SM U-155

SM "U-155" was a German Type U 151 U-boat commissioned in 1917 for the Kaiserliche Marine. She served with the U-Kreuzer Flotilla.

Background

Before its war duty, "U-155" had been the "Deutschland", one of only two merchant submarines ever built. Having performed two highly successful trade missions to the United States, she was retired from her role in early 1917 after the US entered the war against Germany. The ship was then rebuilt for its new role and commissioned into the Kaiserliche Marine on February 19 1917, serving with her sister ships in the U-Kreuzer Flotilla.

War service

1917

During the summer of 1917 U-155 made a 105-day cruise, commanded by Karl Meusel, leaving Germany around 24 May and returning on 4 September. During her traverse of the Northern Passage around the northern end of the British Isles and out into the Atlantic Ocean, she was stalked and nearly sunk by U-19 near Utsira Island, Norway.

During her patrol she sank 19 merchant ships, most by either scuttling or gunfire. She attacked 19 Allied armed merchantmen but only succeeded in sinking 9 of them. Upon her return to Germany she had covered a distance of convert|10220|mi|abbr=on, of which convert|620|mi|abbr=on had been travelled submerged, one of the longest voyages made by a U-boat during World War I. [Gibson, p. 217]

1918

U-155 sailed from Kiel on 11 August 1918 commanded by Ferdinand Studt. Studt's orders directed him to cruise off the US coast in the region of the Nantucket lightship and lay mines off St. John's, Newfoundland and Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was also directed to cut telegraph cables off Sable Island, convert|80|km|abbr=on southeast of Nova Scotia. His orders, however, proved problematic, and Studt came to believe that the St. Johns where he was to lay mines was actually Saint John, New Brunswick, in the Bay of Fundy.

On U-155's outbound voyage she had captured and scuttled the Portuguese sailing ship "Gamo", had attempted an attack on the SS "France", and destroyed by gunfire the Norwegian "Stortind". On 7 September U-155 found herself in a long range gun duel with the US steamer "Frank H. Buck", the steamer later claiming to have sunk U-155.

On 13 September U-155 engaged in another gun fight with the British merchantman "Newby Hall" which managed to damage the submarine, denting her armour and causing serious leaks in her pressure hull which made diving temporarily impossible.

On 19 September Studt tried and failed to locate and cut the telegraph cable near Sable Island then headed for Nantucket. [cite book | last = Hadley | first = Michael L. | authorlink = | coauthors = Roger Flynn Sarty | title = Tin-pots and Pirate Ships | publisher = McGill-Queen's Press | year = 1991 | location = | pages = pp. 244-245 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0773507787]

Fate

U-155 returned to Germany from her final cruise on 12 November 1918 and was surrendered on 24 November 1918 with other submarines as part of the terms of the Armistice. She was taken to Britain and exhibited in London and elsewhere and was eventually sold for scrap in 1921. She was being broken up at Robert Smith and Sons, Birkenhead, when an explosion on 17 September ripped the ship apart, killing five apprentices. [cite book | last = Paine | first = Lincoln P. | authorlink = | coauthors = Hal Fessenden, James H. Terry | title = Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia | publisher = Houghton Mifflin Co. | date = 1997 | location = | pages = p. 140 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0395715563 ]

References

*cite book | last = Gibson | first = R.H. | authorlink = | coauthors = Maurice Prendergast | title = The German Submarine War 1914-1918 | publisher = Periscope Publishing Ltd. | year = 2002 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 1904381081

External links

* [http://www.uboat.net/wwi/boats/index.html?boat=155 uboat.net webpage about "U-155"] See also: List of U-boats