SM UB 7

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UB 7
General plan UB 1 - UB 8
General plan UB 1 - UB 8
Overview
Type UB I
Shipyard

Germania shipyard , Kiel

Order October 15, 1914
Keel laying November 30, 1914
Launch April 1915
1. Period of service flag
Commissioning May 6, 1915
Whereabouts ran into a mine on September 27, 1916 at 43 ° 2 ′  N , 28 ° 6 ′  E in the Black Sea and sank
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 (61 PS)
  • SSW electric motor 89 kW (121 PS)
speed
  • 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
Dive time

22 s

Build number

245

SM UB 7 was a German type UB I submarine of the Imperial Navy during the First World War . The boat ran into a mine in the Black Sea in late September 1916 and sank.

In October 1914, the Germania shipyard received the order for UB 7 and began construction in November. With a length of hardly more than 28 m , UB 7 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. UB 7 was originally one of two UB I boats that were to be handed over to the Austro-Hungarian Navy to replace two Austrian submarines that were assigned to the Dardanelles . Disassembled into sections, UB 7 was transported by train to the Austro-Hungarian port of Pola in March 1915 and reassembled there. The Imperial Navy put the boat into service as UB 7 in May, as the Austrians no longer needed it after it was launched in April.

After being launched, UB 7 was only briefly part of the U-half flotilla Pola . For the greater part of its service time, the submarine was in service with the Constantinople U-Flotilla in the Black Sea. UB 7 sank a British steamer with 6011 GRT in September 1915 . During the bombardment of Varna by Russian naval forces in October, the submarine made a significant contribution to defense. The boat was supposed to be handed over to the Bulgarian Navy when it ran into a mine off Varna at the end of September 1916 and sank.

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 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 7 was one of eight UB-I boats - UB 1 to UB 8  - for which the Germania shipyard received the order on October 15, 1914, just under two months after the start of planning.

The Germania shipyard laid UB 7 on November 30, 1914 in Kiel . UB 7 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 (61  hp ) Daimler 4-cylinder diesel engine for surface travel and an 89 kW (121 hp) Siemens Schuckert electric motor 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 7 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.

Shortly before the completion of UB 7 , in March 1915, Enver Pascha and other Turkish leaders asked their German and Austro-Hungarian allies to send submarines to the Dardanelles. The boats were to attack the British and French fleets, which were bombarding the Turkish positions near Gallipoli . The Germans arranged for the Austro-Hungarian Navy to park two of their boats, the SM U 3 and SM U 4  , which were built at the Germania shipyard . The Austrians were promised UB 7 and UB 8 as a replacement .

After their completion at the Germania shipyard, UB 7 and UB 8 were prepared for rail transport. To load a boat, three low-loader wagons were necessary for the three sections of the hull and further wagons for the tower, parts of the upper deck, the machines and the accumulators. On March 15, the boats were ready for transport to the main port of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in Pola . The two Austrian boats were not yet ready for use at this point. German pioneers and technicians under the direction of Kapitänleutnant Hans Adam , the head of the newly created “U-Boot-Sonderkommando Pola” in Pola , accompanied the transport. Assembly in Pola usually took two to three weeks, so UB 7 was launched sometime in April.

Calls

During the test runs, a leak occurred at UB 7 , which took some time to repair. In the meantime the boat was given an Austrian commander and the Austro-Hungarian Navy registered it as SM U 7 . The German crew wore civilian clothes or Austrian uniforms, as the original intention of handing the boat over to the Austro-Hungarian Navy still existed. The time dragged on without the Austrian boats SM U 3 and SM U 4 reaching their operational readiness. Since the change of sides of the former allied Italy was becoming apparent, Admiral Anton Haus , commander in chief of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, probably no longer felt bound by his word.

Due to the change of heart of the Austrians, the Germans decided to keep UB 7 and send the Turks to support. After the leak repairs had been completed, Oberleutnant zur See Wilhelm Werner , 26 years old, put the boat into service for the Imperial Navy on May 6, 1915. After commissioning, the boat was temporarily assigned to the U-Halbflotille Pola.

Due to its limited range, it was not possible for UB 7 to cover the entire route to Turkey independently. On the night of May 15-16, the Austrian destroyer SMS Triglav towed the boat through the Strait of Otranto into the Ionian Sea . On May 30, UB 7 ran  - so far unsuccessfully - in Smyrna and joined the Mediterranean Division together with UB 8 and U 21 . As a result of the limited supply of torpedoes and the weak machines, which made it almost impossible to overcome the strong ocean currents at the Dardanelles, UB 7 proved to be ineffective there. That is why the boat was the first German submarine to be sent on an exploration trip in the Black Sea from July 5th to 22nd.

In September 1915 UB 7 and UB 8 were ordered to Varna in Bulgaria to patrol the Russian Black Sea coast. On September 15, UB 7 torpedoed and sank the British steamer Patagonia about 10.5 nm (19 km) northeast of Odessa . The 6011 GRT cargo ship  was the only ship the Mediterranean Division was able to sink that month.

As Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Central Powers , warships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and aircraft from the aircraft mother ships Almas and Emperor Nicholas I began attacking Varna and the Bulgarian coast on October 25. UB 7 and UB 8 , which were stationed outside of Varna at that time , ran out to attack in order to stop the bombardment. On October 27, UB 7 was able to fire a torpedo at the Panteleimon . Even if the crew of UB 7 thought they heard a torpedo explosion, there was no hit on the Panteleimon . Notwithstanding this, the Russian naval forces broke off the bombardment and withdrew.

In early 1916, UB 7 and UB 8 were still in use in the Black Sea. The Germans could not record any successes in the Black Sea, but that was not the goal either. The Bulgarians recognized the value of the submarines in repelling the Russian attacks and began to negotiate the purchase of the two boats. Bulgarian sailors went on the two boats and technicians received training at the submarine school in Kiel . UB 8 was transferred to the Bulgarian Navy on April 25th. For reasons that cannot be clarified in the literature, UB 7 continued to sail under the German flag.

In April 1916, Oberleutnant zur See Hans Lütjohann took over command from Wilhelm Werner, who was to become the new commander of U 55 after his return to Germany .

In July 1916 the Germans commissioned SMS Breslau to deploy mines off Novorossiysk . UB 7 stood by in front of Sevastopol in order to attack ships departing to counterattack. Unfortunately, Russian seaplanes spotted UB 7 , bombed the boat and forced it to retreat. Rear Admiral Kolchak was able to sail with the dreadnought Imperatriza Marija , the cruiser Kagul and five destroyers. The Russian fleet dropped the Breslau on July 22nd. The Breslau escaped with splinter damage. Nothing is known in the literature about damage to UB 7 .

Downfall

On September 27, 1916 UB 7 left Varna for Sevastopol and disappeared without a trace. The fate of UB 7 remained unclear for a long time. On September 8, 2010, Bulgarian wreck divers discovered 15 nm (28 km) southeast of Varna at 43 ° 2 '  N , 28 ° 6'  E Coordinates: 43 ° 2 '  N , 28 ° 6'  E at a depth of 36 m the wreck of an unknown person Type UB I submarines. The wreck was identified as UB 7 in 2012 . UB 7 got into a Bulgarian minefield that was released in 1916, ran into a mine and sank. Among the fifteen crew members who lost their lives were the chief radio officer of the Mediterranean Division and a Bulgarian submarine driver, an intern from Vidin .

successes

Ships sunk or damaged by SM UB 7
date Surname Type Tonnage
(GRT)		 nationality fate
September 15, 1915 Patagonia Cargo ship 6.011 United KingdomUnited Kingdom (trade flag) United Kingdom sunk
0April 8, 1916 Sal'dagan Sailing ship 75 Russian Empire 1914Russian Empire Russia sunk
0April 9, 1916 Gryoza Sailing ship 119 Russian Empire 1914Russian Empire Russia sunk
August 31, 1916 unknown ship Sailing ship 78 Russian Empire 1914Russian Empire Russia sunk
Total:
6,283

Remarks

  1. ↑ SM U 3 had a leak, the repair of which in Pola probably took until April 27, 1915. See: Tengeralattjárók ( Hungarian , pdf) Imperial and Royal Navy Association. Retrieved March 14, 2016.
  2. ^ Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary on May 23, 1915
  3. ↑ In April 1905 Werner was a midshipman along with 36 future submarine commanders (including Hermann von Fischel , Carl-Siegfried Ritter von Georg , Kurt Hartwig , Hans-Joachim von Mellenthin and Wilhelm Canaris ) in the IV / 05 crew of the Imperial Army Marine entered. See: Guðmundur Helgason: WWI Officer Crews: Crew 4/05 . Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  4. ↑ UB 8 was towed in a similar way on May 2nd by the Austrian rapid cruiser Novara .
  5. ↑ The Patagonia was cut off from the United Kingdom because the Bosphorus was under the control of the Ottomans and was in service as a cargo ship with the Russian Navy when she sank.

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-7 . In: U-Boat War in World War I . Uboat.net. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
  3. ↑ a b c 6104978 UB-7 . In: Miramar Ship Index. (Subscription required) . RB Haworth. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
  4. ↑ a b c d e 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, 46-48 .
  5. ^ 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).
  6. ^ A b c 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 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, 341 (English).
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Paul G. Halpern: The naval war in the Mediterranean, 1914-1918 . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 1987, ISBN 0-87021-448-9 , pp. 116, 118, 132, 233, 236, 246 (English).
  9. ^ A b c d e f Charles W. Koburger: The central powers in the Adriatic, 1914-1918: was in a narrow sea . Praeger, Westport, Connecticut 2001, ISBN 978-0-275-97071-0 , pp. 82-83 (English).
  10. ↑ a b Lawrence Sondhaus: The naval policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867-1918: navalism, industrial development, and the politics of dualism . Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, Indiana 1994, ISBN 978-1-55753-034-9 , pp. 268 (English).
  11. ^ A b Guðmundur Helgason: WWI U-boat commanders: Wilhelm Werner . Retrieved February 14, 2016.
  12. ^ A b V. E. Tarrant: The U-Boat Offensive: 1914-1945 . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 1989, ISBN 978-0-87021-764-7 , pp. 18, 21, 23, 25, 26, 32-33, 44-46 (English).
  13. ^ Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI: Patagonia . Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  14. ↑ a b Guðmundur Helgason: Ships hit during WWI: Ships hit by UB 7 . In: U-Boat War in World War I . Uboat.net. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
  15. ↑ 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. 39, 50, 57, 89, 97, 73, 124-125 (English).
  16. ↑ a b Николай Йорданов: Първата българска подводница (The First Bulgarian Submarine) ( Bulgarian ), volume кн. 3. Военно-исторически сборник, София 1999, pp. 143-146.
  17. ↑ Guðmundur Helgason: WWI U-boat commanders: Hans Lütjohann . Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  18. ↑ Stephen McLaughlin: Russian & Soviet Battleships . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 2003, ISBN 1-55750-481-4 (English).
  19. ↑ a b Dwight R. Messimer: Verschollen: World War I U-boat losses . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 2002, ISBN 978-1-55750-475-3 , pp. 131 (English).
  20. ↑ UB I Submarine - Explored by BSTD . Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  21. ↑ a b Identification of SM UB 7 . Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  22. ↑ Marine-Nachrichtenblatt 9/2012 . Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  23. ↑ Атанас Панайотов: Началото на подводното корабоплаване и началото на бойното използване на подводницата в българския военен флот ( Bulgarian ) Съюз на подводничарите в Република България. Archived from the original on February 27, 2009. Retrieved April 5, 2009.

Web links