Design and Construction
After the German Army's rapid advance along the North Sea coast in the earliest stages of World War I, the German Imperial Navy found itself without suitable submarines that could be operated in the narrow and shallow seas off Flanders. Project 34, a design effort begun in mid-August 1914, produced the Type UB I design: a small submarine that could be shipped by rail to a port of operations and quickly assembled. Constrained by railroad size limitations, the UB I design called for a boat about 92 feet (28 m) long and displacing about 125 metric tons (138 short tons) with two torpedo tubes. UB-8 was last boat of the initial allotment of eight submarines—numbered from UB-1—ordered on 15 October from Germaniawerft of Kiel, just shy of two months after planning for the class began.
UB-8 was laid down by Germaniawerft in Kiel on 4 December. As built, UB-8 was 92 feet 2 inches (28.09 m) long, 10 feet 6 inches (3.20 m) abeam, and had a draft of 9 feet 10 inches (3.00 m). She had a single 60-brake-horsepower (45 kW) Daimler 4-cylinder diesel engine for surface travel, and a single 120-shaft-horsepower (89 kW) Siemens-Schuckert electric motor for underwater travel, both attached to a single propeller shaft. Her top speeds were 6.47 knots (11.98 km/h), surfaced, and 5.51 knots (10.20 km/h), submerged. At more moderate speeds, she could sail up to 1,650 nautical miles (3,060 km) on the surface before refueling, and up to 45 nautical miles (83 km) submerged before recharging her batteries. Like all boats of the class, UB-8 was rated to a diving depth of 50 metres (160 ft), and could completely submerge in 33 seconds.
UB-8 was armed with two 45-centimeter (17.7 in) torpedoes in two bow torpedo tubes. She was also outfitted for a single 8-millimeter (0.31 in) machine gun on deck. UB-8's standard complement consisted of one officer and thirteen enlisted men.
While UB-8's construction neared completion in early March 1915, Enver Pasha and other Turkish leaders were pleading with their German and Austro-Hungarian allies to send submarines to the Dardanelles to help attack the British and French fleet pounding Turkish positions. The Germans induced the Austro-Hungarian Navy (German: Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine or K.u.K. Kriegsmarine) to send two boats—its own Germaniawerft-built boats U-3 and U-4—with the promise of UB-7 and UB-8 as replacements.
When work on UB-7 and UB-8 was complete at the Germaniwerft yard, they were both readied for rail shipment. The process of shipping a UB I boat involved breaking the submarine down into what was essentially a knock down kit. Each boat was broken into approximately fifteen pieces and loaded on to eight railway flatcars. The boats were ready for shipment to the main Austrian naval base at Pola on 15 March, despite the fact that the Austrian pair was still not ready. German engineers and technicians that accompanied the German boats to Pola worked under the supervision of Kapitänleutnant Hans Adam, head of the newly created U-boat special command (German: Sonderkommando). Typically, the UB I assembly process took about two to three weeks, and, accordingly, UB-8 was launched at Pola sometime in April.
Read more about this topic: SM UB-8
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