SM U 72

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SM U 72
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German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge)
Construction data
Submarine type: Single-hull deep-sea boat
war order E / UE
Series: U 71 - U 72
Builder: Vulkan shipyard, Hamburg
Build number: 56
Launch: October 31, 1915
Commissioning: January 26, 1915
Technical specifications
Displacement: 755 tons (above water)
832 tons (under water)
Length: 56.80 m
Width: 5.90 m
Draft: 4.86 m
Pressure body ø: 5.00 m
Max. Diving depth: 50 m
Dive time: 40-50 s
Drive: Diesel engines 900 PS
E-machines 900 PS
Speed: 10.6 knots (above water)
7.9 knots (under water)
Armament: 1 × bow torpedo tube (port)
1 × stern
torpedo tube (starboard) 2 × stern mine tubes
1 × 8.8 cm deck gun
1 × 10.5 cm deck gun (from 1917)
Mission data
Commanders:
  • Ernst Krafft
  • Johannes Feldkirchner
  • Erich Schulze
  • Hermann Bohm
Crew (target strength): 4 officers
28 men
Calls: 7th
Successes: 18 sunk civilian ships
Whereabouts: Self-blown on November 1, 1918 during evacuation near Kotor.

SM U 72 was a German submarine of the Imperial Navy during the First World War .

Construction and armament

U 72 belonged to the U 71 - U 72 series and, together with U 71 and U 73 - U 80, belonged to the U-boat class UE . The boat was launched on 31 October 1915 at the shipyard AG Vulcan Hamburg from the stack . U 75 to U 80 were also built at the Vulkan shipyard in Hamburg, while the U 73 and U 74 were built at the Imperial shipyard in Danzig .

In addition to the torpedo tubes and deck guns, the U 72 had two mine shafts in the stern through which up to 38 mines could be exposed.

Calls

The commanders of the submarine were Ernst Krafft (January 28, 1916 - July 17, 1917), Johannes Feldkirchner (July 18, 1917 - November 5, 1917), Erich Schulze (November 6, 1917 - December 31, 1917) and Hermann Bohm (January 1, 1918 - October 31, 1918).

U 72 was assigned to the 1st U-Flotilla from April to September 1916 and then to the U-Flotilla Pola .

U 72 carried out seven operations during the First World War , in the North Sea and in the Mediterranean . As a result, a total of 18 civilian ships from the Entente and neutral states with a total tonnage of approx. 38,571 GRT sank  . The largest ship sunk by U 72 was the Italian passenger steamer Palermo with 9,203 GRT. The Palermo sank on December 2, 1916 on her voyage from New York to Genoa . On September 7, 1916, the British cargo ship Achaia (2,733 GRT) ran into a mine laid by U 72 off Oran and sank. At the same time, three British motorboats that were on board the Achaia were lost ( Allegro , Doreen and Griffin with 7 to 9 GRT).

Whereabouts

The submarine was blown up by its own crew on November 1, 1918, after it had to leave the port of the Montenegrin city ​​of Kotor . It fell roughly on the position 42 ° 30 '  N , 18 ° 41'  O .

In June 2009, the wreck was located by an American-Montenegrin research group on the American research ship Herkules . The coordinates were not published in order not to attract looters.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eberhard Rössler: The German submarines and their shipyards , Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1990, ISBN 3-7637-5879-8
  2. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Erlangen: Karl Müller Verlag, 1993, p. 136ff.
  3. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Erlangen: Karl Müller Verlag, 1993, p. 123.
  4. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Erlangen: Karl Müller Verlag, 1993, p. 68.
  5. ↑ uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - Palermo
  6. ↑ uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - Achaia
  7. ↑ a b c Mediterranean. Divers find submarines from World War I on Spiegel Online , June 12, 2009

literature

  • Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Erlangen: Karl Müller Verlag, 1993, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 .

Web links