SM U-12 (Austria-Hungary)
U-12 entering Pola Harbor in 1914
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History | |
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Austria-Hungary | |
Name | SM U-12 |
Builder | Fiume[1] |
Laid down | 1909[2] |
Launched | 14 March 1911 as SS-3[1] |
Acquired | August 1914[2] |
Commissioned | 21 August 1914[2] |
Fate | Sunk by mine, August 1915, raised and scrapped late 1916[2] |
Service record | |
Commanders: |
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Victories: | |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | U-5-class submarine |
Displacement |
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Length | 105 ft 4 in (32.11 m)[1] |
Beam | 13 ft 9 in (4.19 m)[1] |
Draft | 12 ft 10 in (3.91 m)[1] |
Propulsion |
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Speed |
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Range |
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Complement | 19[1] |
Armament |
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SM U-12 or U-XII was a
Built on speculation by
SS-3 was laid down in 1909. The double-hulled submarine was just over 105 feet (32 m) long and displaced between 240 and 273 tonnes (265 and 301 short tons), depending on whether surfaced or submerged. Whitehead tried selling SS-3 to several different navies, but she was bought by the Austro-Hungarian Navy after the outbreak of World War I, despite having been rejected by them twice before. She was commissioned as U-12 in August 1914.
The submarine sank only one ship, a Greek cargo ship in May 1915, but she had earlier captured six Montenegrin sailing vessels as prizes in March. U-12 also damaged, but did not sink, the French battleship Jean Bart in December 1914. While searching for targets in the vicinity of Venice in August 1915, U-12 struck a mine that blew her stern off, and sank with all hands, becoming the first Austro-Hungarian submarine sunk in the war. Her wreck was salvaged the next year by the Italians, who interred U-12's crewmen in a Venetian cemetery.
Design and construction
SS-3 was built on speculation
SS-3's featured a single-
According to one source, SS-3 was initially propelled by a pair of
Career
After SS-3's March 1911 launch, Whitehead tried to sell SS-3 to the Austro-Hungarian Navy, but because the evaluation of the first two U-5-class boats was still underway, they declined to purchase.[1] Over the next three years Whitehead attempted to sell the boat to the navies of Peru, Portugal, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Bulgaria, before the Austro-Hungarian Navy rejected an offer for the second time.[1] With the outbreak of war, however, the Austro-Hungarian Navy purchased the unsold submarine to quickly bolster its fleet.[10] Although provisionally assigned the designation U-7, the submarine was commissioned as SM U-12 on 21 August 1914,[5] with Linienschiffsleutnant Egon Lerch in command.[3] U-12's activities over the early part of the war are not reported, but the boat's armament was augmented by a 3.7 cm (1.5 in)/23 quick-firing (QF) deck gun in November 1914. Sister boat U-5 had her first radio receiver installed at the same time her deck gun was added, but it is not reported whether U-12 did as well.[2]
On 21 December 1914, Lerch and U-12 chanced upon the French
U-12 survived an attack from an unknown French
In early August, Lerch and U-12 set out from
In late 1916, the Italians salvaged the hulk of U-12 and transported it to Venice. The bodies of U-12's crew were interred at the San Michele cemetery in Venice, and U-12's hulk, of no salvage value, was scrapped at the Venice naval arsenal.[18] In her military service, U-12 sank one ship of 1,065 GRT, damaged one warship (22,189 tons), and captured six ships as prizes.[3]
Summary of raiding history
Date | Name | Nationality | Tonnage[Note 4] | Fate[20] |
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21 December 1914 | Jean Bart | French Navy | 22,189 | Damaged |
22 March 1915 | Fiore Di Dulcigno | Kingdom of Montenegro | 3 | Captured as prize |
22 March 1915 | Hilussie | Kingdom of Montenegro | 3 | Captured as prize |
31 March 1915 | Buona Forte | Kingdom of Montenegro | — | Captured as prize |
31 March 1915 | Fiore I | Kingdom of Montenegro | — | Captured as prize |
31 March 1915 | Hailie | Kingdom of Montenegro | — | Captured as prize |
31 March 1915 | Indaverdi | Kingdom of Montenegro | — | Captured as prize |
29 May 1915 | Virginia | Greece | 1,065 | Sunk |
Gallery
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Entering Pola harbor
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Crew with medals after the Jean Bart attack
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SM U-12 in Italian dock with heavy damage
Notes
- Whitehead & Co.built her without a specific customer in mind.
- ^ These engines were more powerful than those in the other U-5-class boats, which were 250 brake horsepower (190 kW) each. See Gibson and Prendergast, p. 384.
- ^ Grant (p. 162) and Kemp (p. 14) report U-12's loss in detail and give the date of her loss as 8 August 1915. Sieche (p. 23) gives the date as four days later, on 12 August.
- gross register tons. Military vessels are listed by tons displacement.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Gardiner, p. 343.
- ^ a b c d e f g Sieche (1980), p. 22.
- ^ a b c d e Helgason, Guðmundur. "WWI U-boats: KUK U12". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 26 November 2008.
- ^ a b c d e Sieche (1980), p. 17.
- ^ a b Sieche (1980), pp. 21–22.
- ^ a b Sieche (1980), p. 21.
- ^ Gibson and Prendergast, p. 385.
- ^ Gibson and Prendergast, p. 384.
- ^ Gardiner, p. 340.
- ^ Gardiner, p. 341.
- ^ a b Gibson and Prendergast, p. 69.
- ^ a b Halpern, p. 61.
- ^ Gardiner, p. 197.
- ^ Sieche, Erwin (30 December 2000). "French Naval Operations, Engagements and Ship Losses in the Adriatic in World War One". World War 1 at Sea. Retrieved 12 December 2008.
- ^ a b Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit by KUK U12". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 26 November 2008.
- ^ von Trapp, pp. 63–64.
- ^ Grant, p. 162.
- ^ a b Sieche (1980), p. 23.
- ^ Halpern, p. 150.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit by KUK U 12". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
Bibliography
- Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. OCLC 12119866.
- Gibson, R. H. & Prendergast, Maurice (2003) [1931]. The German Submarine War, 1914–1918. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. OCLC 52924732.
- Grant, Robert M. (2002) [1964]. U-boats Destroyed: The Effect of Anti-submarine Warfare, 1914–1918. OCLC 50215640.
- Halpern, Paul G. (1994). A Naval History of World War I. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. OCLC 57447525.
- Kemp, Paul (1999). U-boats Destroyed: German Submarine Losses in the World Wars. London: Arms & Armour. OCLC 43972253.
- Sieche, Erwin F. (1980). "Austro-Hungarian Submarines". Warship, Volume 2. Naval Institute Press. OCLC 233144055.
- OCLC 70866865.