SM UB 81
| SM UB 81 | |
|---|---|
| Technical specifications | |
| Submarine type: | Two-hull ocean-going type |
| Submarine class: | UB III |
| Displacement: | 516 tons (above water) 651 tons (under water) |
| Length: | 55.30 m |
| Width: | 4.40 m (over all) |
| Max. Diving depth: | approx. 75 m |
| Drive: | 2 × diesel motor 550 PS 2 × electric motor 394 PS |
| Armament | 4 bow torpedo tubes 1 stern torpedo tube 10 torpedoes 1 × 10.5 cm cannon |
| Crew: | 34 officers a. Teams |
| Speed: | 13.9 knots (above water) 8 knots (under water) |
| Calls: | 2 patrols |
| Successes: | 1 sunk ship with 3,218 GRT |
| Whereabouts: | Sunk by mines on December 2, 1917 (29 dead, 7 survivors, 1 of whom died later). Last position: 50 ° 29 ′ 27 ″ N , 0 ° 58 ′ 21 ″ W. |
SM UB 81 was a German submarine from the type III UB , which during the World War I was used.
history
UB 81 was commissioned on September 23, 1916 from Werft AG Weser in Bremen, where the keel was laid on January 5, 1917 and the launch on August 4, 1917 . It entered service with the Imperial Navy on September 18, 1917 and was assigned to the Flanders fleet in Zeebrugge . From August 18, the commandant was Oberleutnant zur See Reinhold Saltzwedel , a bearer of the order Pour le Mérite , who had sunk 110 Allied ships by then and was one of the most successful German submarine commanders of the First World War.
Calls
From November 9th to 11th, 1917, the transfer trip from Kiel to Flanders took place. There were no noteworthy events.
The second patrol by UB 81 began on November 28th. It was able to November 30, 12 nautical miles south-west of Brighton from an escort armed the British 3.218- BRT -Handelsschiff Molesey with a torpedo to sink.
Downfall
On December 2, 1917, UB 81 ran ten nautical miles southeast of Dunnose Head ( Isle of Wight ) to a mine , which caused a strong water ingress in the stern. The boat immediately sank to a depth of 30 m. The crew blew out the forward ballast tanks with compressed air in order to bring the bow to the surface of the water in this way. In two hours of hard work, with a heavy stern load and high pressure, it was possible to get the torpedo out of tube I, to lower it and to defuse it. The first four men were pushed through the pipe until a tackle was attached to the outside and more men could be pulled up. However, it was so cold that evening (approx. 13 ° C ) that some crew members slipped back through the torpedo tube into the boat with the comment “Better to drown in the boat than freeze to death outside!” . Signal cartridges were fired. The British patrol boat P 32 came to the rescue. At this point there were seven crew members outside the boat. P 32 accidentally rammed UB 81 due to the heavy swell , so that water immediately ran through the open torpedo tube into the hull and finally caused the submarine to sink. The 29 crew members inside the boat, including the commander, could no longer save themselves and drowned. Of the seven crew members outside the boat, one died of a heart attack and could only be recovered dead from the water. The following day he was buried by the crew of HMS P 32 near the place where it sank at sea.
Rescue attempt
On December 14th, GCC Damant and its U-Boat Flying Squad - a special unit of the Royal Navy consisting of divers to investigate sunken German submarines - reported the discovery of UB 81 . Since it was only slightly damaged at the stern and was one of the newest boats, attempts were made to lift it. However, the work was delayed. The bad weather prevented further dives, and the wreck had to be searched for again and again because the marker buoys broke loose. Therefore, in the spring of 1918, the plan to salvage the boat was finally abandoned.
The wreck today
The wreck of UB 81 is at position 50 ° 29 ′ 22 ″ N , 0 ° 58 ′ 12 ″ W at a depth of 28 m in British territorial waters. Possibly due to the effect of currents, it is no longer at the original sinking point. The submarine, which has sunk largely intact, is severely damaged - probably as a result of salvage activities - and broke apart shortly behind the heavily damaged command tower. The highest point of the wreck is the on-board gun pointing upwards. There are some grenades lying around in this area . Parts of the cannon and the bridge telegraph were recovered. Since there appear to have been several cases in which divers not only penetrated the interior of UB 81 , but also looted it and tampered with skeletal remains of crew members, the British authorities protected the wreck in 2006 under the Protection of Military Remains Act of 1986 Controlled site declared and an absolute ban on diving within 250 m. Along with eleven British warships, UB 81 is the only wreck of a German warship in British waters to date that enjoys this extensive protection.
See also
Web links
- UB 81 on uboat.net (English)
- PROTECTED WRECKS IN THE UK: Wrecks designated under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986
- oceanodyssey.co.uk Description of the wreck (English)
- divernet: The UB-81
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