German submarine'' UA'' was one of fourteen

foreign U-boats Foreign U-boats was the title for a special section created by Nazi Germany's '' Kriegsmarine'' that adopted 13 captured enemy submarines and a single Turkish vessel into the U-boat corps. Beginning in 1939 and lasting until the end of World War ...

in the German ''

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...

'' during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Class

Built at Kiel as one of four submarines of the ''Ay'' class for Turkey, ''Batiray'' as she was to have been named, was not handed over to the

Turkish Navy The Turkish Naval Forces ( tr, ), or Turkish Navy ( tr, ) is the naval warfare service branch of the Turkish Armed Forces. The modern naval traditions and customs of the Turkish Navy can be traced back to 10 July 1920, when it was establi ...

being seized by Germany and commissioned into the ''Kriegsmarine'' in 1939. Two

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

s, and , had been delivered in June 1939. One boat, , was built slowly in a Turkish shipyard. The design was a modification of the

Type IX The Type IX U-boat was designed by Nazi Germany's '' Kriegsmarine'' in 1935 and 1936 as a large ocean-going submarine for sustained operations far from the home support facilities. Type IX boats were briefly used for patrols off the eastern Un ...

to fit Turkish requirements. Two of the Turkish U-boats served in the Turkish Navy until 1957, but ''Atilay'' was lost in a training exercise off

Çanakkale Çanakkale (pronounced ), ancient ''Dardanellia'' (), is a city and seaport in Turkey in Çanakkale province on the southern shore of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. The population of the city is 195,439 (2021 estimate). Çanakkale is ...

Service

''UA'' was commissioned on 20 September 1939 under the command of ''

Kapitänleutnant ''Kapitänleutnant'', short: KptLt/in lists: KL, ( en, captain lieutenant) is an officer grade of the captains' military hierarchy group () of the German Bundeswehr. The rank is rated OF-2 in NATO, and equivalent to Hauptmann in the Heer and ...

'' Hans Cohausz. She had been built as a minelayer by the Turks but the Germans used her like a Type IX U-boat. ''UA'' was attacked on 8 March 1941 by the destroyer but survived. During her service, she sank eight

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

ships, including the British 13,950 GRT armed merchant cruiser . Only ten ships in total were destroyed by the Foreign U-boats, ''UA'' destroying eight of those. She was used on training duties from July 1942 and carried out no more operational patrols. As the war was drawing to a close she was scuttled on 3 May 1945 at Kiel.

Summary of raiding history

References

Bibliography

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External links