Austrian u boat aces

[cpaige]

I just read the book by von Trapp the Austrian uboat commander in WW1. Reading a previous topic shows he was quite sucessfull commander. What other Austrian commander were also sucessful? von Trapp was credited with I believe 13 ships including a sub and battleship, plus capturing one ship. For that matter was there any successfull Russian subs?

[James A Pratt III]

From "The Russian Fleet 1914-1917" Rene Greger the top scoring Russian sub in the Baltic was the "Volk" which sank 4 German merchant ships in one patrol in 1916. As for the Black Sea the top scoring Russian sub was probably the "Tjulen" or "Tyulen" according to Greger. See "The Ottoman Steam Navy 1828-1923" for more info on Turkish ships sunk and damaged by the Russian subs in the Black sea and RN subs during the Dardenelles campaign.

[PeterH]

AH Submarines

1914:U-1,U-2,U-3,U-4,U-5,U-6,U-12

Added

1915: U-10,U-11,U-14,U-15,U-16.U-17

1917: U-20,U-21,U-22,U-23,U-27,U-28,U-29,U-30,U-31,U-32,U-40,U-43,U-47

1918:U-41

That's 27 submarines:of these seven were sunk,2 damaged beyond repair by mines.

Losses:

U 12 (Lerch) hit a mine on August 12, 1915 while trying to enter the Venice Lagoon (17 dead)

U 3 (Strnad)August 13 1915, attacked the Italian auxiliary cruiser Città di Catania in the Otranto Straits, was damaged by the enemy ship when it tried to ram the boat, and discovered the following morning by the French destroyer Bisson which sank the damaged boat through gunfire (7 dead)

U 6 (Falkenhausen) got entangled in a submarine net at the Otranto barrage,May 13 1916, could not free itself and the skipper scuttled the boat when armed trawlers approached; the complete crew was taken prisoner by the Italians

U 16 (Zopa) sank the Italian destroyer Nembo on October 17, 1916 but got rammed by the Italian freighter Borminda, and sank ­damaged beyond repair (2 dead), the rest of the crew going into Italian captivity

U 30 (Fähndrich) sailed from Gjenovic/Bocche di Cattaro on March 3, 1917 and was reported missing (21 dead)

U 4 (Schlosser) hit a mine on a training cruise in the Canal of Fasana on February 21, 1918 (6 dead), but was salvaged and commissioned again

U 23 (Bezard) was sunk by the Italian torpedo boat Airone with an explosive sweep on February 21, 1918 (21 dead)

U 20 (Müller) was sunk by two torpedoes fired by the Italian submarine F 12 off the mouth of the Tagliamento River on June 7, 1918 (18 dead); the wreck was salvaged in June 1962, remains of the crew interred at the burial grounds of the Austrian Military Academy at Wiener Neustadt, the tower is on exhibit at the Austrian Military History Museum, Vienna

U 10 (Sterz) hit a mine off Caorle on July 9, 1918, was beached, subsequently looted by it's own military, towed to Trieste for repairs, but the boat got not back into service till the end of the war.

Some more info here:

http://www.kuk-kriegsmarine.at/u1u4.htm

Egon Lerch in U-12 sank the French Armoured Cruiser Jean Bart in April 1915.

Rudolf Singule in U-4 sank the Italian Armoured Cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi in July 1915.

By major ships/tonnage sunk of the 50 or so AH submarine commanders these were the top:

U12 Egon Lerch-Jean Bart 23,470 tons

U5 Georg von Trapp-Leon Gambetta 12550 tons,Nereide 303 tons =12,853 tons

U4 Rudolf Singule - Giuseppe Garibaldi 7350 tons,Dublin 5400 tons=12,750 tons

U31 Hermann Rigele-Weymouth 5250 tons

U6 Hugo von Falkhausen-Renaudin 800 tons

U27 Robert Teufl-Sakaki 800 tons

U27 Josef Holub-Phoenix 765 tons

U15 Friedrich Fahndrich-Fourche 746 tons

U17 Zdenko Hudecek-Impetuso 680 tons

U47 Hugo von Seyfferititz-Circe 498 tons

U16 Orest von Zopa- Nembo 370 tons

[PeterH]

Egon Lerch(1886-1915)

http://portrait.kaar.at/Erster%20Weltkrieg...202/image7.html

Rudolf Singule(1883-1945)

A Korvettenkapitän in the Kriegsmarine 1942.

http://www.marineverband.at/veranstaltungen/singule.htm