SM UB-10 - Grand Fleet Ambush Attempts

Grand Fleet Ambush Attempts

In mid-May, Scheer completed plans to draw out part of the British Grand Fleet. The German High Seas Fleet would sortie for a raid on Sunderland, luring the British fleet across "'nests' of submarines and mine-fields". In support of the operation, UB-10 and five other Flanders boats set out at midnight 30/31 May to form a line 18 nautical miles (33 km) east of Lowestoft. This group was to intercept and attack the British light forces from Harwich, should they sortie north to join the battle. Unfortunately for the Germans, the British Admiralty had intelligence reports of the departure of the submarines which, coupled with an absence of attacks on shipping, aroused British suspicions.

A delayed departure of the German High Seas Fleet for its sortie (which had been redirected to the Skagerrak) and the failure of several of the U-boats stationed to the north to receive the coded message warning of the British advance caused Scheer's anticipated ambush to be a "complete and disappointing failure". UB-10 sighted the Harwich forces, but they were too far away to mount an attack. The failure of the submarine ambush to sink any British capital ships allowed the full Grand Fleet to engage the numerically inferior High Seas Fleet in the Battle of Jutland, which took place 31 May – 1 June.

In mid-June, Saltzwedel was transferred to UC-10, and—as was the case with Steinbrinck—went on become one of the top-scoring U-boat commanders of the war, placing eleventh on the list with 150,000 tons to his credit. After Saltzwedel, UB-10 was assigned a new commander about every two to three months through the end of the war. Saltzwedel's immediate replacement on UB-10 was Kapitänleutnant (Kplt.) Gustav Buch, who led the boat in sinking her only warship, the British destroyer Lassoo on 13 August; Lassoo was torpedoed off the Maas Lightvessel and sank with the loss of six men. Later in August, UB-10 was fortunate enough to avoid attack by a British submarine when departing Zeebrugge. On the morning of 21 August, the outbound UB-10 had a rendezvous with the homeward-bound UC-10 off the North Hinder Lightship and exchanged information. UC-10 parted company with UB-10 at about 13:30 and resumed her course for Zeebrugge, but was torpedoed and sunk by HMS E54, which had been lurking about the Schouwen Bank off Zeebrugge.