SM ''U-46'' was one of the 329 submarines serving in the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. ''U-46'' was engaged in the

combat Combat (French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, o ...

during World War I and took part in the

First Battle of the Atlantic The Atlantic U-boat campaign of World War I (sometimes called the "First Battle of the Atlantic", in reference to the World War II campaign of that name) was the prolonged naval conflict between German submarines and the Allied navies in Atla ...

. After the war, she served in the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

as ''O-2''.

Imperial German Navy

Ordered on 4 August 1914, ''U-46'' was constructed at the Kaiserliche Werft in Danzig,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. Launched on 18 May 1915, she was commissioned on 17 December 1915. Assigned to the III Flotilla, ''U-46'' began her first war patrol on 29 March 1916. Remaining in the III Flotilla for the rest of the war, she conducted a total of 11 war patrols before the war ended on 11 November 1918, and was credited with sinking 51

merchant ship A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which ar ...

s totaling 138,942 gross register tons and one auxiliary warship of 1,372 gross register tons and damaging one merchant ship of 7,378 gross register tons. After the end of the war, she surrendered to Japan on 26 November 1918.

Summary of raiding history

Imperial Japanese Navy

Transferred to Japan after surrendering, the submarine was commissioned into the

in 1920 as ''O-2''. Decommissioned in 1921, she was partly dismantled at the

Kure Naval Arsenal was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. History The Kure Naval District was established at Kure, Hiroshima in 1889, as the second of the naval districts responsible for the defense of the ...

in April 1921. A photo of U-46 apparently at the time of transfer to Japan shows the submarine docked and flying the flag of the Imperial Japanese Navy over the flag of the Imperial German Navy. Some sources claim that ''O-2'' was scrapped in 1922.Gröner, p. 9. Other sources claim that in 1925, ''O-2'' was rebuilt at

Yokosuka Naval Arsenal was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was located at Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture on Tokyo Bay, south of Yokohama. History In 1866, the Tokugawa shogunate government established th ...

to serve as a testbed for submarine salvage operations by the submarine salvage ship '' Asahi'' and foundered in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

in a storm off the coast of Japan during her transfer voyage from

Yokosuka is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has a population of 409,478, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The ...

Kure is a port and major shipbuilding city situated on the Seto Inland Sea in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. With a strong industrial and naval heritage, Kure hosts the second-oldest naval dockyard in Japan and remains an important base for the Japan ...

on 21 April 1925, adding that an American

sighted her derelict hulk floating in the Pacific west of

Oahu Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O� ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...

, on 5 August 1927, and that the hulk subsequently was scuttled.

References

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Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:U0046 World War I submarines of Germany 1915 ships Ships built in Danzig U-boats commissioned in 1915 Foreign submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy Type U 43 submarines Maritime incidents in 1925 Maritime incidents in 1927 Shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean Scuttled vessels