SM U-86

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Career (German Empire)
Name: U-86
Ordered: 23 June 1915
Builder: Germaniawerft, Kiel
Yard number: Werk 256
Laid down: 5 November 1915
Launched: 7 November 1916
Commissioned: 30 November 1916
Fate: 20 November 1918 - Surrendered. Sank in the English Channel on the way to be broken up in 1921.[1]
General characteristics
Class & type: German Type U 81 submarine
Displacement: 808 tons surfaced
946 tons submerged
1160 tons (total)
Length: 70.06 m (overall)
55.55 m (pressure hull)
Beam: 6.30 m (overall)
4.15 m (pressure hull)
Draught: 4.02 m
Propulsion: 2400 hp surfaced
1200 hp submerged
Speed: 16.8 knots surfaced
9.1 knots submerged
Range: 11,220 miles at 8 knots surfaced 56 miles at 5 knots submerged
Complement: 39 men
Armament: 12 torpedoes (4/2 in bow/stern tubes)
105mm deck gun with 140 rounds [2]
Service record
Part of: Imperial German Navy
Commanders: Kptlt. Friedrich Crüsemann
30 Nov 1916 - 22 Jun 1917

Alfred Götze
23 Jun 1917 - 25 Jan 1918

Helmut Patzig
26 Jan 1918 - 11 Nov 1918[1]

SM U-86 was a Type U 81 style submarine manufactured in the Germaniawerft, Kiel shipyard for the German Empire during World War I.[3]

On 27 June 1918, under the command of Lieutenant Helmut Patzig, U-86 sank the Canadian hospital ship HMHS Llandovery Castle off the coast of Ireland in violation of international law. When the crew took to the lifeboats, U-86 surfaced, ran down all the lifeboats except one, and shot at the people in the water. Only the 24 people in the remaining lifeboat survived. They were rescued shortly afterwards and testified as to what had happened. The 234 others on board the Llandovery Castle were lost, including fourteen nursing sisters.[4]

USS Covington (ID-1409), the former Hamburg America ocean liner SS Cincinnati, was torpedoed by U-86 on 1 July 1918 and sank the next day.[5] Covington was the 17th largest ship sunk or damaged by Uboats during the war.[1]

A 1918 Canadian propaganda poster used U-86's sinking of Llandovery Castle as a focal point for selling Victory Bonds.

After the war the captain of U-86 Helmut Patzig, and two of his lieutenants were arraigned for trial on war crimes, but Patzig fled to the Free City of Danzig, and his trial was stopped on 20 March 1931 by virtue of the Laws of Amnesty. Lieutenants Ludwig Dithmar and Johan Boldt were convicted and sentenced to four years in prison, but were released after only 4 months.

U-86 was surrendered after the war and sank in the English Channel on the way to be broken up in 1921.

Notes

External links

  • Canadian report on loss of Llandovery Castle
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