SM U-103

SM "U-103" was a German Type Mittel U U-boat during the First World War. "U-103" was built on AG Weser in Bremen, launched on June 9 1917 and commissioned July 15 1917. She completed 5 tours of duty by commander Claus Rücker and was responsible for the sinking of 8 vessels of total GRT|22.249|first=yes.

Loss

In the early hours of 12 May 1918, the "U-103" prepared to launch torpedoes from her stern tubes at RMS "Olympic", which was en route for France with US troops. However, the crew could not flood the two stern torpedo tubes and the submarine was sighted by "Olympic" whose gunners opened fire as she turned on to a ramming course.

"U-103" immediately crash dived to convert|30|m|abbr=on and turned to a parallel course, but almost immediately afterwards "Olympic" struck the submarine just aft of her conning tower and her port propeller sliced through "U-103"'s pressure hull. The crew of "U-103" blew her ballast tanks and scuttled and abandoned the submarine. "Olympic" did not stop, but continued on to Cherbourg, and the USS "Davis" later sighted a distress flare and picked up 31 survivors from the submarine. [cite book | last = McCartney | first = Innes | authorlink = | coauthors = Jak Mallmann-Showell | title = Lost Patrols: Submarine Wrecks of the English Channel | publisher = Periscope Publishing Ltd. | date = 2002 | location = | pages = p. 36 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 1904381049] This was the only known sinking of a warship by a merchant vessel during the First World War.

"U-103"'s wreck lies at position coord|49|16|N|4|51|W|.

Notes

References

* [http://www.uboat.net/wwi/boats/index.html?boat=103 uboat.net: "U-103"]