SM U-16 (Austria-Hungary) - Operational History

Operational History

SM U-16 was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 6 October under the command of Linienschiffsleutnant Eugen Hornyák Edler von Horn. Over the next month U-16 patrolled off Rimini and the Po estuary before heading to Kotor. There, U-16's second commander, Linienschiffsleutnant Orest Ritter von Zopa, assumed command on 18 November. The U-boat departed the next day to patrol off Albania. Near Cape Rodoni, von Zopa stopped and boarded Fiore Albania, an Albanian sailing ship. Finding nothing amiss, the commander sent Fiore Albania on her way. Three days later, von Zopa and U-16 scored their first success, when they sank the 25 GRT Italian sailing vessel Unione in the Gulf of Drin. Later the same day, a torpedo attack on two cargo ships in the harbor at Shëngjin netted no results. With her supply of torpedoes expended, U-16 returned to Kotor on 24 November.

U-16 set out on her next patrol on 3 December, but had to return to fix a broken gyrocompass, and was underway for Albania the next day. On 5 December, the sailboat Xephanie was stopped, searched, and allowed to proceed. Near the same location, U-16 next encountered Fione Albania again. When stopped this time, the 62-ton ship had Montenegrin soldiers, weapons, and ammunition aboard. The vessel was seized as a prize and taken back to Kotor. U-16 attempted two more Albanian patrols at the end of December. The first, departing Kotor on 19 December, was cut short by severe weather that forced the submarine back to port. The next attempt, on 25 December, ended when U-16 suffered engine problems. U-16 sailed for Pula on 27 December for more extensive engine repairs at the naval base there.

U-16's repairs were complete by 9 January 1916 when the submarine departed Pula for diving tests with Field Marshal Svetozar Borojević of the Austro-Hungarian Army on board as an observer. With the tests apparently successful, U-16 returned to Kotor on 18 January to resume Albanian patrols. Off Durrës on 4 February, von Zopa and U-16 launched a torpedo attack on the steamer Assyria being escorted by the Italian destroyers Animoso and Garibaldino. The torpedo's aim was true, but it failed to detonate when it hit the ship. A few days later, a British Falmouth-class cruiser attacked the U-boat. On 11 March, a valve on U-16 leaked and water flooded into the boat, inundating the batteries, which released chlorine gas. The U-boat made it back to Kotor and underwent repairs that kept the boat out of action until the end of April.

From late April to early September, U-16 patrolled the Adriatic between Vlorë, Brindisi, and the Straits of Otranto. Twice during this time U-16 attacked French destroyers, but missed on both attempts. In mid June, von Zopa launched torpedoes against a cargo ship without result. U-16 put in at Kotor on 3 September for a general overhaul that lasted for about a month. When the repairs were complete, U-16 set out for another Albanian patrol on 9 October. The submarine made a detour to Djenovic on 11 October to replace another faulty gyrocompass, but quickly resumed her journey to the Vlorë area. After discovering an Italian convoy on 17 October, von Zopa torpedoed and sank one of the convoy escorts, the Italian destroyer Nembo. In the ensuing action, U-16 was sunk, but sources disagree on the exact manner.

Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906–1921 reports that the Italian steamer Bormida, one of the convoyed ships, rammed and damaged U-16, causing U-16's crew to scuttle their ship due to the severity of the damage. Uboat.net's U-Boat War in World War I reports that Nembo herself rammed U-16 before going down, while Robert Grant and Gordon Smith give another possible fate for U-16: that Nembo's depth charges detonated and sank the submarine while Nembo was sinking. Smith reports that 11 men aboard U-16, including her commanding officer von Zopa, lost their lives in the sinking, and that two survivors were picked up. U-16 was the only boat of her class to be sunk during the war.