher who lived more than three centuries ago, said that the alchemists of his time who were always looking for ways to make gold reminded him of a wise old farmer who told his sons that he'd left them a treasure buried somewhere on his land, but he did not say where. After the farmer's death, the sons got busy and plowed the place up better than ever before. They did not find what they expected, but the intensive plowing produced a plentiful crop, and that was the treasure that their father really had in mind. In many Dupont research laboratories today, there are treasures similar to those that Bacon had in mind, thousands of chemicals that have turned up in the course of research. What these chemicals are made of and how they were made are known, but their full value is not yet known. Much scientific plowing still needs to be done before they'll produce a plentiful crop of useful products. Maybe some of them never will, but here they are, constantly available for trial and study, and because they are readily available, they save scientists many hours of research time. During World War II, for example, when a search was being made for an antimalarial drug, some 1,200 compounds were taken from the shelf and tested. Although none of them supplied the answer, they made it possible for research workers to eliminate unsuitable chemicals quickly and continue their search in other directions. A scientist cannot rise up in the morning and say, this is a fine day to make a valuable new product for mankind, but he can feel sure that from the continued efforts of a large and well-trained staff, backed by extensive facilities, will come important developments. This is the fate of DuPont scientists as they continue to search for better things for better living through chemistry. Tonight's DuPont Cavalcade was written by Robert Talman and was based on an article from the book by Rear Admiral Daniel V. Gallery, U.S. Navy, who was Captain Gallery at the time of the action traumatized on Cavalcade tonight. Our technical advisor for this broadcast was Lieutenant Commander Kane Lin, United States Navy. Original music was composed by Arden Cornwell, conducted by Donald Boreys. The program was directed by John Zoller. Mr. Corey may soon be seen starring in the Paramount picture Jamaica. And Mrs. Sy Harris, reminding you to be with us next week DuPont Cavalcade will again present Last Thanksgiving's award-winning broadcast Half of Praise. Star of that broadcast will be with us again the Dean of the American Theater, Walter Hampton. The DuPont Cavalcade of America came to you tonight from the Velasco Theater in New York City and is sponsored by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. Makers of better things for better living through chemistry. Tonight just for laughs listen to Red Skelton on NBC.