SM U-29 (Austria-Hungary)

Austria-Hungary's U-boat fleet was largely obsolete at the outbreak of World War I. The Austro-Hungarian Navy satisfied its most urgent needs by purchasing five Type UB I submarines that comprised the from Germany, by raising and recommissioning the sunken French submarine Curie as , and by building four submarines of the that were based on the 1911 Danish Havmanden class. After these steps alleviated their most urgent needs, The Germans were reluctant to allocate any of their wartime resources to Austro-Hungarian construction, but were willing to sell plans for up to six of the UB II boats to be constructed under license in Austria-Hungary. U-29 displaced surfaced and submerged. and was long with a beam of and a draft of . For propulsion, she had two shafts, twin diesel engines of for surface running, and twin electric motors of for submerged travel. She was capable of while surfaced and while submerged. Although there is no specific notation of a range for U-29 in ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921, the German UB II boats, upon which the U-27 class was based, had a range of over at surfaced, and at submerged. U-27''-class boats were designed for a crew of 23–24. U-29 was armed with two bow torpedo tubes and could carry a complement of four torpedoes. She was also equipped with a 75 mm/26 (3.0 in) deck gun and an machine gun. After intricate political negotiations to allocate production of the class between Austrian and Hungarian firms, U-27 was ordered from Ganz Danubius on 12 October 1915. She was laid down on 3 March 1916 at Fiume and launched on 21 October. == Service career ==

U-29 underwent diving trials at Fiume and then made her way to Pola on 29 November 1916. U-29 departed on her first patrol on 23 January, destined for duty in the Mediterranean. The next day, however, the U-boat encountered a severe storm near Lussin that damaged her. Prásil steered the boat into the harbor at Brgulje to wait out the storm. Departing Brgulje on the 25th to resume her journey to the Mediterranean, the submarine developed a leak when performing a test dive. U-29 headed back to Pula for repairs, which lasted until 30 January. On 5 February the U-boat set out for Cattaro, which she reached after three days journey. Five days later and some away, U-29 torpedoed , a British India Line passenger steamer of 8,173 GRT. The ship, en route from Calcutta to London with a general cargo, was finished off by U-29s deck gun. As with Dalton, Mashobras master was taken prisoner. Eight persons died in the attack. U-29s gyrocompass broke down again on 17 April, once again forcing the boat to return for repairs. U-29s second Mediterranean tour ended when Prásil docked the boat at Cattaro on 19 April. U-29 took the 3,125 GRT ship's master captive. Two sources disagree on the number of casualties when Mordenwood went down, but place the number at either 21 or 31. Escorting destroyers launched a depth charge attack on U-29 but did not succeed in damaging the U-boat. Two days later, U-29 launched a torpedo attack on the British steamer Marie Suzanne but did not sink the ship. U-29 arrived at Cattaro on 25 May. The following day Prásil attempted to torpedo a ship in a convoy but missed and was exposed to a depth charge attack by the convoy's escorts. The U-boat ended the patrol with no further successes. U-29 was deployed from Cattaro on 9 June in advance of the attack. U-29 returned to Cattaro on 12 June. Over the next two months, U-29 operated in the Adriatic out of Cattaro, patrolling off Durazzo and the Albanian coast. After assuming command of U-29, Sterz set sail for Durazzo the same day. The U-boat had encounters with MAS torpedo boats on 9 and 12 September. On the latter date, U-29 had to crash dive to avoid a bombing attack from Allied airplanes. None of the seven bombs hit their mark and U-29 returned to Cattaro on 16 September. A day after assuming command, Dürrial headed for the Albanian coast in U-29 and patrolled off Durazzo. U-29 was able to make her way back to Cattaro on 8 October. Over the next three weeks, U-29 patrolled between Cattaro and Antivari, Montenegro. After her arrival back at Cattaro on 1 November, U-29 was moored between the coastal battleship and . There she remained until she was awarded to France as a war reparation in 1920. U-29 was towed, along with sister boats U-31 and , from Cattaro for Bizerta for scrapping, but foundered on the way. In total, U-29 sank three ships with a combined tonnage of 14,784, and damaged one warship. ==Summary of raiding history==