SM UB-6 - Grand Fleet Ambush Attempts

Grand Fleet Ambush Attempts

In mid-May, Scheer completed plans to draw out part of the British Grand Fleet. The German High Seas Fleet would sortie for a raid on Sunderland, luring the British fleet across "'nests' of submarines and mine-fields". In support of the operation, UB-6 and five other Flanders boats set out at midnight 30/31 May to form a line 18 nautical miles (33 km) east of Lowestoft. This group was to intercept and attack the British light forces from Harwich, should they sortie north to join the battle. Unfortunately for the Germans, the British Admiralty had intelligence reports of the departure of the submarines which, coupled with an absence of attacks on shipping, aroused British suspicions.

A delayed departure of the German fleet for its sortie (which had been redirected to the Skagerrak) and the failure of several of the U-boats stationed to the north to receive the coded message warning of the British advance caused Scheer's anticipated ambush to be a "complete and disappointing failure". In UB-6's group, only UB-10 sighted the Harwich forces, and they were too far away to mount an attack. The failure of the submarine ambush to sink any British capital ships allowed the full Grand Fleet to engage the numerically inferior High Seas Fleet in the Battle of Jutland, which took place 31 May – 1 June.

Later in August, the Germans set up another ambush for the British fleet, when they drew up plans for another High Seas Fleet raid on Sunderland (as had been the original intention in May). The German fleet planned to depart late in the day on 18 August and shell military targets the next morning. As in May, UB-6 was part of a group intended to attack the Harwich forces. As one of five boats forming the second line of boats from the Flanders Flotilla, UB-6 was stationed off Texel by the morning of 20 August. Once again, British intelligence had given warning of the impending attack and ambush, causing the Grand Fleet to sortie at 16:00 on 18 August, five hours before the German fleet sailed. Faulty intelligence caused Scheer initially to divert from Sunderland, and then to eventually call off the whole operation. Although U-boats to the north sank two British light cruisers, UB-6 and her group played no part in the action.

On 10 September, UB-6 was patrolling off the Maas lightship and torpedoed the 400-ton Norwegian steamer Lindborg, with a general cargo for London; there were no casualties. While patrolling in the same area on the 23rd, UB-6 sank four Belgian lighters. The following day, the Dutch ship Batavier II was seized as a prize and sailed into Zeebrugge by a prize crew from UB-6. Batavier II was the last success for Heydebreck in command of UB-6; he was assigned to command the newly commissioned minelaying submarine UC-63 in January 1917. Oberleutnant zur See Oskar Steckelberg, another member of the April 1908 cadet class, replaced Heydebreck on UB-6.