U-5-class Submarine (Austria-Hungary)
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The ''U-5'' class was a
class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...
of three
submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
s or
U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...
s that were operated by the
Austro-Hungarian Navy The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy (, in short ''k.u.k. Kriegsmarine'', ) was the navy, naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy were designated ''SMS'', for ''Seiner Majestät Schiff'' (His Majes ...
( or ''K.u.K. Kriegsmarine'') before and during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. The class was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Navy's efforts to competitively evaluate three foreign submarine designs. The design of the boats was based upon the Electric Boat Company's EB-17 ( C-class), the first to be designed by the company's new chief designer, Lawrence York Spear. It featured a single,
teardrop hull A teardrop hull is a submarine hull design which emphasizes submerged performance over surfaced performance. It was somewhat commonly used in the early stages of submarine development, but was gradually abandoned in the early 20th century in favo ...
, which resembled the design of modern nuclear submarines.Sieche, p. 21. The class members were just over long and displaced surfaced and submerged. All were originally equipped with two bow torpedo tubes and could carry four torpedoes. The first two boats, ''U-5'' and ''U-6'', built specifically for the Austro-Hungarian Navy, to the same design as the
United States C-class submarine The C-class submarines were five United States Navy submarines built by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company in Quincy, Massachusetts, under a subcontract from the General Dynamics Electric Boat, Electric Boat Company. Built between 1906 and 1909 ...
were partially constructed in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
and completed at Whitehead & Co. at
Fiume Rijeka (; Fiume ( fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and in 2021 had a po ...
. The third was completely constructed by Whitehead's at Fiume and purchased by
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
to bolster their U-boat fleet after the outbreak of World War I. All three boats had successes during World War I; between them they sank five ships with a combined tonnage of 22,391. In addition they captured seven ships as
prize A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.
s and damaged , a French
dreadnought The dreadnought was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an effect when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", ...
of 22,189 tons displacement. All three boats were sunk during the war, though ''U-5'', the
lead boat The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships that are all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very complex ...
of the class, was raised and recommissioned after her sinking. After the war's end, ''U-5'', the only survivor of the class, was ceded to Italy as a
war reparation War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. War reparations can take the form of hard currency, precious metals, natural resources, in ...
and was broken up in 1920.


Design and construction

In 1904, after allowing the navies of other countries to pioneer submarine developments, the
Austro-Hungarian Navy The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy (, in short ''k.u.k. Kriegsmarine'', ) was the navy, naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy were designated ''SMS'', for ''Seiner Majestät Schiff'' (His Majes ...
ordered the Austrian Naval Technical Committee (MTK) to produce a submarine design. The January 1905 design developed by the MTK and other designs submitted by the public as part of a design competition were all rejected by the Navy as impracticable. They instead opted to order two submarines each of designs by
Simon Lake Simon Lake (September 4, 1866 – June 23, 1945) was a Quaker American mechanical engineer and naval architect who obtained over two hundred patents for advances in naval design and competed with John Philip Holland to build the first submarines ...
,
Germaniawerft Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft (often just called Germaniawerft, "Germania (personification), Germania shipyard") was a German shipbuilding company, located in the harbour at Kiel, and one of the largest and most important builders of U-boats for ...
, and Electric Boat for a competitive evaluation. The two Electric Boat submarines comprised the ''U-5'' class.Gardiner, p. 340.The Lake design became the while the Germaniawerft design became the . The Navy authorized two boats, ''U-5'' and ''U-6'', from Whitehead & Co. of
Fiume Rijeka (; Fiume ( fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and in 2021 had a po ...
in 1906.Gibson and Prendergast, p. 384. The ''U-5'' class was built to the same design as the C class for the US Navy and was built by Robert Whitehead's firm of Whitehead & Co. under license from Electric Boat. Components for the first two Austrian boats were manufactured by the Electric Boat Company and assembled at Fiume, while the third boat was a speculative private venture by Whitehead that failed to find a buyer and was purchased by Austria-Hungary upon the outbreak of World War I. The ''U-5''-class boats had a single-
hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...
ed design with a teardrop-shape that bore a strong resemblance to modern nuclear submarines. The boats were just over long and displaced surfaced, and submerged. The torpedo tubes featured unique, cloverleaf-shaped design hatches that rotated on a central axis. The ships were powered by twin 6-cylinder
gasoline engine A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American and Canadian English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as Autogas, liquefied petroleum gas and Common ...
s while surfaced, but suffered from inadequate ventilation which resulted in frequent intoxication of the crew. While submerged, they were propelled by twin
electric motor An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...
s. The first two boats, ''U-5'' and ''U-6'', were ordered by the Austro-Hungarian Navy for evaluation and were partially assembled in the United States, shipped to Fiume, and riveted together by Whitehead & Co., which, author Edwin Sieche reports, "caused a lot of trouble". ''U-5'' was launched in February 1909 and was followed in June by the launch of ''U-6''. Both boats were commissioned by April 1910.Sieche, pp. 21–22. The third boat, originally named ''SS-3'', was built on speculation entirely at Whitehead's in Fiume. The boat's design featured improvements in the electrical and mechanical systems. Gibson and Prendergast report that, when built, ''SS-3'' was powered by electric motors for both surface and submerged running. When the surface performance of the electric motors proved disappointing in trials, ''SS-3''s power-plant was rebuilt to match the gasoline/electric combination used in ''U-5'' and ''U-6''.Gibson and Prendergast, pp. 384–85. ''SS-3'' was launched in March 1911 and was offered to the Austro-Hungarian Navy, but because the evaluation of the first two ''U-5''-class boats was still underway, they declined to purchase. As built, the ''U-5''-class boats were armed with two bow
torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...
s and could carry a supply of four torpedoes. By 1915, all had received a 3.7 cm/23 (1.5 in)
deck gun A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret. The main deck gun was a dual-purpose w ...
.


Service career

''U-5'' and ''U-6'' were both commissioned into the
Austro-Hungarian Navy The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy (, in short ''k.u.k. Kriegsmarine'', ) was the navy, naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy were designated ''SMS'', for ''Seiner Majestät Schiff'' (His Majes ...
by April 1910, and served as training boats through 1914, making as many as ten training cruises per month. During their early years, each boat was demonstrated to a foreign naval delegation; ''U-5'' to a
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vian detachment in 1911, ''U-6'' to a Norwegian group in 1910. At the beginning of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
in August 1914, ''U-5'' and ''U-6'' comprised half of the operational U-boat fleet of the Austro-Hungarian Navy.Gardiner, p. 341. In the three years after ''SS-3''s March 1911 launch, Whitehead's attempted to sell the boat to the navies of
Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
,
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, the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
,
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
, and
Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
, before the Austro-Hungarian Navy rejected an offer for the second time. With the outbreak of war, however, the Austro-Hungarian Navy purchased the unsold submarine to quickly bolster its fleet. Although provisionally commissioned as ''U-7'', she was commissioned as ''U-12'' in August 1914. By late December 1914, all three of the ''U-5''-class boats were based at the naval base at
Cattaro Kotor (Cyrillic: Котор, ), historically known as Cattaro (from Italian: ), is a town in Coastal region of Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Bay of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,347 and is the administrative cen ...
and all took part in combat patrols. Between the three boats, they sank five ships with a combined tonnage of 22,391,Merchant ship tonnage is in gross register tons. Warship tonnage is in tons of
displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...
.
captured seven ships, and damaged one dreadnought. ''U-6'' was the least successful, sinking a single ship of 756 tons; ''U-5'' was the most successful, sinking three ships with of a combined tonnage of 20,570, including the French
armoured cruiser The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a pre-dreadnought battles ...
.Sieche, p. 22. ''U-12'' damaged, but did not sink, the largest ship torpedoed by any of the ''U-5'' class when she hit the French battleship on 21 December 1914. Of the three boats of the class, only ''U-5'' survived the war intact. ''U-12'' was sunk with the loss of all hands when she hit a mine near
Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
in August 1915,Grant, p. 162.Grant (p. 162), Gibson and Prendergast (p. 73), and Halpern (p. 150) report ''U-12''s loss in August 1915, while Sieche (p. 23) and Gardiner (p. 343) report the loss in August 1916. while ''U-6'' was scuttled by her crew in May 1916 after becoming trapped in an
anti-submarine net An anti-submarine net or anti-submarine boom is a boom placed across the mouth of a harbour or a strait for protection against submarines. Net laying ships would be used to place and remove the nets. The US Navy used anti-submarine nets in the ...
that was a part of the
Otranto Barrage The Otranto Barrage was an Allied naval blockade of the Strait of Otranto between Brindisi in Italy and Corfu on the Greek side of the Adriatic Sea in the First World War. The operation consisted of over 200 vessels at the height of the block ...
. ''U-5'' herself sank after hitting an Austro-Hungarian mine during a training exercise, but was raised, repaired and recommissioned before the war's end. ''U-5'' was ceded to Italy as a
war reparation War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. War reparations can take the form of hard currency, precious metals, natural resources, in ...
and scrapped in 1920.


Class members


SM ''U-5''

SM ''U-5'' was
laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...
in April 1907 and launched in February 1909. She 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 Georg Ritter von Trapp. The French armoured cruiser , sunk in April 1915, was the largest ship sunk by ''U-5''. In May 1917, ''U-5'' hit a mine and sank with the loss of six men. She was raised, rebuilt, and recommissioned, but sank no more ships. At the end of the war, ''U-5'' was ceded to Italy as a
war reparation War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. War reparations can take the form of hard currency, precious metals, natural resources, in ...
, and scrapped in 1920. In all, ''U-5'' sank three ships totaling 20,570 combined tonnage.


SM ''U-6''

SM ''U-6'' was
laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...
in February 1908 and launched the following June. She served as a training boat after her July 1910 commissioning into the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She served in that capacity through the beginning of World War I in 1914, making as many as ten training cruises a month. ''U-6'' scored only one wartime success, sinking a French
destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...
in March 1916. In May that same year, she became entangled in
anti-submarine net An anti-submarine net or anti-submarine boom is a boom placed across the mouth of a harbour or a strait for protection against submarines. Net laying ships would be used to place and remove the nets. The US Navy used anti-submarine nets in the ...
ting deployed as part of the
Otranto Barrage The Otranto Barrage was an Allied naval blockade of the Strait of Otranto between Brindisi in Italy and Corfu on the Greek side of the Adriatic Sea in the First World War. The operation consisted of over 200 vessels at the height of the block ...
. Coming under fire from 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.


SM ''U-12''

SM ''U-12'' was built on speculation by Whitehead & Co. of
Fiume Rijeka (; Fiume ( fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and in 2021 had a po ...
under the name ''SS-3''. She was
laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...
in 1909 and
launch Launch or launched may refer to: Involving vehicles * Launch (boat), one of several different sorts of boat ** Motor launch (naval), a small military vessel used by the Royal Navy * Air launch, the practice of dropping an aircraft, rocket, or ...
ed in March 1911 and featured improvements in the electrical and mechanical systems from the Holland design of her older sister boats, ''U-5'' and ''U-6''. Whitehead's tried selling ''SS-3'' to several different navies, but she was finally bought by the Austro-Hungarian Navy after the outbreak of World War I, despite having been rejected twice before. She was commissioned as ''U-12'' in August 1914. She sank only one ship during the war, a Greek
cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...
in May 1915, but had earlier captured six Montenegrin sailing vessels as
prize A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.
s in March. ''U-12'' also damaged, but did not sink, the French battleship in December 1914.Gibson and Prendergast, p. 69. While searching for targets in the vicinity of
Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
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.Halpern, p. 150. Her wreck was salvaged the next year by the Italians, who interred the bodies of ''U-12''s crewmen in a Venetian cemetery.Sieche, p. 23.


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:U-5 Class Submarine (Austria-Hungary) Submarine classes