SM U-3 (Austria-Hungary)

SM U-3
SM U-3 (front) and sister boat SM U-4 (right rear)
SM U-3 (front) and sister boat SM U-4 (right rear)
History
Austria-Hungary
NameSM U-3
Ordered1906[1]
BuilderFriedrich Krupp Germaniawerft, Kiel[3]
Yard number135[4]
Laid down12 March 1907[2]
Launched20 August 1908[3]
Commissioned12 September 1909[2]
FateSunk, 13 August 1915[3]
Service record
Commanders:
  • Emmerich Graf von Thun und Hohenstein
  • 12 September 1909 – 18 September 1910[3]
  • Lothar Leschanowsky
  • 18 September 1910 – 29 April 1911
  • Richard Gstettner
  • 29 April 1911 – 30 April 1912
  • Eduard Ritter von Hübner
  • 30 April 1912 – 19 June 1915
  • Karl Strnad
  • 19 June – 13 August 1915
Victories: None
General characteristics
Class and typeU-3-class submarine
Displacement
  • 240 t surfaced
  • 300 t submerged[5]
Length138 ft 9 in (42.29 m)[3]
Beam14 ft (4.3 m)[3]
Draft12 ft 6 in (3.81 m)[3]
Propulsion
Speed
  • 12 knots (22 km/h) surfaced
  • 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h) submerged[3]
Range
  • 1,200 nmi (2,200 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h), surfaced[3]
  • 40 nmi (74 km) at 3 knots (5.6 km/h), submerged
Complement21[3]
Armament

SM U-3 or U-III was the lead boat of the U-3 class of submarines or U-boats built for and operated by the Austro-Hungarian Navy (German: Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine or K.u.K. Kriegsmarine) before and during the First World War. The submarine was built as part of a plan to evaluate foreign submarine designs, and was built by Germaniawerft of Kiel, Germany.

U-3 was authorized in 1906, begun in March 1907, launched in August 1908, and towed from Kiel to Pola in January 1909. The double-hulled submarine was just under 139 feet (42 m) long and displaced between 240 and 300 tonnes (260 and 330 short tons), depending on whether surfaced or submerged. The design of the submarine had poor diving qualities and several modifications to U-3's diving planes and fins occurred in her first years in the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Her armament, as built, consisted of two bow torpedo tubes with a supply of three torpedoes, but was supplemented with a deck gun in 1915.

The boat was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy in September 1909, and served as a training boat—sometimes making as many as ten cruises a month—through the beginning of the First World War in 1914. At the start of that conflict, she was one of only four operational submarines in the Austro-Hungarian Navy U-boat fleet. Over the first year of the war, U-3 conducted reconnaissance cruises out of Cattaro. On 12 August 1915, U-3 was damaged after an unsuccessful torpedo attack on an Italian armed merchant cruiser and, after she surfaced the next day, was sunk by a French destroyer. U-3's commanding officer and 6 men died in the attack; the 14 survivors were captured.

  1. ^ Gibson and Prendergast, p. 384.
  2. ^ a b Sieche, p. 19.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Gardiner, pp. 342–43.
  4. ^ Baumgartner and Sieche, as excerpted here (reprinted and translated into English by Sieche). Retrieved 14 November 2008.
  5. ^ a b c d Sieche, p. 17.