SM UB-14 - Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea

Enver Pasha and other Turkish leaders had been pleading with their German and Austrian allies to send submarines to the Dardanelles to help attack the British and French fleet pounding Turkish positions. As part of the German response, UB-14 was ordered to Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) to join U-21; sister boats UB-7 and UB-8; and the UC I boats UC-14 and UC-15 in the Constantinople Flotilla (German: U-boote der Mittelmeer division in Konstantinopel). Since her intermediate refueling stop at Bodrum was beyond her limited range, UB-14 departed Pola under tow from an Austrian destroyer on 15 July 1915. UB-14's engine and gyrocompass broke down while off Crete, leaving the boat dead in the water for a time, but temporary repairs by the crew enabled the boat to make Bodrum on the 24th. A repair crew from Constantinople was dispatched—having to travel by train and camel just to reach UB-14—and the ship was ready to resume her journey on 13 August.

Shortly after departing Bodrum, UB-14 had just cleared the Greek island of Kos and was off the nearby island of Kandeloussa when von Heimburg sighted several potential victims. The first ship seen was the British hospital ship Soudan, headed to Alexandria from the Dardanelles. Von Heimburg, seeing the properly identified hospital ship, allowed Soudan to pass unmolested. The next ship was not so lucky, however. It was the unescorted Royal Edward, a Canadian ocean liner pressed into troopship duties. Royal Edward was headed in the opposite direction from Soudan: from Alexandria to the Dardanelles with reinforcements for the British 29th Infantry and a small group with the Royal Army Medical Corps, all of whom were destined for Gallipoli. Von Heimburg launched one of his two torpedoes from about a mile (2 km) away and hit Royal Edward in the stern; the ship sank stern-first in six minutes, with a large loss of life. Soudan and several other ships were able to rescue nearly 700 men, but over 900 died. Royal Edward, at 11,117 gross register tons (GRT), was also among the largest ships hit by U-boats during the war. While evading the rescue ships, which included two French destroyers, UB-14's compass broke down again, forcing a return to Bodrum on the morning of the 15th.

After repairs were completed at Bodrum, UB-14 continued on her way with a passenger, Prince Heinrich XXXVII Reuss of Köstritz (of the Reuss Junior Line) who needed passage to Constantinople. During the journey north, UB-14 came upon another fully loaded troopship near the island of Efstratis, about 30 nautical miles (56 km) from Lemnos. At 09:51 on 2 September, von Heimburg launched a single torpedo at the British troopship Southland, which was carrying mostly Australian troops headed for Gallipoli. The torpedo scored a hit on the starboard bow of the liner, which immediately began to list in that direction. As the men boarded lifeboats to abandon ship, another torpedo narrowly missed the stricken ship. The British seaplane carrier Ben-my-Chree sped to the scene of the attack, and rescued nearly 700 men from the water. The hospital ship Neuralia was also on the scene and rescued a sizable number. A group of about 40 volunteers stayed on board Southland to help the crew, and with some towing assistance from Ben-my-Chree, were able to beach the ship on Lemnos. In all, fewer than 40 men died in the attack; among Southland's survivors was James Martin, who, upon his death less than two months later, became the youngest Australian known to have died in the war. The stricken ship had received serious damage, but was later repaired and returned to service. As with UB-14's first two targets, Southland was also the largest ships hit by U-boats, giving von Heimburg and UB-14 three victims from the list of the largest in their first three attacks.

After the attack on Southland, UB-14 broke down again and put in at Chanak to await repairs. While there on 4 September, word came of the British submarine E7 entangled in Turkish antisubmarine nets off Nagara Point. Von Heimburg, Prince Heinrich, and UB-14's cook, a man by the name of Herzig, set out in a rowboat to observe the Turkish attempts to destroy E7. After several mines that formed part of the net had been detonated to no avail, von Heimburg and his group rowed out and repeatedly dropped a plumb line until it contacted metal. Then, von Heimburg dropped a Turkish sinker mine with a shortened fuse right on top of E7. After the hand-dropped mine detonated too close for the British submarine's captain's comfort, he ordered his boat surfaced, abandoned, and scuttled. Between shellfire from the Turkish shore batteries and E7's scuttling charges, von Heimburg and company narrowly escaped harm. While most sources credit E7's sinking to the Turkish efforts, author Robert Stern contends that von Heimburg and UB-14 deserve partial credit for the demise of E7.