SM U-5 (Austria-Hungary)
 U-5, at the trials
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Austria-Hungary | |
| Name | SM U-5 |
| Ordered | 1906[2] |
| Builder | Fiume[1] |
| Laid down | 9 April 1907[3] |
| Launched | 10 February 1909[1] |
| Sponsored by | Agathe Whitehead[4] |
| Commissioned | 1 April 1910[3] |
| Fate | Ceded to Italy as war reparation and scrapped, 1920[5] |
| Service record | |
| Commanders: |
|
| Victories: | |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | U-5-class submarine |
| Displacement |
|
| 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 |
|
| Speed |
|
| Range |
|
| Complement | 19[1] |
| Armament |
|
SM U-5 or U-V was the
Fiume after a design by Irishman John Philip Holland
.
U-5 was
commissioned
into the Austro-Hungarian Navy in April 1910, and served as a training boat—sometimes making as many as ten cruises a month—through the beginning of the First World War in 1914.
The submarine scored most of her wartime successes during the first year of the war while under the command of
war reparation, and scrapped in 1920. In all, U-5 sank three ships totaling 7,929 gross register tons
(GRT) and 12,641 tons.
Design and construction
U-5 was built as part of a plan by the
launched at Fiume on 10 February 1909 by Agathe Whitehead,[1][4][Note 1] and towed to Pola on 17 August.[3]
U-5's design featured a
gasoline engines, but suffered from inadequate ventilation, which resulted in frequent intoxication of the crew;[8] her underwater propulsion was by two electric motors.[7] The U-5 was christened by Agathe Whitehead on 10 February 1909.[9][10]
Service career
U-5 was
commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 1 April 1910,[3] with Linienschiffsleutnant Urban Passerar in command.[6] Over the next three years she served primarily as a training boat, making as many as ten training cruises per month. On 1 May 1911, she hosted a delegation of Peruvian Navy officers that inspected her. In June 1912, she towed a balloon as part of efforts to assess the underwater visibility of hull paint schemes.[3]
At the outbreak of
Cattaro by late 1914.[12] U-5 made an unsuccessful attack on a French battleship squadron off Punta Stilo on 3 November. In December, the ship's armament was augmented by a 3.7 cm/23 (1.5 in) quick-firing (QF) deck gun, and had her first radio receiver installed.[5]
In April 1915, Victor Baptistin Sénès.[13][14] Of the French ship's complement, 648 were killed in the attack;[5] there were 137 survivors.[15] Léon Gambetta was the largest ship of any kind sunk by U-5.[16]
In June, U-5 helped search for the lost Austro-Hungarian seaplane L 41, and in July, received an upgrade of her deck gun to a 4.7 cm (1.9 in) QF gun.Pelagosa.[17] On the morning of 5 August, the Italian submarine Nereide was on the surface, moored under a cliff in the island's harbor.[18] When U-5 surfaced just offshore, Nereide's commanding officer, Capitano di Corvetta Carlo del Greco, cast off the lines and maneuvered to get a shot at von Trapp's boat. Nereide launched a single torpedo at U-5 that missed, after which del Greco ordered his boat submerged. U-5 lined up a shot and launched a single torpedo at the slowly submerging target, striking her, and sending her to the bottom with all hands.[19][Note 2] The Italian captain received the Medaglia d'Oro al Valore Militare for his actions.[20] At the end of August, U-5 captured the 1,034 GRT Greek steamer Cefalonia as a prize off Durazzo.[5] In late November, Friedrich Schlosser succeeded von Trapp as U-5's commanding officer.[6]
Schlosser and U-5 made an unsuccessful attack on an Italian
Cape Linguetta on the next day.[5] According to a contemporary account, Principe Umberto and two other ships were transporting troops and materiel under escort of two destroyers.[21] After the torpedo hit, Principe Umberto went down quickly with the loss 1,750 men.[5][21] Principe Umberto was the last ship hit by U-5.[16]
On 16 May 1917, U-5 was conducting a training cruise in the
war reparation in 1920 and was scrapped.[1]
Summary of raiding history
| Date | Name | Nationality | Tonnage[Note 3] | Fate[22] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 April 1915 | Léon Gambetta |  French Navy
|
12,416 | Sunk |
| 5 August 1915 | Nereide |  Regia Marina
|
225 | Sunk |
| 29 August 1915 | Cefalonia |  Greece
|
1,034 | Captured as prize |
| 8 June 1916 | Principe Umberto | Regia Marina
|
7,929 | Sunk |
Gallery
-
seen in a pre-war postcard -
SMU-5 passing Brioni island at the beginning of WW-I -
SMU-5 with new deckgun in 1915 -
Georg Ritter von Trappon the bridge -
SMU-5 in Kotor harbor -
75mm deckgun
_postcard.jpg)
Victims gallery
-
U-5 sank the French cruiser Léon Gambetta in April 1915 with heavy loss of life. -
Notes
- Georg Ritter von Trapp, at the launching ceremony; von Trapp later became U-5's most successful commander. See: Berkowitz, p. 82, note 1.
- ^ Stern (p. 40) reports 20 men were killed when Nereide went down; Sieche (p. 22) reports a loss of 17.
- gross register tons. Military vessels are listed by tons displacement.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Gardiner, p. 343.
- ^ a b Gibson and Prendergast, p. 384.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Sieche, p. 21.
- ^ a b Berkowitz, p. 82, note 1.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Sieche, p. 22.
- ^ a b c d e Helgason, Guðmundur. "WWI U-boats: KUK U5". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 24 November 2008.
- ^ a b c d Sieche, p. 17.
- ^ a b Gardiner, p. 340.
- ^ "Sound of Music Story". www.washingtonoes.org. Archived from the original on 24 October 2019.
- ^ "G&A | Georg & Agathe".
- ^ Gardiner, p. 341.
- ^ Sieche, pp. 21–22.
- New York Times. 29 April 1915. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
- ^ Gibson and Prendergast, p. 69.
- ^ Gardiner, p. 193.
- ^ a b c d Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit by KUK U5". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 24 November 2008.
- ^ von Trapp, p. 41.
- ^ Halpern, p. 149.
- ^ Stern, pp. 39–40.
- ^ Stern, p. 40.
- ^ a b Rider, p. 459.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit by KUK U 5". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
Bibliography
- Berkowitz, Bruce D. (2003). The New Face of War: How War Will Be Fought in the 21st Century. New York: OCLC 51559019.
- Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (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.
- Rider, Fremont, ed. (1917). Information Annual 1916: A Continuous Cyclopedia and Digest of Current Events. New York: Cumulative Digest Corporation. OCLC 67878688.
- Sieche, Erwin F. (1980). "Austro-Hungarian Submarines". Warship, Volume 2. Naval Institute Press. OCLC 233144055.
- Stern, Robert Cecil (2007). The Hunter Hunted: Submarine versus Submarine: Encounters from World War I to the Present. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. OCLC 123127537.
- OCLC 70866865.