:SM U-6 (Austria-Hungary)

U-6 was built as part of a plan by the Austro-Hungarian Navy to competitively evaluate foreign submarine designs from Simon Lake, Germaniawerft, and John Philip Holland.Gardiner, p. 340. The Austro-Hungarian Navy authorized the construction of U-6 (and sister ship, U-5) in 1906 by Whitehead & Co. of Fiume. The boat was designed by American John Philip Holland and licensed by Holland and his company, Electric Boat. U-6 was laid down on 21 February 1908 in the United States, partially assembled, and shipped to Whitehead's for final assembly, a process which, author Edwin Sieche notes, "caused a lot of trouble".Sieche, p. 21. She was launched at Fiume on 12 June 1909.

U-6{{'}}s design featured a single-hull with a tear-drop shaped body that bore a strong resemblance to modern nuclear submarines. She was {{convert|105|ft|4|in|m}} long by {{convert|13|ft|9|in|m}} abeam and had a draft of {{convert|12|ft|10|in|m}}. She displaced {{convert|240|t|LT}} surfaced, and {{convert|273|t|LT}} submerged. Her two {{convert|45|cm|in|1|sp=us|adj=on}} bow torpedo tubes featured unique, cloverleaf-shaped design hatches that rotated on a central axis, and the boat was designed to carry up to four torpedoes. For surface running, U-6 was outfitted with 2 gasoline engines, but suffered from inadequate ventilation, which resulted in frequent intoxication of the crew; her underwater propulsion was by two electric motors.U-6{{'}}s gasoline engines were slated to be replaced by diesel engines, but this was not accomplished before the boat sank in May 1916. The two engines ordered for U-6, were instead installed in {{SMU|U-41|Austria-Hungary|2}} which had to be lengthened to accommodate them. See: Baumgartner and Sieche, as excerpted [http://www.gwpda.org/naval/ahsubs.htm here] (reprinted and translated into English by Sieche). Retrieved 26 November 2008.

U-6 was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 1 July 1910, with Linienschiffsleutnant Georg Ritter von Trapp in command. Over the next three years she served primarily as a training boat, making as many as ten training cruises per month. On 7 November 1911, she hosted a Norwegian naval delegation that inspected her. On 26 June 1912, U-6 was accidentally rammed by the submarine tender Pelikan while surfacing after a deep diving trial.

At the outbreak of World War I, U-6 was one of only four fully operational U-boats in the Austro-Hungarian Navy fleet,Gardiner, p. 341. and was stationed at Cattaro by late 1914. U-6{{'}}s activities over the early part of the war are not reported, but the boat's armament was augmented by a 3.7 cm/23 (1.5 in) quick-firing (QF) deck gun in December 1915. Sister boat U-5 had her first radio receiver installed at the same time her deck gun was added, but it is not reported whether U-6 did, too.

On 23 February 1916, U-6 made an unsuccessful attack on an Italian {{sclass|Indomito|destroyer|1}}, but she then managed to torpedo and sink the French destroyer Renaudin on 18 March off Durazzo.Gardiner, p. 206. Renaudin went down with 47 of her 83-man complement.Rider, p. 493.

On the night of 12 May, U-6 headed out to try to intercept shipping between Santa Maria di Leuca and Valona.Halpern, p. 36 Linienschiffsleutnant Hugo von Falkhausen, U-6{{'}}s commander since November 1915, attempted to pass underneath two drifters that formed a part of the Otranto Barrage. While submerged, von Falkhausen heard an unexplained noise on the hull of the boat, which was likely the sound of U-6 fouling one of the anti-submarine nets deployed from the drifter Calistoga. The drifter's skipper was alerted to the submarine's presence when one of the indicator buoys had fired. Calistoga launched signal flares that attracted the attention of two nearby drifters Dulcie Doris and Evening Star II. In the meantime, von Falkhausen surfaced U-6 to try to cut loose the buoy being dragged behind his boat. When the hatch was opened, the crew discovered the boat entangled in the net.Halpern, pp. 36–37

{{stack|File:SMU-6 Gruppe.jpg}}

Though unable to submerge, von Falkhausen attempted to flee on the surface, but the port propeller shaft became fouled. Realizing that he was stuck, and with Dulcie Doris and Evening Star II beginning to shell his boat, U-6{{'}}s captain ordered code books and confidential material thrown overboard and the submarine scuttled. U-6{{'}}s three officers and seventeen crewmen were all rescued, but spent the remainder of the war as prisoners of the Italians. In her career, U-6 sank one ship totaling 756 tons.{{cite Uboat.net

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{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book | last = Baumgartner | first = Lothar |author2=Erwin Sieche | title = Die Schiffe der k.(u.)k. Kriegsmarine im Bild |trans-title=Austro-Hungarian Warships in Photographs | language = de | location = Wien | publisher = Verlagsbuchhandlung Stöhr | year = 1999 | isbn = 978-3-901208-25-6 | oclc = 43596931 }}
• {{cite book | editor1-last=Gardiner | editor1-first=Robert | editor2-last=Gray | editor2-first=Randal | title = Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921 | location = Annapolis, Maryland | publisher = Naval Institute Press | year = 1985 | isbn = 978-0-87021-907-8 | oclc = 12119866 }}
• {{cite book | last = Gibson | first = R. H. | first2= Maurice |last2=Prendergast | title = The German Submarine War, 1914–1918 | location = Annapolis, Maryland | publisher = Naval Institute Press | year = 2003 | orig-year = 1931 | isbn = 978-1-59114-314-7 | oclc = 52924732 }}
• {{cite book | last = Halpern | first = Paul G. | title = The Battle of the Otranto Straits: Controlling the Gateway to the Adriatic in World War I | location = Bloomington | publisher = Indiana University Press | year = 2004 | isbn = 978-0-253-34379-6 | oclc = 53896534 }}
• {{cite book | editor-last = Rider | editor-first = Fremont | title = Information Annual 1916: A Continuous Cyclopedia and Digest of Current Events | location = New York | publisher = Cumulative Digest Corporation | year = 1917 | oclc = 67878688 }}
• {{cite book | last = Sieche | first = Erwin F. | chapter = Austro-Hungarian Submarines | title = Warship, Volume 2 | publisher = Naval Institute Press | year = 1980 | isbn = 978-0-87021-976-4 | oclc = 233144055 }}

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{{U-5 class submarines (Austria-Hungary)}}

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Category:U-5-class submarines

Category:U-boats commissioned in 1910

Category:1909 ships

Category:World War I submarines of Austria-Hungary

Category:Ships built in Fiume