SM UB 6

UB 6
UB 6 in the Gent-Bruges Canal
Overview
Type	UB I
Shipyard	Germania shipyard , Kiel
Order	October 15, 1914
Keel laying	November 22, 1914
Launch	March 1915
1. Period of service
Commissioning	April 8, 1915
Decommissioning	On March 18, 1917 in Hellevoetsluis after beaching itself sunk .
Whereabouts	Handed over to France in 1919 and broken up in Brest in 1921 .
Technical specifications
displacement	127 t over 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	244

SM UB 6 was a German submarine of type UB I of the Imperial Navy during the First World War . The submarine ran aground off the Meuse estuary , was interned in the neutral Netherlands and sunk by the crew in Hellevoetsluis themselves .

In October 1914, the Germania shipyard received the order for UB 6 and began construction in November. With a length of hardly more than 28 m , UB 6 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. Disassembled into sections, UB 6 was transported by train to Antwerp and reassembled there. The launch took place in March and the commissioning as SM UB 6 in April 1915.

UB 6 remained subordinate to the Flemish submarine flotilla throughout its service life and sank the flotilla's first warship with the British destroyer HMS Recruit . By September 1916, the submarine was able to sink fourteen more ships, damage two ships and raise a pinch . As a result of a navigational error by the commander, UB 6 ran aground on March 12, 1917 off the mouth of the Meuse. The neutral Netherlands interned the submarine and crew in Hellevoetsluis. Six days later, the crew sank their submarine themselves. The crew remained interned until the end of the war. The wreckage was left in 1919 and France in 1921 Brest scrapped .

Planning and construction

After the rapid advance of the German army along the North Sea coast at the beginning of the First World War, the Imperial Navy possessed no U-boats in the narrow and shallow waters off the coast of Flanders could operate. 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 on October 5, 1914, was created. UB 6 was one of the eight UB-I boats - UB 1 to 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 6 on November 22, 1914 in Kiel . UB 6 was 28.1 m long, 3.2 m wide and had a draft of 3 m. It had a drive shaft to which a 45  kW (60 hp) Daimler 4-cylinder diesel engine for overwater 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 6 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.

After its completion at the Germania shipyard, UB 6 was prepared for rail transport to Antwerp. 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. Assembly in Hoboken took two weeks. Two tugs then transported the boat up the Scheldt using floating boxes and through the Ghent-Bruges canal to the port of operations in Zeebrugge . Another five and a half days were planned for this.

First missions

War zone of the German submarines on February 18, 1915

Kapitänleutnant Erich Haecker, 29 years old, received his first submarine command with UB 6 and put it into service for the Imperial Navy on April 8, 1915. When UB 6 arrived on April 19 at the Flanders submarine flotilla set up on March 29, 1915, the first German submarine offensive, which had been underway since February, was in full swing. During this campaign, the German Reich declared the sea area around the British Isles a war zone in which all enemy ships would be sunk. An attack on ships of neutral countries was allowed if they could be identified as false flag enemy ships.

HMS Recruit

The preliminary area of ​​operation for the UB-I boats of the Flanders Flotilla was the sea area around the Hoofden . With the expiry of UB 4 on April 9, the activities of the newly formed Flotilla began. Even if UB 4 was able to sink the first ship for the flotilla, the first sinking of a warship UB 6 succeeded . On May 1st, Haecker sighted two old destroyers of the Royal Navy , the HMS Brazen and the HMS Recruit , about 30 nm (56 km) southwest of the lightship Galloper. Around noon Haecker torpedoed the recruit ; the 335  BRT great ship broke in two, 60-man crew died 34. On June 1, sank UB 6 the 3,303-ton freighter Saidieh the Elbow Buoy 6 sm (11 km) northeast of the Thames estuary . The Saidieh was on her way from Alexandria to Hull with a load of onions and cottonseed ; eight crew members lost their lives. The freighter was to remain the largest ship sunk during UB 6's service life.

At the end of June, the flotilla chief, Korvettenkapitän Karl Bartenbach , wanted to prove that the British barriers in the Dover Strait  - network closures and sea ​​mines  - were not insurmountable. On the evening of June 21, UB 6 left Zeebrugge for a tour of Boulogne . UB 6 reached Boulogne in the early morning of June 22nd, passing Dunkirk , Calais and Gris Nez just below the French coast . Only once during the outward journey did a British destroyer force the submarine to dive into alarm . During the day, UB 6 went to periscope depth in order to observe the ship traffic on the roadstead off Boulogne. In the afternoon UB 6 started the march back and reached Zeebrugge again on the afternoon of June 23rd. Three other UB-I boats  - UB 2 , UB 5 and UB 10  - began to patrol in the western area of ​​the English Channel . Fog and bad weather, however, hampered the operations of the submarines. None of the boats could sink a ship; however, the operations proved that it was possible to bypass the British barriers in the Dover Strait.

On July 12, UB 6 attacked five British fishing trawlers at a distance of 18 nm (33 km) to 23 nm (43 km) off Lowestoft and was able to sink four of them. All five ships - British cutters rigged with ocher red sails - were stopped, boarded by the prize command of UB 6 and four of them sunk with explosive cartridges. The fifth cutter could still run back despite severe damage from the blast. Two weeks later, UB 6 torpedoed and sank the British 406 BRT freighter Firth 4 nm (7 km) in front of the Aldeburgh Napes buoy . On August 11, the 57 GRT fishing cutter Leander was sunk with explosive cartridges. After that, the attempt to stop another cutter LT 649 with a carbine shot in front of the bow failed . The cutter turned out to be a submarine trap and returned fire. UB 6 was able to escape the fire by diving into alarm.

After the sinking of the Lusitania in May 1915 and further sensational sinkings in August ( Arabic incident ) and September, the Americans demanded guarantees for the safety of American citizens on unarmed merchant ships. In response to this, the chief of the admiralty's staff of the Imperial Navy Henning von Holtzendorff ended the German submarine offensive on September 18. Holtzendorff's instructions ordered the withdrawal of all submarines from the English Channel and the Celtic Sea and demanded strict adherence to the price order . UB 6 was only able to sink a ship five months later .

Oberleutnant zur See Ernst Voigt followed Haecker as commander of UB 6 in mid-November . For the 25-year-old Voigt it was his first submarine command. Under his command, UB 6 sank the next ship in January 1916. On the 27th, the 57 GRT fishing cutter Crystal was boarded 25 nm (46 km) southeast of Southwold and sunk with explosive cartridges.

Second submarine offensive

In early 1916, the British naval blockade had its first effects on German imports. The Royal Navy was able to withhold and confiscate more cargo destined for the German Reich than the amount of cargo that the German submarines sank during the first submarine offensive. Which led to the fact that the Imperial Navy began a second offensive against merchant shipping on February 29th . The Admiral's staff laid down the following principles for submarine warfare: All enemy ships within the war zone proclaimed by Germany will be sunk without warning. Outside this zone, this applies to armed ships. In order not to make the United States an enemy, an attack on passenger ships is not allowed.

On March 17th, UB 6 was able to record its first success during the new submarine offensive. The Swedish ship Ask was torpedoed near the lightship Noord Hinder. The 1041 GRT steamer had loaded wood and was en route from Västervik to London . The heavily damaged ship had to be towed to Nieuwe Waterweg . There were no reports of casualties among the crew. After the attack on the Ask, UB 6 sank another Swedish ship two weeks later. The 1,115 GRT Hollandia was anchored 0.25  nm (0.5  km ) from the lightship Galloper when UB 6 torpedoed her on March 31. The Hollandia was under ballast from Rouen to Rotterdam . No deaths were recorded during the sinking.

In mid-March, the commander of UB 6 took over the newly commissioned submarine UB 23 . Ernst Voigt's successor was Oberleutnant zur See Karl Neumann, previously in command of UB 2 and UB 13 . During his submarine career, Neumann sank over 100,000 GRT of ship space, but he was unsuccessful at the helm of UB-6 . In July, Oberleutnant zur See replaced Karsten von Heydebreck Neumann as commander. For the 26-year-old Heydebreck, a classmate of Voigt in the IV / 08 crew of the cadet institution , it was his first submarine command.

After the Sussex incident , Admiral Reinhard Scheer , the new head of the ocean-going fleet , was forced to end the merchant ship war at the end of April 1916. On April 24th, he ordered all boats back to sea and no boat was allowed to leave his port. On April 30, the German Kaiser partially revoked the order and approved the use of submarines for military purposes. As at the end of the first offensive in August 1915, UB 6 could not sink a ship for the next five months.

Ambush operations

At the end of April, UB 6 and other Flanders boats took over the protection of the German naval forces during the bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft on April 24th and 25th. Scheer's plans to lure out parts of the British Grand Fleet again after the attack on Lowestoft were completed in mid-May. The Imperial Navy would set out for a raid on Sunderland to trap the British fleet with the help of submarines and minefields. UB 6 , UB 10 , UB 12 , UB 16 , UB 17 and UB 29 formed on 30./31. May an 18 nm (33 km) long line east of Lowestoft . These boats were supposed to watch and intercept the British light naval forces stationed at Harwich in case they sailed north to take part in the action. Since there were no attacks on the shipping and intelligence reports had reported the departure of the submarines, the British Admiralty became suspicious.

The Grand Fleet set sail on May 30, but the coded message of the British advance did not reach some of the boats stationed in the north. Added to this was the delayed departure of the German fleet, which was diverted to the Skagerrak . The ambush expected by Scheer turned into a complete and disappointing failure. From the group of UB 6 only UB 10 saw the forces from Harwich, but was too far away to launch an attack. None of the submarines sank a British capital ship , so the entire Grand Fleet was able to attack the outnumbered ocean-going fleet in the Skagerrak Battle from May 31 to June 1.

In August the Germans prepared another ambush for the British fleet. They planned another raid by the deep sea fleet on Sunderland. The German fleet planned to set sail late in the evening of August 18 and bombard military targets the next morning. As in May, UB 6 was again part of a group that was supposed to attack the British forces in Harwich. Together with UB 12 , UB 16 , UB 19 and UB 37 , the submarine formed the second line of the Flanders Flotilla on August 20, 12 nm (22 km) northwest of Texel . Again the British reconnaissance warned of the impending attack and ambush. The Grand Fleet set sail on August 18 at 4 p.m., five hours ahead of the German deep-sea fleet. A lack of clarification - a false report from the airship L 13 - caused Scheer to deviate from the bombardment of Sunderland and later to break off the entire operation. Although German submarines were able to sink two British light cruisers , UB 6 and his group played no role in this combat operation.

On September 10, UB 6 sank the Norwegian 400-GRT freighter Lindborg near the lightship Maas , which was traveling to London with general cargo - no loss of life is known. During the next venture in the same area, UB 6 was able to sink four Belgian barges on September 23 . The next day the Dutch 1328-GRT freighter Batavier II was confiscated, and a prize squad brought the ship to Zeebrugge. The Batavier II was Heydebreck's final success as commander of UB 6 . In January 1917 he took command of the newly commissioned minelayer submarine UC 63 . Oberleutnant zur See Oskar Steckelberg, another former student of the IV / 08 crew of the cadet institute, took over command.

Unrestricted submarine warfare

The British naval blockade led to serious cuts in the import of food and fuel into the German Reich, as it prevented neutral shipping from reaching the German ports. The consequences were a dramatic increase in child mortality and the death of more than 700,000 people from malnutrition or hypothermia . Due to the grave consequences of the blockade, Kaiser Wilhelm II agreed on January 9, 1917 that "the unrestricted submarine war would begin with full energy on February 1" in order to help force the British into peace. The orders issued to the submarine commanders by the FdU Hermann Bauer demanded, among other things, “No ship is allowed to swim anymore; his sinking is justified ”.

SM UB 6 interned in the port of Hellevoetsluis

UB 6 left Zeebrugge on March 10 to patrol near the Meuse lightship. Two days later, after a navigation error by Steckelberg - he had mixed up two beacons - UB 6 ran aground in front of the Maas estuary. After UB-6 was unable to leave the neutral Dutch waters within 24 hours, the Netherlands interned the submarine and its crew. The Dutch did not release the submarine because it got stuck as a result of a mistake and not an emergency. The protest by the Germans was rejected. The Dutch Navy towed UB 6 into the port of Hellevoetsluis. There the crew sank their boat on March 18. The UB 6 team remained interned until the end of the war. The wreck was left in France in 1919 and broken up in Brest in July 1921.

successes

Ships seized, damaged and sunk by SM UB 6

date	Surname	Type	Tonnage (GRT)	nationality	fate
May 1, 1915	HMS Recruit	destroyer	335	United Kingdom	sunk
June 1, 1915	Saidieh	freighter	3,303	United Kingdom	sunk
July 12, 1915	Emerald	Fishing trawler	57	United Kingdom	damaged
July 12, 1915	Merlin	Fishing trawler	47	United Kingdom	sunk
July 12, 1915	Purple heather	Fishing trawler	42	United Kingdom	sunk
July 12, 1915	Speedwell	Fishing trawler	38	United Kingdom	sunk
July 12, 1915	Woodbine	Fishing trawler	29	United Kingdom	sunk
July 25, 1915	Firth	freighter	406	United Kingdom	sunk
Aug 15, 1915	Leander	Fishing trawler	57	United Kingdom	sunk
Jan. 27, 1916	Crystal	Fishing trawler	57	United Kingdom	sunk
March 17, 1916	Ask	freighter	1041	Sweden	damaged
March 3, 1916	Hollandia	freighter	1,115	Sweden	sunk
Sep 10 1916	Lindborg	freighter	400	Norway	sunk
23 Sep 1916	Germaine	Lighter	106	Belgium	sunk
23 Sep 1916	Lichtevreden II	Lighter	69	Belgium	sunk
23 Sep 1916	Maria Da Jonge	Lighter	98	Belgium	sunk
23 Sep 1916	Rosalie	Lighter	129	Belgium	sunk
Sep 24 1916	Batavier II	freighter	1,328	Netherlands	confiscated as a pinch
		Sunk: Damaged: Pinches: Total:	7,559 1,098 1,328 9,985

Remarks

1. ^ In April 1906 Haecker joined the IV / 06 crew of the Imperial Navy as a midshipman along with 34 future submarine commanders (including Wilhelm Marschall , Matthias Graf von Schmettow , Max Viebeg and Erwin Waßner ). See: Guðmundur Helgason: WWI Officer Crews: Crew 4/06 . Retrieved January 29, 2016.
2. ↑ In April 1908 Voigt joined the IV / 08 crew of the Imperial Navy as a midshipman along with 46 future submarine commanders (including Reinhold Saltzwedel ). See: Guðmundur Helgason: WWI Officer Crews: Crew 4/08 . Retrieved February 14, 2016.
3. ↑ In April 1907 Neumann joined the IV / 07 crew of the Imperial Navy as a midshipman along with 34 future submarine commanders (including Werner Fürbringer , Heino von Heimburg , Hans Howaldt , Otto Steinbrinck , and Ralph Wenninger ). See: Guðmundur Helgason: WWI Officer Crews: Crew 4/07 . Retrieved February 18, 2016.
4. ^ U 52 sank the HMS Nottingham ; U 66 and U 63 together sank HMS Falmouth .
5. ↑ The English submarine HMS E55 sank the Batavier II on July 27, 1917 by gunfire near Texel. See: en: SS Batavier II (1897)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r} 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. 59-62, 264 .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Guðmundur Helgason: WWI U-boats: UB-6 . In: U-Boat War in World War I . Uboat.net. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
3. ↑ 6104976 UB-6 . In: Miramar Ship Index. (Subscription required) . RB Haworth. Retrieved March 5, 2009.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} Harald Bendert: The UB-boats of the Imperial Navy 1914-1918: Appearances - Achievements - fate . Mittler, Hamburg; Berlin; Bonn 2000, ISBN 978-3-8132-0713-2 , pp. 13, 30, 43-46 .
5. ^ 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).
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} 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, 50, 51 (English).
7. ↑ ^{a b c} 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).
8. ↑ Guðmundur Helgason: WWI U-boat commanders: Erich Haecker . Retrieved February 10, 2016.
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} VE Tarrant: The U-Boat Offensive: 1914 - 1945 . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 1989, ISBN 978-0-87021-764-7 , pp. 18, 21, 25, 26, 32-33, 44-46 (English).
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} RH Gibson; Maurice Prendergast: The German Submarine War, 1914-1918 . Naval Institute Press, St. Paul, Minnesota 2003, ISBN 978-1-59114-314-7 , pp. 39,50,57,89,97 (English).
11. ^ Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI: Recruit (hms) . Retrieved February 12, 2016.
12. ↑ Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI: Saidieh . Retrieved February 11, 2016.
13. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI: Ships hit by UB 6 . In: U-Boat War in World War I . Uboat.net. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
14. ↑ Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI , Emerald (d.) , Merlin , Purple Heather , Speedwell , Woodbine . U-Boat War in World War I . Uboat.net.
15. ↑ Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI: Firth . Retrieved February 12, 2016.
16. ^ Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI: Leander . Retrieved February 12, 2016.
17. ^ Guðmundur Helgason: WWI U-boat commanders: Ernst Voigt . Retrieved February 14, 2016.
18. ↑ British fishing vessels lost at sea due to enemy action: 1914, 1915, 1916 in date order . Retrieved February 6, 2016.
19. ^ Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI: Crystal . Retrieved February 14, 2016.
20. ↑ Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI: Ask (d.) . Retrieved February 16, 2016.
21. ↑ Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI: Hollandia . Retrieved February 17, 2016.
22. ^ Guðmundur Helgason: WWI U-boat commanders: Karl Neumann . Retrieved February 18, 2016.
23. ↑ ^{a b} Guðmundur Helgason: WWI U-boat commanders: Karsten von Heydebreck . Retrieved February 8, 2016.
24. ↑ ^{a b} Guðmundur Helgason: WWI Officer Crews: Crew 4/08 . Retrieved March 6, 2009.
25. ↑ Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI: Lindborg . Retrieved February 23, 2016.
26. ^ Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI ; Germaine , Lichtevreden II , Maria Da Jonge , Rosalie . U-Boat War in World War I . Uboat.net; accessed on February 23, 2016.
27. ^ Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI: Batavier Ii (p.) . In: Uboat.net . Retrieved February 23, 2016.
28. ↑ ^{a b} Dwight R. Messimer: Verschollen: World War I U-boat losses . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 2002, ISBN 978-1-55750-475-3 (English).