SM U-6 (Austria-Hungary)

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U-5, as seen in a pre-war postcard
U-6, as seen in a pre-war postcard
History
Austria-Hungary
NameSM U-6
Ordered1906[2]
Builder
Fiume[1]
Laid down21 February 1908[4]
Launched12 June 1909[1]
Commissioned1 July 1910[3]
FateTrapped in anti-submarine net and scuttled, 13 May 1916[4]
Service record
Commanders:
  • Georg Ritter von Trapp
  • 1 July 1910 – 24 June 1913[3]
  • Nikolaus Halavanja
  • 24 June 1913 – 22 July 1915
  • Albrecht Graf von Attems
  • 22 July – 5 August 1915
  • Urban Passerar
  • 5 – 31 August 1915
  • Lüdwig Eberhardt
  • 31 August – 10 October 1915
  • Nikolaus Halavanja
  • 10 October – 21 November 1915
  • Hugo von Falkhausen
  • 21 November 1915 – 13 May 1916
Victories: 1 warship sunk
(756 tons)[3]
General characteristics
Class and type
U-5-class submarine
Displacement
  • 240 t surfaced
  • 273 t submerged[1]
Length105 ft 4 in (32.11 m)[1]
Beam13 ft 9 in (4.19 m)[1]
Draft12 ft 10 in (3.91 m)[1]
Propulsion
Speed
  • 10.75 knots (19.91 km/h) surfaced
  • 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h) submerged[1]
Range
  • 800 nmi (1,500 km) at 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h) surfaced
  • 48 nmi (89 km) at 6 knots (11.1 km/h) submerged[1]
Complement19[1]
Armament

SM U-6 or U-VI was a

Fiume after a design by Irishman John Philip Holland
.

U-6 was

commissioned
into the Austro-Hungarian Navy in July 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 had only one wartime success, which was sinking a French destroyer in March 1916. Later that year, in May, U-6 became entangled in anti-submarine netting deployed as part of the Otranto Barrage. Coming under fire from Royal Navy's drifters running the nets, U-6 was abandoned and sunk. All of her crewmen were rescued and were held in captivity through the end of the war.

Design and construction

U-6 was built as part of a plan by the

launched at Fiume on 12 June 1909.[1]

U-6's design featured a single-

gasoline engines, but suffered from inadequate ventilation, which resulted in frequent intoxication of the crew;[6] her underwater propulsion was by two electric motors.[5][Note 1]

Service career

U-6 was

Georg Ritter von Trapp in command.[3] Over the next three years she served primarily as a training boat, making as many as ten training cruises per month. On 7 November 1911, she hosted a Norwegian naval delegation that inspected her. On 26 June 1912, U-6 was accidentally rammed by the submarine tender Pelikan while surfacing after a deep diving trial.[4]

At the outbreak of

Cattaro by late 1914.[4] U-6's activities over the early part of the war are not reported, but the boat's armament was augmented by a 3.7 cm/23 (1.5 in) quick-firing (QF) deck gun in December 1915. 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-6 did, too.[4]
On 23 February 1916, U-6 made an unsuccessful attack on an Italian Indomito-class destroyer,[4] but she then managed to torpedo and sink the French destroyer Renaudin on 18 March off Durazzo.[4][9] Renaudin went down with 47 of her 83-man complement.[10]

On the night of 12 May, U-6 headed out to try to intercept shipping between

Valona.[11] Linienschiffsleutnant Hugo von Falkhausen, U-6's commander since November 1915,[3] attempted to pass underneath two drifters that formed a part of the Otranto Barrage. While submerged, von Falkhausen heard an unexplained noise on the hull of the boat, which was likely the sound of U-6 fouling one of the anti-submarine nets deployed from the drifter Calistoga. The drifter's skipper was alerted to the submarine's presence when one of the indicator buoys had fired. Calistoga launched signal flares that attracted the attention of two nearby drifters Dulcie Doris and Evening Star II. In the meantime, von Falkhausen surfaced U-6 to try to cut loose the buoy being dragged behind his boat. When the hatch was opened, the crew discovered the boat entangled in the net.[12]

The successful crew after the sinking of Destroyer Renaudin

Though unable to submerge, von Falkhausen attempted to flee on the surface, but the port propeller shaft became fouled. Realizing that he was stuck, and with Dulcie Doris and Evening Star II beginning to shell his boat, U-6's captain ordered code books and confidential material thrown overboard and the submarine scuttled. U-6's three officers and seventeen crewmen were all rescued, but spent the remainder of the war as prisoners of the Italians.[12] In her career, U-6 sank one ship totaling 756 tons.[13]

Summary of raiding history

Date Name Nationality Tonnage Fate[14]
18 March 1916 Renaudin  French Navy 756 Sunk

Notes

  1. ^ U-6's gasoline engines were slated to be replaced by diesel engines, but this was not accomplished before the boat sank in May 1916. The two engines ordered for U-6, were instead installed in U-41 which had to be lengthened to accommodate them. See: Baumgartner and Sieche, as excerpted here (reprinted and translated into English by Sieche). Retrieved 26 November 2008.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Gardiner, p. 343.
  2. ^ a b Gibson and Prendergast, p. 384.
  3. ^ a b c d e Helgason, Guðmundur. "WWI U-boats: KUK U6". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 26 November 2008.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Sieche, p. 22.
  5. ^ a b c d e Sieche, p. 17.
  6. ^ a b Gardiner, p. 340.
  7. ^ a b c Sieche, p. 21.
  8. ^ Gardiner, p. 341.
  9. ^ Gardiner, p. 206.
  10. ^ Rider, p. 493.
  11. ^ Halpern, p. 36
  12. ^ a b Halpern, pp. 36–37
  13. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit by KUK U6". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 26 November 2008.
  14. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit by KUK U 6". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 21 January 2015.

Bibliography


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