SM U 81
| SM U 81 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Construction data | ||
| Submarine type: | Two-hull ocean- going boat official draft from MS -type war mission F |
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| Series: | U 81 - U 86 | |
| Builder: | Germania shipyard, Kiel | |
| Build number: | 251 | |
| Launch: | June 24, 1916 | |
| Commissioning: | August 22, 1916 | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Displacement: | 808 tons (above water) 946 tons (under water) |
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| Length: | 70.06 m | |
| Width: | 6.30 m | |
| Draft: | 4.02 m | |
| Pressure body ø: | 4.15 m | |
| Max. Diving depth: | 50 m | |
| Dive time: | 45-50 s | |
| Drive: | Diesel engines 2400 PS E-machines 1200 PS |
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| Speed: | 16.8 knots (above water) 9.1 knots (under water) |
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| Armament: | 4 × 50 cm bow torpedo tube 2 × 50 cm stern torpedo tube (12-16 torpedoes) 1 × 10.5 cm deck gun |
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| Mission data | ||
| Commander: | Raimund Weisbach | |
| Crew (target strength): | 4 officers 31 men |
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| Calls: | 5 | |
| Successes: | 31 sunk merchant ships | |
| Whereabouts: | west on May 1, 1917 Ireland by British submarine E 54 sunk | |
SM U 81 was a diesel-electric submarine of the German Imperial Navy in the First World War . Among other things, it sank the mantola . The boat was sunk on May 1, 1917 west of Ireland by the British submarine E 54 ; 24 crew members died in the process.
Calls
U 81 ran on 24 June 1916, which Germaniawerft in Kiel from the stack and was put into service on 22 August 1916th From October 1916 the boat was assigned to the IV submarine flotilla in Emden and Borkum . The first and only commanding officer was Kapitänleutnant Raimund Weisbach .
During the First World War, U 81 carried out five operations in the North Sea and in the eastern North Atlantic . 31 merchant ships with a total tonnage of 89,005 GRT were sunk. These included ships from both warring powers and neutral states .
The largest ship sunk by U 81 was the British passenger ship Mantola (8,253 GRT), which was torpedoed southwest of Ireland on February 8, 1917 . The ship was on a voyage from London to Calcutta when it was attacked by U 81 . Seven people were killed.
Whereabouts
On May 1, 1917, U 81 was in the North Atlantic far off the west coast of Ireland. On that day, Kapitänleutnant Weisbach had already sunk the British tanker San Urbano and was about to destroy another ship by gunfire. This was noticed by the crew of the British submarine E 54 , whose commander, Kapitänleutnant RH Raikes, immediately submerged in order to be able to attack U 81 unnoticed. While U 81 was surfaced around the stern of the ship, since its name was to be determined before the sinking, E 54 rounded the bow of the ship and shortly afterwards fired two torpedoes from about 400 meters away at the German submarine. U 81 was hit and sank so quickly that only Weisbach and six other men who were on the bridge or on the deck by the gun could save themselves. 24 Germans were torn down with them. U 81 sank at about 51 ° 25 ' N , 13 ° 5' W
The ship's crew, who were already in dinghies, initially thought the British submarine was a German one. It took Raikes a lot of persuasion to get her to return to her ship.
Others
Raimund Weisbach was previously a watch officer on U 20 under the command of Walther Schwieger and shot the torpedo on the Lusitania , which led to the death of numerous civilians and considerable diplomatic entanglements. After the sinking of U 81 Weisbach spent the rest of the war in British captivity.
literature
- Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Karl Müller, 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
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Karl Müller, Erlangen, 1993, p. 139.
- ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Karl Müller, Erlangen, 1993, p. 123.
- ↑ According to uboat.net only 30 ships were sunk.
- ↑ a b Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Karl Müller, Erlangen, 1993, p. 68.
- ↑ uboat.net: WWI U-boat Successes - Ships hit by U 81 (Engl.)
- ↑ uboat.net: Ships hit during WWI - Mantola (Engl.)
- ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars . Urbes, Graefelfing, 1998, p. 26f.
- ↑ uboat.net: WWI U-boat commanders - Raimund Weisbach (engl.)
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