SM UB-8 - German Career

German Career

During her trials, UB-8 was assigned the Austrian number of U-8 and an Austrian commander. Her German crew at Pola—since it was still the intent for UB-8 to be transferred to the K.u.K. Kriegsmarine—wore either civilian clothes or Austrian uniforms. As time dragged on, the Austrian U-3 and U-4 were still not ready, and eventually Admiral Anton Haus, the head of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, reneged on his commitment because of the overt hostility from neighbor and former ally Italy.

With the change of heart from the Austrians, Germany resolved to retain UB-8 and send her to the aid of the Turks. So, the boat was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy as SM UB-8 on 23 April under the command of Kapitänleutnant Ernst von Voigt, a 27-year-old first-time U-boat commander. At commissioning, the boat temporarily joined the Pola Flotilla (German: Deutsche U-Halbflotille Pola).

Because of her limited range, UB-8 would not have been able to make the entire journey to Turkey, so on 2 May, she was towed by the Austrian cruiser SMS Novara from Pola down the Adriatic and through the Straits of Otranto. The duo continued until spotted by French forces near Kefalonia. UB-8 slipped the tow and Novara raced back into the Adriatic without incident. Two days after her departure, UB-8 was running on the surface when the stern of the boat suddenly dropped. The watch officer, on the conning tower with the helmsman and a lookout, was able to partially close the hatch before the entire submarine slipped below the waves, depositing the three men in the water. On board the submarine, water continued to pour in through the hatch and the boat was sinking by the stern. Voigt ordered the interior hatch to the control room sealed and all the ballast tanks filled with compressed air to increase buoyancy. The tactic returned UB-8 to the surface where the boat's diesel engines were restarted. Voigt circled back for the missing crewmen but only the watch officer and helmsman were recovered; the lookout had drowned.

On 29 May 1915, UB-8 came upon an Allied convoy near Lemnos, and, enticed by the prospect of hitting what he identified as the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Tiger, Voigt allowed five fully laden transport ships to pass unmolested. When he had a clear shot, Voigt launched one of his torpedoes at the stationary ship and hit it, sending debris into the air. Unfortunately for Voigt and UB-8, they had in fact torpedoed the British ocean liner SS Merion, which was a participant in an Admiralty plan to disguise large liners as Royal Navy capital ships. Merion, which eventually sank on 31 May, had been outfitted with wood and canvas "guns" and overloaded with cement and stones to approximate the profile of Tiger. There are no reports of any deaths during Merion's sinking.

On 4 June, UB-8 became the first submarine in the new Constantinople Flotilla (German: U-boote der Mittelmeer division in Konstantinopel) based in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). Despite German intentions to use her in the Dardanelles, UB-8 was ineffective because she was hampered by her limited torpedo supply and her weak engines, which made negotiating the strong currents there nearly impossible. Because of this, UB-8 was sent to patrol in the Black Sea, where she was active by late July. Off Sevastopol on 31 July, UB-8 sank her second and final ship, the 1,265-ton Russian ship Peter Melnikoff.

On 12 August, UB-8 fired a torpedoe at HMS Manica from 500 yards, which passed under Manica's shallow draught, the submarine was then sighted outside net, two torpedoes fired and missed Manica, which hit the net at an acute angle and burst. An attack two days later on similar vessels was also unsuccessful.

In September, UB-7 and UB-8 were sent to Varna, Bulgaria, and from there, to patrol off the Russian Black Sea coast. Because Bulgaria had joined the Central Powers, battleships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and aircraft from the seaplane carriers Almaz and Imperator Nikolai I began attacks on Varna and the Bulgarian coast on 25 October. UB-7 and UB-8, both based out of Varna by this time, sortied to disrupt the bombardment. UB-8 was never able to launch any attacks, but UB-7 launched a torpedo at the Russian battleship Panteleimon (most well-known under her former name of Potemkin), but it missed. Despite the lack of any success by either submarine, their presence did cause the Russians to break off their attacks and withdraw.

In early 1916, UB-7 and UB-8 were still cruising in the Black Sea out of Varna. The Germans did not have good luck in the Black Sea, which was not a priority for them. The Bulgarians, who saw the value of the submarines in repelling Russian attacks, began negotiations to purchase UB-7 and UB-8. Bulgarian sailors practiced in the pair of boats and technicians were sent to Kiel for training at the German submarine school there. The transfer of UB-8 to the Bulgarian Navy took place on 25 May 1916, but for reasons unreported in sources, UB-7 remained under the German flag.