SM UB-4
UB-4 sometime in 1915
| |
History | |
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German Empire | |
Name | UB-4 |
Ordered | 15 November 1914[2] |
Builder | |
Yard number | 242[2] |
Laid down | 3 November 1914[2] |
Launched | March 1915[1] |
Commissioned | 23 March 1915[2] |
Fate | Sunk by British Q-ship, 15 August 1915[3] |
General characteristics [5] | |
Class and type | German Type UB I submarine |
Displacement |
|
Length | 28.10 m (92 ft 2 in) ( o/a ) |
Beam | 3.15 m (10 ft 4 in) |
Draught | 3.03 m (9 ft 11 in) |
Propulsion |
|
Speed |
|
Range |
|
Test depth | 50 metres (160 ft) |
Complement | 14 |
Armament |
|
Notes | 33-second diving time |
Service record | |
Part of: |
|
Commanders: | |
Operations: | 14 patrols[2] |
Victories: |
4 merchant ships sunk (10,942 GRT)[2] |
Seiner Majestät
UB-4 was ordered in October 1914 and was
UB-4 conducted the first sortie of the
Design and construction
After the
UB-4 was
UB-4 was armed with two 45-centimeter (17.7 in) torpedoes in two bow torpedo tubes. She was also outfitted for a single 8-millimeter (0.31 in) machine gun on deck. UB-4's standard complement consisted of one officer and thirteen enlisted men.[10]
After work on UB-4 was complete at the Germaniwerft yard, UB-4 was readied for rail shipment. The process of shipping a UB I boat involved breaking the submarine down into what was essentially a
Service career
The submarine was
UB-4 kicked off operations for the new flotilla when she departed on her first patrol on 9 April. The following day, she sank the first ship credited to the Flanders Flotilla. The 5,940 GRT British-flagged
UB-4's followed up the sinking of Harpalyce by sinking the Greek ship Ellispontos, a steamer of 2,989 gross register tons (GRT). Ellispontos was en route to Montevideo from Amsterdam when sunk by Gross and UB-4 on 17 April.[17] Although German U-boats sank over 100,000 tons of shipping in each of May and June,[18][19] UB-4 did not contribute to those totals.[16] She did add one ship to the 98,000-ton tally for July when she sank the Belgian ship Princesse Marie Jose and her load of coal on 29 July.[19][20] The 1,954 GRT steamer had sailed from Dunston and was headed to Bordeaux when sunk 1.5 nautical miles (2.8 km; 1.7 mi) from the Shipwash Lightship off Harwich.[20]
Sinking
Action of 15 August 1915 | |||||||
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Part of U-boat Campaign of World War I | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Imperial German Navy | Royal Navy | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Karl Gross † | Ernest Martin Jehan | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
UB-4, 14 crewmembers | Inverlyon, unknown number of crew | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
14 KIA, UB-4 sunk | none |
On 14 August, the 59 GRT British
The decoy or
As UB-4 went down, her hulk fouled the Inverlyon's nets—which had been deployed to keep up the appearance of a real fishing boat—essentially anchoring Inverlyon in place. The Q-ship's crew, not having a
Summary of raiding history
Date | Name | Nationality | Tonnage[Note 7] | Fate |
---|---|---|---|---|
10 April 1915 | Harpalyce | United Kingdom | 5,940 | Sunk |
17 April 1915 | Ellispontos | Greece | 2,989 | Sunk |
29 July 1915 | Princesse Marie Jose | Belgium | 1,954 | Sunk |
14 August 1915 | Bona Fide | United Kingdom | 59 | Sunk |
Total: | 10,942 |
Notes
- ^ a b Karl Gross' name is also spelled as Karl Groß in some sources.
- ^ "SM" stands for "Seiner Majestät" (English: His Majesty's) and combined with the U for Unterseeboot would be translated as His Majesty's Submarine.
- mine chutes but changing little else—evolved into the Type UC I coastal minelayingsubmarine. See: Miller, p. 458.
- ^ Gross was in the Navy's April 1905 cadet class with 36 other future U-boat captains, including Hermann von Fischel, Carl-Siegfried Ritter von Georg, Kurt Hartwig, and Hans von Mellenthin. See: Helgason, Guðmundur. "WWI Officer Crews: Crew 4/05". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
- ^ Perkins reports the date of the encounter as Sunday, 16 August 1915, but 16 August 1915 was actually a Monday. Messimer (p. 129), Gibson and Prendergast (pp. 50–51), and Uboat.net (Helgason, Guðmundur. "WWI U-boats: UB 4". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 19 February 2009.) all report the date of the encounter as 15 August 1915.
- ^ There is no mention of the amount of the bounty for sinking UB-4, but the Admiralty bounties were typically £5 per crewman on the submarine, or £70 in the case of UB-4. See: Messimer, pp. 158, 170, 222, for examples of the £5 per capita bounty.
- gross register tons
References
- ^ a b "UB-4 (6104975)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Helgason, Guðmundur. "WWI U-boats: UB 4". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 19 February 2009.
- ^ a b Messimer, p. 129
- ^ a b Tarrant, p. 172.
- ^ Gröner, pp. 22-23.
- ^ German: "His Majesty's"
- ^ a b c Miller, pp. 46–47.
- ^ a b Karau, p. 48.
- ^ Williamson, p. 12.
- ^ a b c d Karau, p. 49.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "WWI U-boat commanders: Karl Groß". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 14.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Harpalyce". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
- ^ ]
- ^ a b "Relief flag flying as Harpalyce sunk" (PDF). The New York Times. 12 April 1915. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
- ^ a b c Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit by UB 4". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Ellispontos". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 18.
- ^ a b Tarrant, p. 21.
- ^ a b Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Princesse Marie Jose". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
- His Majesty's Stationery Office. 1919.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Bona Fide". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 5 March 2009.
Bibliography
- Bendert, Harald (2000). Die UB-Boote der Kaiserlichen Marine, 1914-1918. Einsätze, Erfolge, Schicksal (in German). ISBN 3-8132-0713-7.
- Gröner, Erich; Jung, Dieter; Maass, Martin (1991). U-boats and Mine Warfare Vessels. German Warships 1815–1945. Vol. 2. Translated by Thomas, Keith; Magowan, Rachel. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-593-4.
- Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. OCLC 12119866.
- Gibson, R. H.; Maurice Prendergast (2003) [1931]. The German Submarine War, 1914–1918. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. OCLC 52924732.
- Karau, Mark D. (2003). Wielding the Dagger: the MarineKorps Flandern and the German War Effort, 1914–1918. OCLC 51204317.
- Messimer, Dwight R. (2002). Verschollen: World War I U-boat losses. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. OCLC 231973419.
- Miller, David (2002). The Illustrated Directory of Submarines of the World. OCLC 50208951.
- Tarrant, V. E. (1989). The U-Boat Offensive: 1914–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. OCLC 20338385.
- OCLC 48627495.