SM UB-10 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

SM UB-10 was a German Type UB I

German type UB I submarine

The Type UB I was a class of small coastal submarines built in Germany at the beginning of the First World War. Twenty boats were constructed, most of which went into service with the German Imperial Navy. Boats of this design were also operated by the Austro-Hungarian Navy and the Bulgarian...

submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

or U-boat

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

in the German Imperial Navy during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

UB-10 was ordered in October 1914 and was laid down at the AG Weser

AG Weser

Aktien-Gesellschaft Weser was one of the great German shipbuilding companies, located at the Weser River in Bremen. Founded in 1873 it was finally closed in 1983. Altogether, AG Weser built about 1400 ships of different types, including many war ships...

shipyard in Bremen

Bremen

The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...

in November. UB-10 was a little under 92 feet (28 m) in length and displaced

Displacement (ship)

A ship's displacement is its weight at any given time, generally expressed in metric tons or long tons. The term is often used to mean the ship's weight when it is loaded to its maximum capacity. A number of synonymous terms exist for this maximum weight, such as loaded displacement, full load...

between 127 and 141 MT (140 and 155.4 ST), depending on whether surfaced or submerged. She carried two torpedo

Torpedo

The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...

es for her two bow torpedo tube

Torpedo tube

A torpedo tube is a device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units installed aboard surface vessels...

s and was also armed with a deck-mounted machine gun

Machine gun

A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....

. UB-10 was broken into sections and shipped by rail to Antwerp for reassembly. She was launched in February 1915 and commissioned as SM UB-10 in March."SM" stands for "Seiner Majestät" (His Majesty's) and combined with the U for Unterseeboot would be translated as His Majesty's Submarine. The U-boat was the first of her class to commence operations when she entered service on 27 March 1915.

UB-10 was the first boat assigned to the Flanders Flotilla, the unit in which she spent her entire career. Her first two commanders were Otto Steinbrinck

Otto Steinbrinck

Brigadier General Otto Steinbrinck was a German industrialist and an accused in the Nuremberg Flick Trial....

and Reinhold Saltzwedel

Reinhold Saltzwedel

Oberleutnant zur See Reinhold Saltzwedel was a successful and highly decorated German U-boat commander in the Kaiserliche Marine during World War I.Saltzwedel sank a total of 111 merchant vessels for...

, fifth and eleventh, respectively, among the top-scoring German submarine commanders of the war. UB-10 was credited with sinking 37 ships, about two-thirds of them British fishing vessels. The first ship sunk, the neutral Dutch steamer , provoked outrage in the Netherlands and helped turn Dutch public opinion against Germany. That sinking was also the impetus behind a renewed effort to avoid attacking neutral ships by U-boats. In a 13-day span in July and August 1915, UB-10 sank 23 ships, and by herself accounted for nearly all of the tonnage sunk by the Flanders Flotilla in the latter month. She was also responsible for sinking the British destroyer in August 1916. UB-10 had two close calls with British submarines near the Schouwen Bank off Zeebrugge in 1916 and 1917, but survived both.

By 1918, UB-10 had been converted into a minelayer

Minelayer

Minelaying is the act of deploying explosive mines. Historically this has been carried out by ships, submarines and aircraft. Additionally, since World War I the term minelayer refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines...

by the replacement of her torpedo tubes with four mine chutes. UB-10 was seriously damaged in a British air raid on Flanders in July 1918, and was decommissioned in September 1918 in a worn out condition. She was not deemed seaworthy to sail to Germany when the bases in Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

were being evacuated by the Germans in October 1918 and was scuttled off Zeebrugge

Zeebrugge

Zeebrugge is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeebrugge and a seafront resort with hotels, cafés, a marina and a beach.-Location:...

in early October.

Design and construction

After the German Army

German Army (German Empire)

The German Army was the name given the combined land forces of the German Empire, also known as the National Army , Imperial Army or Imperial German Army. The term "Deutsches Heer" is also used for the modern German Army, the land component of the German Bundeswehr...

's rapid advance along the North Sea coast in the earliest stages of World War I, the German Imperial Navy found itself without suitable submarines that could be operated in the narrow and shallow seas off Flanders

Flanders

. Project 34, a design effort begun in mid-August 1914, produced the Type UB I

German type UB I submarine

design: a small submarine that could be shipped by rail to a port of operations and quickly assembled. Constrained by railroad size limitations, the UB I design called for a boat about 92 feet (28 m) long and displacing about 125 metric tons (137.8 ST) with two torpedo tube

Torpedo tube

s.A further refinement of the design—replacing the torpedo tubes with mine chutes but changing little else—evolved into the Type UC I

German Type UC I submarine

The Type UC I submarines were a class of small coastal minelaying U-boats built in Germany during the early part of World War I. They were the first operational minelaying submarines in the world . A total of fifteen boats were built...

coastal minelaying

Minelayer

submarine. See: Miller, p. 458.

UB-10 was part of the initial allotment of seven submarines—numbered to —ordered on 15 October from AG Weser

AG Weser

of Bremen

Bremen

, just shy of two months after planning for the class began. UB-10 was laid down by Weser in Bremen on 7 November. As built, UB-10 was 91 in 6 in (27.89 m) long, 10 in 6 in (3.2 m) abeam

Beam (nautical)

The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...

, and had a draft of 9 in 10 in (3 m). She had a single 60 bhp Körting

Körting Hannover

Körting Hannover AG is a long-standing industrial engineering company in Hanover.At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the company played a leading role in the development of injector pumps in Germany and Europe.Körting still produces pump and pump-based vacuum technology, but...

4-cylinder diesel engine

Diesel engine

A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...

for surface travel, and a single 120 shp Siemens-Schuckert

Siemens-Schuckert

Siemens-Schuckert was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966....

electric motor

Electric motor

An electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Most electric motors operate through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors to generate force...

for underwater travel, both attached to a single propeller shaft. Her top speeds were 7.45 knots, surfaced, and 6.24 knots, submerged. At more moderate speeds, she could sail up to 1500 nautical miles (2,778 km) on the surface before refueling, and up to 45 nautical miles (83.3 km) submerged before recharging her batteries. Like all boats of the class, UB-10 was rated to a diving depth of 50 metres (164 ft), and could completely submerge in 33 seconds.

UB-10 was armed with two 45 centimetres (17.7 in) torpedo

Torpedo

es in two bow torpedo tube

Torpedo tube

s. She was also outfitted for a single 8 millimetre (0.31496062992126 in) machine gun

Machine gun

on deck. UB-10s standard complement consisted of one officer and thirteen enlisted men.

After work on UB-10 was complete at the Weser yard, she was readied for rail shipment. The process of shipping a UB I boat involved breaking the submarine down into what was essentially a knock down kit. Each boat was broken into approximately fifteen pieces and loaded on to eight railway flatcar

Flatcar

A flatcar is a piece of railroad or railway rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck on four or six wheels or a pair of trucks or bogies . The deck of the car can be wood or steel, and the sides of the deck can include pockets for stakes or tie-down points to secure loads...

s. In early 1915, the sections of UB-10 were shipped to Antwerp for assembly in what was typically a two- to three-week process. After UB-10 was assembled and launched on 20 February, she was loaded on a barge and taken through canals to Bruges

Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....

where she underwent trials.

Early career

The submarine was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy as SM UB-10 on 15 March 1915 under the command of Oberleutnant zur See (Oblt.) Otto Steinbrinck

Otto Steinbrinck

Brigadier General Otto Steinbrinck was a German industrialist and an accused in the Nuremberg Flick Trial....

the 26-year-old former skipper of .Steinbrinck was in the Navy's April 1907 cadet class with 34 other future U-boat captains, including Werner Fürbringer

Werner Fürbringer

Werner "Fips" Fürbringer was a successful German U-boat commander in the Kaiserliche Marine during World War I, sinking 101 ships.He was present on U-20, but left prior to the U-20s sinking of in 1915. He exclusively commanded small, coastal U-boats, starting with UB-2 in February 1915...

, Heino von Heimburg

Heino von Heimburg

Heino von Heimburg was a German U-boat commander in the Kaiserliche Marine during World War I and served also as Vice Admiral in the Kriegsmarine during World War II.-World War I:...

, Hans Howaldt

Hans Howaldt

Hans Howaldt was a successful and highly decorated German U-boat commander in the Kaiserliche Marine during World War I and also active in World War II...

, and Ralph Wenninger. See: On 27 March, UB-10 became the first UB I boat to begin operations, and the first U-boat attached to the Flanders Flotilla when it was organized on 29 March. When UB-10 began operations, Germany was in the midst of its first submarine offensive, begun in February. During this campaign, enemy vessels in the German-defined war zone , which encompassed all waters around the United Kingdom, were to be sunk. Vessels of neutral countries were not to be attacked unless they definitively could be identified as enemy vessels operating under a false flag

False flag

False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is flying the flag of a country other than one's own...

The UB I boats of the Flanders Flotilla were initially limited to patrols in the Hoofden, the southern portion of the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. made the first sortie of the flotilla on 9 April, and UB-10 departed on her first patrol soon after. On 14 April, Steinbrinck and UB-10 sank their first ship, the 2,040-ton Dutch steamer , 6 nautical miles (11.1 km) west of the North Hinder Lightship. Although no one was killed in the attack, the attack on a neutral ship sailing between neutral ports—Katwijk was sailing from Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

to Baltimore—provoked outrage among the Dutch population. The sinking of Katwijk and other Dutch ships sharply turned public opinion in the Netherlands against Germany. As a direct result of UB-10s sinking of Katwijk, and to avoid further provoking the Dutch or other neutrals (primarily the United States), the German government issued an order on 18 April that no neutral vessels were to be attacked. The German government later paid compensation for the sinking of Katwijk.

It was early June before UB-10 sank her next ship. The Belgian ship Menapier, carrying a load of iron ore from Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

for Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...

, was torpedoed and sunk off North Foreland

North Foreland

North Foreland is a chalk headland on the Kent coast of southeast England.North Foreland forms the eastern end of the Isle of Thanet. It presents a bold cliff to the sea, and commands views over the southern North Sea.-Lighthouse:...

by Steinbrinck on the 7th. Of the 23 persons on board the 1,886-ton ship, only 6 were saved. Menapiers master

Captain (nautical)

A sea captain is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of the vessel. The captain is responsible for its safe and efficient operation, including cargo operations, navigation, crew management and ensuring that the vessel complies with local and international laws, as well as company and flag...

, his wife, and six-year-old daughter; the first mate; the pilot; and 12 other crewmen perished in the attack.

After UB-10s sister boat pioneered a route through British anti-submarine net

Anti-submarine net

An anti-submarine net is a device placed across the mouth of a harbour or a strait for protection against submarines.-Examples of anti-submarine nets:*Lake Macquarie anti-submarine boom*Indicator net*Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign...

s and mines in the Straits of Dover on 21 and 22 June, boats of the flotilla began to patrol into the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

. , , and UB-10 soon followed with patrols in the Channel, but were hampered by fog and bad weather. Even though none of the boats sank any ships, by successfully completing their voyages, they helped further prove the feasibility of defeating the British countermeasures in the Straits of Dover.

On 30 June, Steinbrinck and the crew of UB-10, which was back patrolling in the North Sea, had a busy day when they sank eight British fishing vessels ranging from 43 to while patrolling between 20 and 35 nmi (37 and 64.8 km) east of Lowestoft

Lowestoft

Lowestoft is a town in the English county of Suffolk. The town is on the North Sea coast and is the most easterly point of the United Kingdom. It is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and south-east of Norwich...

. All eight of the sunken ships were smack

Smack (ship)

A smack was a traditional fishing boat used off the coast of England and the Atlantic coast of America for most of the 19th century, and even in small numbers up to the Second World War. It was originally a cutter rigged sailing boat until about 1865, when the smacks became so large that cutter...

s—sailing vessels traditionally rigged with red ochre sails—which were stopped, boarded by crewmen from UB-10, and sunk with explosives.

August 1915

UB-10 began August 1915 by capturing and burning Alert—another British fishing smack—off Lowestoft on the 1st. The same day, Fulgens, a 2,512-ton collier, was torpedoed one nautical mile (1.8 km) from Palling

Palling

Palling is a municipality in the district of Traunstein in Bavaria, Germany....

; the crew of the ship—UB-10s largest victim to-date—were all saved.

On 8 August, UB-10 captured and sank two more smacks—Arbor Vitae and Xmas Rose—off Lowestoft, and followed that up by sinking the largest ship of her career two days later. The Rosalie, headed from Shields

Shields

-United Kingdom:* North Shields, Tyneside, England* South Shields, Tyneside, England* Shields Road subway station, an underground station in Glasgow, Scotland-United States:* Shields, Indiana, an unincorporated community...

for San Francisco

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

, was torpedoed 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) from the Blankeney Buoy. A contemporary news account reported that Rosalie had been beached, but was apparently irreparably damaged; all her crew, however, was saved.

On 11 August, one day after sinking Rosalie, Steinbrinck and the crew of UB-10 bettered their 30 June activities by sinking ten fishing smacks off Cromer

Cromer

Cromer is a coastal town and civil parish in north Norfolk, England. The local government authority is North Norfolk District Council, whose headquarters is in Holt Road in the town. The town is situated 23 miles north of the county town, Norwich, and is 4 miles east of Sheringham...

. All ten ships, which ranged in size from 41 to 62 tons, were boarded and sunk by explosives. With these ten ships, the August tally for Steinbrinck and UB-10 was 7,309 tons, which accounted for nearly all of the 7,709 tons sunk by Flanders Flotilla boats that month. In addition, counting the ships sunk at the end of July, UB-10 sank 23 ships in a 13-day span, nearly half the 55 ships sunk by the flotilla in both July and August.

End of the first submarine offensive

On 18 August, the chief of the Admiralstab, Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff

Henning von Holtzendorff

Henning von Holtzendorff was a German admiral during World War I who became famous for his Dec 1916 memo to Kaiser Wilhelm II about unrestricted submarine warfare against the United Kingdom...

, issued orders suspending the first offensive. The suspension was in response to American demands after German submarines had sunk the Cunard Line

Cunard Line

Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...

steamer in May 1915, along with other high profile sinkings in August and September. Holtzendorff's directive ordered all U-boats out of the English Channel and the South-Western Approaches and required that all submarine activity in the North Sea be conducted strictly along prize regulations. UB-10 did not sink another ship for the next four months.

On 20 December, UB-10 sank the last two ships under Steinbrinck's command. The 512-ton Belford and the 1,153-ton Huntly were both torpedoed off Boulogne; there were no casualties on Belford, but two men on Huntly died in the attack. The Huntly was former German hospital ship Ophelia

German hospital ship Ophelia

German hospital ship Ophelia was a steam ship originally built by a German shipping company, but requisitioned for use as an Imperial German Navy hospital ship during the First World War...

which was seized by English naval forces and renamed the previous year.

On 13 January 1916, Steinbrinck was succeeded by Oblt. Reinhold Saltzwedel

Reinhold Saltzwedel

in command of UB-10. Steinbrinck, who went on to command three more U-boats throughout the rest of the war—, , and —continued the successes he had in command of UB-10. At war's end he was fifth among the top-scoring German submarine commanders of the war, with a tally of 210,000 tons of shipping to his credit. Saltzwedel, Steinbrinck's 26-year-old replacement, was an eight-year veteran of the Kaiserliche Marine and a first-time U-boat commander.

Second submarine offensive

By early 1916, the British blockade of Germany was beginning to have an effect on Germany and her imports. The Royal Navy had stopped and seized more cargo destined for Germany than the quantity of cargo sunk by German U-boats in the first submarine offensive. As a result, the German Imperial Navy began a second offensive against merchant shipping on 29 February. The final ground rules agreed upon by the German Admiralstab were that all enemy vessels in Germany's self-proclaimed war zone would be destroyed without warning, that enemy vessels outside of the war zone would be destroyed only if armed, and—to avoid antagonizing the United States—that enemy passenger steamers were not to be attacked, regardless of whether in the war zone or not.

UB-10s first victim in the new offensive (and Saltzwedel's first as a commander), came on 19 March when the U-boat torpedoed Port Dalhousie, a 1,744-ton Canadian steamer, 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) from the Kentish Knock Lightvessel. Nineteen men on the ship—headed from Middlesbrough to Nantes

Nantes

Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....

with a cargo of steel billets—were lost in the attack; the mate, a pilot, and five crewmen were rescued. About two weeks later, UB-10 torpedoed and sank the Norwegian steamer Peter Hanre in nearly the same location; fourteen men on the 1,081-ton cargo ship

Cargo ship

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...

were lost. Near the end of April 1916, Admiral Reinhardt Scheer, the newest commander-in-chief of the High Seas Fleet

High Seas Fleet

The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...

, called off the merchant shipping offensive and ordered all boats at sea to return, and all boats in port to remain there. Port Dalhousie and Peter Hanre were the only ships sunk by UB-10 during the six-week offensive.

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-10 and five other Flanders boats set out at midnight 30/31 May to form a line 18 nautical miles (33.3 km) east of Lowestoft.The other five boats for the May action were , , , , and . This group was to intercept and attack the British light forces from Harwich

Harwich

Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...

, should they sortie north to join the battle. Unfortunately for the Germans, the British Admiralty

Admiralty

The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

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 High Seas Fleet for its sortie (which had been redirected to the Skagerrak

Skagerrak

The Skagerrak is a strait running between Norway and the southwest coast of Sweden and the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area, which leads to the Baltic Sea.-Name:...

) 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". UB-10 sighted the Harwich forces, but 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

Battle of Jutland

The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...

, which took place 31 May – 1 June.

In mid-June, Saltzwedel was transferred to , and—as was the case with Steinbrinck—went on become one of the top-scoring U-boat commanders of the war, placing eleventh on the list with 150,000 tons to his credit. After Saltzwedel, UB-10 was assigned a new commander about every two to three months through the end of the war. Saltzwedel's immediate replacement on UB-10 was Kapitänleutnant (Kplt.) Gustav Buch, who led the boat in sinking her only warship, the British destroyer on 13 August; Lassoo was torpedoed off the Maas Lightvessel and sank with the loss of six men. Later in August, UB-10 was fortunate enough to avoid attack by a British submarine when departing Zeebrugge. On the morning of 21 August, the outbound UB-10 had a rendezvous with the homeward-bound UC-10 off the North Hinder Lightship and exchanged information.UB-10s former commander Saltzwedel had been transferred from to about a week before. See: UC-10 parted company with UB-10 at about 13:30 and resumed her course for Zeebrugge, but was torpedoed and sunk by , which had been lurking about the Schouwen Bank off Zeebrugge.

Unrestricted submarine warfare

Since the early stages of the war, the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

had blockaded Germany, preventing neutral shipping from reaching German ports. By the time of the so-called "turnip winter" of 1916–17, the blockade had severely limited imports of food and fuel into Germany. Among the results were an increase in infant mortality

Infant mortality

Infant mortality is defined as the number of infant deaths per 1000 live births. Traditionally, the most common cause worldwide was dehydration from diarrhea. However, the spreading information about Oral Re-hydration Solution to mothers around the world has decreased the rate of children dying...

and as many as 700,000 deaths attributed to starvation

Starvation

Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy, nutrient and vitamin intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death...

or hypothermia

Hypothermia

Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...

during the war. With the blockade having such dire consequences, Kaiser Wilhelm II personally approved a resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare to begin on 1 February 1917 to help force the British to make peace. The new rules of engagement specified that no ship was to be left afloat.

Under these new rules of engagement, UB-10, now under the command of Kplt. Erich von Rohrscheidt, first sank the Dutch steamer Amstelstromm on 27 March. When encountered by UB-10, Amstelstromm was found "derelict and badly damaged" after shelling by German destroyers , , and ; von Rohrscheidt launched a coup de grâce

Coup de grâce

The expression coup de grâce means a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. The phrase can refer to the killing of civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the consent of the sufferer...

at the stricken ship and sent it down 20 nautical miles (37 km) east-northeast of the North Hinder Lightvessel.

As UB-10 was returning to Zeebrugge in early April, she was attacked by a British submarine near the area where she had escaped from the previous August. , which had been waiting off the Schouwen gas buoy, launched a torpedo at a U-boat at 03:30 on 5 April. Although authors R. H. Gibson and Maurice Prendergast report that C7 sank with that torpedo, C7 had in fact fired upon UB-10, and the explosion noted by C7 was her own torpedo prematurely exploding; UB-10 was able to continue on and make port in Zeebrugge. Later in the month, von Rohrscheidt sank two Dutch ships on the 24th and 25th: Minister Tak Van Poortvliet, a 1,106-ton steamer headed for Harlingen

Harlingen, Netherlands

Harlingen is a municipality and a city in the northern Netherlands, in the province of Friesland at the Wadden Sea. Harlingen is an old town with a long history of fishing and shipping....

was sent down 20 nautical miles (37 km) off Ymuiden; the sailing ship Elizabeth was sunk between Lowestoft and Zeebrugge the following day.

On 20 August, UB-10—with Oblt. Fritz Gregor at the helm—sank Edernian, a British vessel, 6 nautical miles (11.1 km) from Southwold

Southwold

Southwold is a town on the North Sea coast, in the Waveney district of the English county of Suffolk. It is located on the North Sea coast at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is around south of Lowestoft and north-east...

. The 3,588-ton ship, sent down with her cargo of steel and 14 of her crew, was the second largest sunk by UB-10. Early the next month, Gregor led the boat in sinking three more fishing vessels: the Belgian Jeannot and the British Unity on the 5th; and the British Rosary on the 6th. These were the last ships sunk by UB-10.

Conversion to minelayer

UB-10 and three sister boats, UB-12, UB-16, and UB-17, were all converted to minelaying

Minelayer

submarines by 1918. The conversion involved removing the bow section containing the pair of torpedo tubes from each U-boat and replacing it with a new bow containing four mine chutes capable of carrying two mines each. In the process, the boats were lengthened to 105 feet (32 m), and the displacement increased to 147 metric tons (162 ST) on the surface, and 161 metric tons (177.5 ST) below the surface. Exactly when this conversion was performed on UB-10 is not reported, but UB-12 was converted in late 1916.The conversion would have to have taken place after the sinking of Edernian—which was torpedoed—in August 1917, because the conversion removed UB-10s torpedo tubes.

From late February to mid-May 1918, UB-10 was commanded by Oblt. Hans Joachim Emsmann. The 25-year-old Emmsman would later be notable as the commander of , the last U-boat sunk during the war, and as the namesake of the 5th U-boat Flotilla of the Kriegsmarine

Kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...

in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

On 2 July, UB-10 and were both seriously damaged during a heavy British air raid on German-held bases in Flanders. During other raids, considerable damage to harbor facilities delayed repairs and impaired the flotilla's ability to operate at full strength. Although sources do not indicate whether the damage to UB-10s was repaired after this attack or not, by early September the boat was considered unfit for service and was decommissioned on the 12th.

After the Meuse-Argonne Offensive

Meuse-Argonne Offensive

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, or Maas-Argonne Offensive, also called the Battle of the Argonne Forest, was a part of the final Allied offensive of World War I that stretched along the entire western front.-Overview:...

started on 26 September and the Allies

Allies of World War I

The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...

began to drive back the German lines, plans were made to evacuate Flanders and dismantle the naval facilities at Bruges, Zeebrugge, and Ostende. All the vessels that were seaworthy were ordered to depart Flanders for Germany on 1 October; those unable to make the journey under their own power were to be destroyed. UB-10 was one of four U-boats left behind.The other three were , , and . On 5 October, a maintenance crew scuttled UB-10 off the Zeebrugge Mole at position 51°21′N 3°12′E.

Ships sunk or damaged

Ships sunk or damaged by SM UB-10
Name	Merchant ship tonnages are in gross register tons. Military vessels are listed by tons displacement Displacement (ship) A ship's displacement is its weight at any given time, generally expressed in metric tons or long tons. The term is often used to mean the ship's weight when it is loaded to its maximum capacity. A number of synonymous terms exist for this maximum weight, such as loaded displacement, full load... Tonnage	Nationality
Katwijk	2,040	Dutch
Menapier	1,886	Belgian
Achieve	43	British
Athena	45	British
Coriander	46	British
Fitzgerald	51	British
Prospector	59	British
Quest	46	British
Strive	63	British
Venture	44	British
Alert	59	British
Fulgens	2,512	British
Arbor Vitae	26	British
Xmas Rose	27	British
Rosalie	4,243	British
Esperance	46	British
George Borrow	62	British
George Crabbe	42	British
Humphrey	41	British
Illustrious	59	British
Oceans Gift	60	British
Palm	47	British
Trevear	47	British
Welcome	59	British
Young Admiral	60	British
Belford	516	British
Huntly	1,153	British
Port Dalhousie	1,744	Canadian
Peter Hanre	1,081	Norwegian
Lassoo	1,010	British
Amstelstromm	1,413	Dutch
Minister Tak Van Poortvliet	1,106	Dutch
Elizabeth	147	Dutch
Edernian	3,588	British
Jeannot	50	Belgian
Unity	56	British
Rosary	37	British
Total:	23,614

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