SM UC 71

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SM UC 71
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Type : UC II
Shipyard: Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Build number: 287
Keel laying: March 14, 1916
Launch: August 12, 1916
Commissioning: November 28, 1916
Commanders:
  • Hans Valentiner (November 28, 1916 - April 25, 1917)
  • Hugo Thielmann (April 26, 1917 - June 9, 1917)
  • Reinhold Saltzwedel (June 10, 1917 - September 13, 1917)
  • Ernst Steindorff (September 14, 1917 - January 28, 1918)
  • Walter Warzecha (January 29, 1918 - August 13, 1918)
  • Eberhard Schmidt (August 14, 1918 - November 11, 1918)
Calls: 19 patrols
Sinkings:

61 civil ships

Whereabouts: Sunk off Heligoland on the delivery trip on February 20, 1919

UC SM 71 was a German submarine from the type UC II , which during the First World War of the Imperial Navy was used.

history

The boat was ordered from Blohm & Voss in Hamburg on January 12, 1916 . The launch took place on August 12, 1916. The handover from the manufacturer Blohm & Voss to the Imperial Navy and the commissioning took place on November 28, 1916.

After extensive testing, UC 71 was assigned to the Second Flotilla Flotilla on March 3, 1917 in Flanders . On October 13, 1918, after the Flemish bases had been abandoned because of the general German withdrawal, it was transferred to the 1st U-Flotilla of the High Seas Fleet, where it remained until the end of the war on November 11, 1918. UC 71 carried out 19 patrols, sank 61 civilian ships with a total displacement of 110,688  GRT . In addition, it damaged 17 civilian ships and one military ship.

This military ship was the HMS Dunraven , a British submarine trap . On August 8, 1917, the two ships met and a gun battle broke out. The HMS Dunraven was badly damaged, but could not be sunk by the submarine without risk because all torpedoes had already been fired. So the submarine turned and left the British ship to its fate. A British sailor died during the battle. The HMS Dunraven sank during the rescue attempt by the British destroyer HMS Christopher on August 10, 1917. The commander of the submarine was Oberleutnant zur See Reinhold Saltzwedel at the time .

The largest ship sunk by UC 71 was the Belgian passenger steamer Élisabethville (7,017 GRT), which was sunk on September 6, 1917 in the Bay of Biscay by a single torpedo. 14 people were killed. The British passenger ship Rangara was larger at 10,040 GRT, but was only damaged and not sunk.

After the Compiègne armistice (1918) , UC 71 was to be extradited to Great Britain. During the transfer, the boat sank on February 20, 1919, immediately south of Heligoland at the position 54 ° 10 ′  N , 7 ° 54 ′  E, coordinates: 54 ° 10 ′ 0 ″  N , 7 ° 54 ′ 0 ″  E at about 20 meters Water depth. Nobody was killed in the process.

Investigations of the wreck in 2001 and 2014 indicate that UC 71 was sunk by its crew . In July 2016, was net saw UC salvaged 71st Personal diaries have been preserved from the seaman Georg Trinks, who served as a machinist on UC 71 for 18 months. Its content is reprinted in the book “No Englishman should enter the boat!” Published on February 19, 2019, The Last Voyage of UC 71 . There the sinking, which was previously only suspected, is documented. The 4-meter-long net saw and the diaries should soon (as of July 22, 2019) be viewed in the Helgoland Museum .

literature

  • Fröhle, Claude / Kühn, Hans-Jürgen: SM UC 71. The forgotten submarine off Heligoland . Fröhle-Kühn, Herbolzheim 2005, ISBN 3-9805415-6-8 .
  • Florian Huber: “No Englishman should enter the boat!” The last trip of UC 71 . Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 2019, ISBN 978-3-498-03044-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ First World War: Investigations on the wreck of the UC-71 submarine - SPIEGEL ONLINE May 6, 2015
  2. ↑ Dr. Florian Huber | U-Boot UC 71 personal website of the responsible underwater archaeologist
  3. ↑ Florian Huber: “No Englishman should enter the boat!” The last trip from UC 71 . Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 2019, ISBN 978-3-498-03044-5 .
  4. ↑ Huber, "No Englishman should enter the boat!" (Hardcover) - Rowohlt