SM U 69

SM U 69 ( previous / next - all submarines )
Construction data
Submarine type:	Two-hull deep-sea boat war order D / UD
Series:	U 66 - U 70
Builder:	Germania shipyard, Kiel
Build number:	206
Launch:	June 24, 1915
Commissioning:	September 4, 1915
Technical specifications
Displacement:	791 tons (above water) 933 tons (under water)
Length:	69.50 m
Width:	6.30 m
Draft:	3.79 m
Pressure body ø:	4.15 m
Max. Diving depth:	50 m
Dive time:	40-100 s
Drive:	Diesel engines 2300 PS E-machines 1240 PS
Speed:	16.8 knots (above water) 10.3 knots (under water)
Armament:	4 × 45 cm bow torpedo tube 1 × 45 cm stern torpedo tube 1 × 8.8 cm deck gun 2 × 8.8 cm deck gun (from 1916) 1 × 10.5 cm deck gun (from 1916/17 )
Mission data
Commanders:	Ernst Wilhelms
Crew (target strength):	4 officers 32 men
Calls:	6th
Successes:	29 sunk merchant ships 1 sunk auxiliary cruiser
Whereabouts:	Missed in July 1917. Remaining unclear.

SM U 69 was a diesel-electric UD class submarine of the German Imperial Navy that was used in the First World War .

Calls

The submarine was ordered by the Austrian Navy before the start of the war , but was taken over by Germany on November 28, 1914. On 24 June 1915, the boat eventually ran as U 69 at the Germania shipyard in Kiel from the stack and was put into service on September 4 1915th The first and only commander of the submarine was Kapitänleutnant Ernst Wilhelms (from September 4, 1915 to July 1917).

From March 1916, U 69 was assigned to the 4th U-Flotilla of the High Seas Armed Forces, which was stationed in Emden and Borkum .

During the First World War, U 69 carried out six patrols in the eastern North Atlantic . A total of 30 ships from the Entente and neutral states with a total tonnage of approx. 104,471  GRT were sunk. The largest ship that was sunk was the British auxiliary cruiser Avenger (around 13,500 GRT). The Avenger was west on June 14, 1917, the Shetland Islands approximately at the position of 60 ° 22 '  N , 4 ° 35'  W sunk. In addition, the British naval trawler Era (168 GRT) was sunk by artillery on July 11, 1916 off Aberdeen .

On June 3, 1917, the Italian sailing ship Luisa was stopped southwest of Ireland . However, the sinking by artillery failed. The ship was later towed to Castletown .

Whereabouts

The whereabouts of U 69 is unclear. The exact time and cause of the loss are not known. On July 9, 1917, the submarine ran from Emden on a patrol into the waters southwest of Ireland. The last radio contact took place on July 11, 1917. At that time, the submarine was off the south coast of Norway . Since then it has been considered lost.

On July 12, 1917, the British destroyer HMS Patriot attacked a submarine with depth charges . It is unclear whether this was U 69 . British radio messages suggest, however, that U 69 reached its area of ​​operations and was in use there until at least July 23, 1917. Some sources attribute the sinking of the Greek cargo ship Mikelis to U 69 on July 24, 1917, but this is also controversial.

There are no British or US reports that unequivocally prove a sinking. U 69 may have hit a floating mine or was lost due to an accident or human error .

Ship contacts

Ships sunk or damaged by U 69 :

date	Surname	tonnage	nation
April 15, 1916	Fairport	3,838	United Kingdom
April 15, 1916	Dwindling	844	Russia
April 16, 1916	Glendoon	1.918	Norway
April 16, 1916	Harrovian	4,309	United Kingdom
April 16, 1916	Papelera	1,591	Norway
April 17, 1916	Ernest Reyer	2,708	France
April 18, 1916	Ravenhill	1,826	United Kingdom
April 20, 1916	Cairngowan	4.017	United Kingdom
July 11, 1916	Era	168	United Kingdom
October 20, 1916	Cabotia	4,309	United Kingdom
October 24, 1916	Sola	3,057	Norway
October 26, 1916	North Wales	4,072	United Kingdom
October 26, 1916	Rappahannock	3,871	United Kingdom
November 2, 1916	Spero	1,132	United Kingdom
November 3, 1916	Bertha	591	Sweden
April 20, 1917	Annapolis	4,567	United Kingdom
April 25, 1917	Hesperides	3,393	United Kingdom
April 26, 1917	Rio Lages	3,591	United Kingdom
April 26, 1917	Vauxhall	3,629	United Kingdom
May 1, 1917	Rockingham	4,555	United States
May 2, 1917	Troilus	7,625	United Kingdom
May 29, 1917	Argo	123	Sweden
May 29, 1917	Ines	261	Sweden
May 29, 1917	Consul R. Nielsen	1,395	Denmark
May 31, 1917	Esneh	3,247	United Kingdom
June 3, 1917	Luisa 1	1,648	Italy
June 6, 1917	Parthenia	5,160	United Kingdom
June 8, 1917	Enidwen	3,594	United Kingdom
June 8, 1917	Zaragoza	3,541	United Kingdom
June 13, 1917	Kelvin Bank	4,072	United Kingdom
June 14, 1917	Avenger	13,441	United Kingdom
July 24, 1917	Mikelis 2	2,430	Greece
	Sunk: Damaged: Total:	102,875 1,648 104,523

¹ damaged but not sunk

² controversial

literature

• Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1993, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 .
• Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes, Graefelfing 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 .

Web links

• uboat.net WWI U-boats U 69 (English)
• u-boot-net.de: SM U 69
• u-boot-datenbank.de: U 69 Imperial Navy
• Memorial plaque for U 69 at the submarine memorial in Möltenort

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1993, p. 139.
2. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1993, p. 68.
3. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1993, p. 119.
4. ↑ uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - Avenger
5. ↑ uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - HMT Era
6. ↑ uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - Luisa
7. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1993, p. 90.
8. ↑ uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - Mikelis
9. ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes, Graefelfing 1998, p. 31.
10. ↑ uboat.net: Ships hit by U 69