SM U 73
| SM U 73 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Construction data | ||
| Submarine type: | Single-hull deep-sea boat war order E / UE |
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| Series: | U 73 - U 74 | |
| Builder: | Imperial Shipyard, Danzig | |
| Build number: | 29 | |
| Launch: | June 16, 1915 | |
| Commissioning: | October 9, 1915 | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Displacement: | 745 tons (above water) 829 tons (under water) |
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| Length: | 56.80 m | |
| Width: | 5.90 m | |
| Draft: | 4.84 m | |
| Pressure body ø: | 5.00 m | |
| Max. Diving depth: | 50 m | |
| Dive time: | 40-60 s | |
| Drive: | Diesel engines 800 PS E-machines 800 PS |
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| Speed: | 9.6 knots (above water) 7.9 knots (under water) |
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| Armament: | 1 × bow torpedo tube (port) 1 × stern torpedo tube (starboard) (4 torpedoes in the upper deck) 1 × 10.5 cm deck gun 2 × stern mine tubes (38 sea mines) |
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| Mission data | ||
| Commanders: |
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| Crew (target strength): | 4 officers 28 men |
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| Calls: | 9 | |
| Successes: | 15 sunk civilian ships 3 sunk warships |
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| Whereabouts: | Self-blown near Pola on October 30, 1918 | |
SM U 73 was a diesel-electric mines - submarine of the class UE of the German Imperial Navy , which in the First World War was used. The sinking of the Britannic - a sister ship of the Titanic - is attributed to him. After U 9 and U 21 , it achieved one of the highest sinking rates against warships.
Special feature of motorization and armament
The main task of U 73 was laying the sea mines, up to 38 of which could be transported inside the boat. They were laid via two outlet pipes in the stern of the boat. It was therefore not primarily a submarine for torpedo attacks. Compared to other deep-sea submarines, it was relatively weakly motorized. The surface speed remained in the single-digit range. The torpedo armament was only used for self-defense.
Calls
U 73 ran on 16 June 1915 the Imperial Shipyard in Gdansk from the stack and was put into service on 9 October 1915th It was assigned to the U-Flotilla Pola , which was stationed in the naval base Pola of the ally Austria-Hungary . The transfer voyage from Germany to the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar took place in April 1916.
The commanders of the submarine were Kapitänleutnant Gustav Sieß (October 9, 1915 - May 21, 1917), Lieutenant Ernst von Voigt (May 22, 1917 - January 15, 1918), and Lieutenant Karl Meusel (January 16, 1918 - June 15 1918), Carl Bünte (June 16, 1918 - September 15, 1918) and Lieutenant Captain Fritz Saupe (September 16, 1918 - October 30, 1918). Most of the sinkings were achieved under Gustav Sieß.
U 73 carried out nine operations during the First World War , mainly in the eastern Mediterranean. A total of 15 civilian ships from the Entente and neutral states with a total tonnage of approx. 80,691 GRT were sunk. In addition, three enemy warships with a total of 28,350 GRT sank through mines that had been laid by U 73 .
On the voyage from Germany to the Adriatic Sea , at the end of April 1916, Sieß laid mines off Malta . The British liner Russel (14,000 GRT) sank there on April 27, 1916 after a mine hit. 124 seamen were killed in the process. On that day the British sloop Nasturtium (1250 GRT) ran into one of these mines and sank. The British yacht Aegusa (1242 GRT) followed on the next day .
The best known ship sunk by U 73 was the British hospital ship Britannic with 48,158 GRT. It was the sister ship of the Titanic and the largest ship that was sunk in World War I. The Britannic drove on November 21, 1916 in the Strait of Kea ( Aegean Sea ), most likely on a mine that came from U 73 . About 30 people were killed. A few days earlier, on November 14, 1916, the French troop transporter Burdigala - the former Kaiser Friedrich - with around 12,000 GRT had been sunk in the same sea area by such a mine.
Another success against a warship came on January 3, 1917, when the Russian liner Peresvet ran into a mine about ten miles from Port Said (Egypt). Several large to very large ships had been sunk by sea mines laid by U 73 . The commandant at the time, Gustav Sieß, received the Iron Cross first class in 1917 and the Pour le Mérite in April 1918 .
Known crew members
From February 1916 to January 1917, the later theologian and resistance fighter Martin Niemöller was on board the U 73 as the second officer on watch . He described his impressions while laying the mine barriers in the Mediterranean in his book Vom U-Boot zur Kanzel .
Whereabouts
U 73 was during the evacuation of the Austrian Marine port Pola approximately at the position on October 30 1918 44 ° 52 ' N , 13 ° 50' O itself sunk. Two days earlier, the German submarine U 47 had already been sunk by its own crew at this point .
Ships sunk by U 73 (selection)
Pictures of well-known ships, the sinking of which can be traced back to the mines of U 73 :
HMHS Britannic
SS Burdigala (ex. Kaiser Friedrich )
Peresvet
HMS Russel
literature
- Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Erlangen: Karl Müller Verlag, 1993, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Erlangen: Karl Müller Verlag, 1993, p. 119
- ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Erlangen: Karl Müller Verlag, 1993, p. 141.
- ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Erlangen: Karl Müller Verlag, 1993, p. 123.
- ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Erlangen: Karl Müller Verlag, 1993, p. 68.
- ↑ a b Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Erlangen: Karl Müller Verlag, 1993, p. 120
- ↑ uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - HMS Russell
- ↑ uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - HMS Nasturtium
- ↑ uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - Aegusa
- ↑ uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - Britannic
- ↑ uboat.net: WWI U-boat commanders - Gustav Sieß
- ↑ Martin Niemöller: From the submarine to the pulpit . Berlin: Martin Warneck Verlag, 1938.
- ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Erlangen: Karl Müller Verlag, 1993, p. 90.
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