SM UB 3

UB 3
General plan UB 1 - UB 8
Overview
Type	UB I
Shipyard	Germania shipyard , Kiel
Order	October 15, 1914
Keel laying	November 3, 1914
Launch	March 5, 1915
1. Period of service
Commissioning	March 24, 1915
Whereabouts	lost after May 23, 1915
Technical specifications
displacement	127 t above water 142 t under water
length	28.1 m
width	3.2 m
Draft	3.0 m
Diving depth	50 m
crew	14th
drive	Daimler diesel engine 45 kW (60 PS) SSW electric motor 89 kW (120 PS)
speed	6.5  kn (12  km / h ) over water 5.5 kn (10.2 km / h) under water
Range	1,650  nm (3,056  km ) at 5 kn (9.3 km / h) over water 45 nm (83 km) at 4 kn (7 km / h) under water
Bunker quantity	3.5 t fuel oil
Armament	2 × 45 cm torpedo, 2 × bow torpedo tubes, 1 × 8 mm machine gun
Dive time	22 s
Build number	241

SM UB 3 was a German UB I submarine of the Imperial Navy . It has been missing since its first venture in May 1915 and was the first boat in its class to be lost.

In October 1914, the Germania shipyard received the order for UB 3 and began construction in November. With a length of hardly more than 28 m , UB 3 displaced 127 t when surfaced and 142 t when submerged. It was armed with two bow torpedo tubes, two torpedoes, and a deck-mounted machine gun. Launching and commissioning as SM UB 3 took place in March 1915.

Divided into sections, UB 3 was transported by train to the Austro-Hungarian port of Pola in April 1915 and reassembled there. It began its service on May 1st with the U-half-flotilla Pola . It has been lost since it left for its first venture in Turkey on May 23, 1915. A German investigation after the war came to the conclusion that UB 3 had fallen victim to an unresolved technical problem, since minefields and enemy influence had to be ruled out.

Planning and construction

After the rapid advance of the German Army along the North Sea coast at the beginning of World War I, the Imperial Navy had no submarines that could operate in the narrow and shallow waters off the coast of Flanders . Originally, the RMA required small, purely electrically powered submarines with a displacement of 80 t and a torpedo tube that could be transported by train to the port of operation and quickly assembled there. After the revision by the submarine inspection , the actual construction (project 34) for the type UB I with 125 t displacement, 28 m length and two torpedo tubes, which the RMA approved at the beginning of October 1914, was created. UB 3 was one of the eight UB-I boats - SM UB 1 to SM UB 8  - for which the Germania shipyard received the order on October 15, 1914 just two months after the start of planning.

The Germania shipyard laid UB 3 on November 3, 1914 in Kiel . It was launched in Kiel on March 5, 1915. UB 3 was 28.1 m long, 3.2 m wide and had a draft of 3 m. It had only one drive shaft to which a 45 kW (60 hp) Daimler 4-cylinder diesel engine for surface travel and a Siemens Schuckert electric motor with 89 kW (120 hp) for travel under water were coupled. This allowed it to reach a maximum of 6.5  kn (12  km / h ) over water and 5.5 kn (10.2 km / h) under water. When traveling above water, it had a range of up to 1,650  nm (3,056  km ) and with one battery charge it was up to 45 nm (83 km) under water. Like all boats in its class, it was designed for a depth of 50 m and, thanks to the many flood openings in its diving tanks, could dive in 22 seconds.

UB 3 was armed with two 45 cm torpedoes in two bow torpedo tubes. An 8 mm machine gun could be set up on deck. The crew consisted of an officer and 13 NCOs and men.

Calls

Oberleutnant zur See Siegfried Schmidt, 27 years old, received his first submarine command with UB 3 and put it into service for the Imperial Navy on March 24, 1915.

UB 3 was prepared for rail transport as it was one of the UB-I boats to be used in the Mediterranean . To load the boat, three flatbed wagons were necessary for the three sections of the hull and additional wagons for the tower, parts of the upper deck, the machines and the batteries. On April 15th the boat was transported to the main port of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in Pola . The naval arsenal there took about two weeks to reassemble UB 3 . The U-Halbflotille Pola was subordinated to UB 3 on May 1, 1915. In order to disguise the presence of German submarines in the Mediterranean area, the boats were given kuk boat numbers and carried the Austro-Hungarian flag. UB 3 became SM U 9 . Since the German Reich and Italy were only at war from August 28, 1916, disputes with Italian ships could be justified.

At the end of May, UB 3 was in the Austro-Hungarian port of Cattaro . Although the U-half flotilla was stationed in Pola, most of their boats operated from Cattaro. As a rule, the boats only returned to Pola for repairs. For its first venture, UB 3 was loaded with ammunition for the Turkish armed forces in Izmir . Because of its limited range, the small cruiser SMS Novara of the Austro-Hungarian Navy towed the boat through the strait from Otranto to the island of Kerkyra . The planned course of UB 3 led south past the Ionian Islands , around the Peloponnese , through the Cyclades , north around Chios and Karaburun in the Gulf of Izmir . Had everything gone well, UB 3 would have reached Izmir between May 28 and 29, 1915 with a half-full fuel bunker. About 80 nm (148 km) from Izmir, the Germans received a mutilated radio message that could not be fully understood. There were no more traces of UB 3 to be found. UB 3 was the first UB-I boat to be lost during the war. It was also the first loss of a German submarine in the Mediterranean.

A German investigation after the war concluded that since there were no minefields along its course and no records of attacks against submarines in this area existed, UB 3 had fallen victim to an unsolved technical problem. British records and some sources based on it record the sinking of UB 3 on April 24, 1916 in the North Sea . However, authors RH Gibson and Maurice Prendergast confirm that this was the fate of UB 13 . They emphasize that UB 3 was lost almost a year before this supposed sinking in the North Sea.

Remarks

1. ↑ In April 1906 Schmidt joined the Imperial Navy as a midshipman along with 34 future submarine commanders (including Wilhelm Marschall , Matthias Graf von Schmettow , Max Viebeg and Erwin Waßner ) as part of Crew IV / 06 . See: Guðmundur Helgason: WWI Officer Crews: Crew 4/06 . Retrieved January 29, 2016.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Eberhard Rössler: The submarines of the Imperial Navy . Bernard and Graefe, Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-7637-5963-8 , pp. 59-62 .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Harald Bendert: The UB boats of the Imperial Navy 1914–1918: missions - successes - fate . Mittler, Hamburg; Berlin; Bonn 2000, ISBN 978-3-8132-0713-2 , pp. 13.30.40 .
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Robert Gardiner; Randal Gray: Conway's all the world's fighting ships, 1906-1921 . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 1985, ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8 , pp. 180 (English).
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Eberhard Rössler: History of the German submarine building. 1: Development, construction and characteristics of the German submarines from the beginning until 1943 . tape 1 . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-153-8 , p. 39.62.85 .
5. ^ ^{A b} V. E. Tarrant: The U-Boat Offensive: 1914-1945 . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 1989, ISBN 978-0-87021-764-7 , pp. 24,172 (English).
6. ^ ^{A b} David Miller: The Illustrated Directory of Submarines of the World . MBI Pub. Co., St. Paul, Minnesota 2002, ISBN 978-0-7603-1345-9 , pp. 46-47 (English).
7. ^ ^{A b} Mark D. Karau: Wielding the Dagger: the MarineKorps Flandern and the German War Effort, 1914-1918 . Praeger, Westport, Connecticut 2003, ISBN 978-0-313-32475-8 , pp. 48-49 (English).
8. ^ Gordon Williamson: U-boats of the Kaiser's Navy . Osprey, Oxford 2002, ISBN 978-1-84176-362-0 , pp. 12 (English).
9. ↑ ^{a b} Guðmundur Helgason: WWI U-boats: UB-3 . In: U-Boat War in World War I . Uboat.net. Retrieved March 4, 2009.
10. ^ Guðmundur Helgason: WWI U-boat commanders: Siegfried Schmidt . In: U-Boat War in World War I . Uboat.net. Retrieved March 4, 2009.
11. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Dwight R. Messimer: Verschollen: World War I U-boat losses . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 2002, ISBN 978-1-55750-475-3 , pp. 126-127 (English).
12. ^ Paul G. Halpern: The naval war in the Mediterranean, 1914-1918 . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 1987, ISBN 0-87021-448-9 , pp. 384 (English).
13. ↑ ^{a b} R. H. Gibson; Maurice Prendergast: The German Submarine War, 1914-1918 . Naval Institute Press, St. Paul, Minnesota 2003, ISBN 978-1-59114-314-7 , pp. 71-91 (English).
14. ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes, Graefelfing vor München 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 , p. 12.
15. ^ Alfred C. Dewar: Franklin Henry Hooper (ed.): Munitions of War: Minesweeping and Minelaying  (=  Encyclopædia Britannica ), 12th. Edition, Volume XXXI, The Encyclopædia Britannica, 1922, pp. 953, p. 953, OCLC 15093864 .