SM UB-14 - Black Sea

Black Sea

After UB-14's repairs were completed, she continued on to Constantinople and, from there, began a patrol in the Black Sea on 3 October. During this patrol, von Heimburg torpedoed the 474-ton Russian steamer Katja about 15 nautical miles (28 km) northwest of Sevastopol on the 7th, and Apscheron, a Belgian steamer expropriated by the Imperial Russian Navy, 24 nautical miles (44 km) south of Cape Chersonesos on the 8th. After her return to Constantinople on the 19th, UB-14 was prepared for another patrol in the Black Sea. Just before her scheduled departure, however, the U-boat's destination was changed from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and von Heimburg and UB-14 headed south on 5 November. While UB-14 had been in port on 30 November, Turkish forces had captured the French submarine Turquoise before the submarine or any of the confidential papers on board could be destroyed. When Turquoise was caught, her commander had not signaled her predicament to anyone, so a scheduled rendezvous with the British submarine E20—as far as anyone other than Turquoise or the Germans and Turks knew—was still on. UB-14 had been sent to keep the rendezvous, reportedly going so far as to radio messages in the latest British code. Upon arriving at the designated location, UB-14 surfaced and fired a torpedo at E20 from a distance of 500 metres (550 yd). Only when E20's crew saw the torpedo did they realize something was amiss, but it was too late to avoid the weapon. The torpedo hit E20's conning tower and sank the submarine with the loss of 21 men. UB-14 rescued nine men, including E20's captain who, reportedly, had been brushing his teeth at the time of the attack.

In December, von Heimburg was replaced as UB-14's commander by Kapitänleutnant Albrecht von Dewitz, but in early February 1916, von Heimburg resumed command. UB-14's activities between November and May are not reported in sources, but Paul Halpern reports that UB-14 patrolled in the Black Sea off Trebizond from late May to early June, returning to Constantinople without success.

On 17 June, von Heimburg was recalled to Germany to command the soon-to-be-commissioned UC-22, and was replaced on UB-14 by Kapitänleutnant Kurt Schwarz, a first time U-boat commander. Soon after Schwarz assumed command, UB-14 was in the Black Sea in support of a July sortie by the German battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau in the eastern Black Sea. Because the Russian fleet, headquartered at Sevastopol, might have an opportunity to cut off the German warships on the mission, UB-14 was sent on station off Sevastopol. When the Russian fleet did sortie, Schwarz attempted to torpedo the Imperatritsa Mariya, but was seen and driven off by Russian dreadnought's screen of destroyers.

After Romania joined the war on the side of the Triple Entente in August and was quickly overrun by the Central Powers, the Russian efforts in the Black Sea in the second half of 1916 were focused in the west. Because German submarines never really accomplished all that much in the Black Sea, the February 1917 resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare led the Germans to temporarily abandon the Black Sea in lieu of the more target-rich Mediterranean. UB-14's whereabouts and activities during the latter half of 1916 and the first few months of 1917 are unreported in sources.

On 28 May 1917, Oberleutnant zur See Ernst Ulrich replaced Schwarz, and, soon after, UB-14 sailed on the first German patrol of the year in the Black Sea. On 5 June, UB-14 sank the 155-ton Russian sailing vessel Karasunda north of Poti; Karasunda was the last ship credited to UB-14. Other than to note that Oberleutnant zur See Bodo Elleke succeeded Ulrich in March 1918, there is no mention in sources of UB-14's activities between June 1917 and November 1918.

After the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers on 3 March 1918, exiting the war, forces of the Central Powers surrounded and later seized the port of Sevastopol. UB-14 was at Sevastopol after the Germany signed the armistice treaty that ended all fighting on 11 November. UB-14 and the three other surviving Constantinople Flotilla boats were disarmed on 25 November. UB-14 was scuttled in the Black Sea off Sevastopol in the early months of 1919.