SM UB-91 explained

SM UB-91 was a German Type UB III submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy (German: Kaiserliche Marine) during World War I. She was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy on 11 April 1918 as SM UB-91.

On 4 October 1918 UB-91 sank the, killing among others, Yokohama Specie Bank sub-manager S. Ujie, his wife and three sons, together with bank employee Takashi Aoki and wife Sueko.[1] [2]

Construction

See main article: Type UB III submarine. She was built by AG Vulcan of Hamburg and following just under a year of construction, launched at Hamburg on 6 March 1918. UB-91 was commissioned later the same year . Like all Type UB III submarines, UB-91 carried 10 torpedoes and was armed with a 10.52NaN2 deck gun. UB-91 would carry a crew of up to 3 officer and 31 men and had a cruising range of 7120nmi. UB-91 had a displacement of 510lk=inNaNlk=in while surfaced and 640t when submerged. Her engines enabled her to travel at 13kn when surfaced and when submerged.

Service history

UB-91 was surrendered to Britain on 21 November 1918 at Harwich. She toured the South Wales ports of Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Port Talbot and was towed to Pembroke Dock, eventually being broken up in Briton Ferry in 1921. King George V presented her deck gun to the town of Chepstow by in recognition of the bravery of William Charles Williams RN VC at Gallipoli in 1915. The gun forms part of the Chepstow War Memorial.

Summary of raiding history

DateNameNationalityTonnage[3] Fate[4]
25 September 1918Hebburn United Kingdom1,938Sunk
26 September 19181,181Sunk
28 September 1918Baldersby United Kingdom3,613Sunk
4 October 1918Hirano Maru Japan7,936Sunk[5]

References

Citations

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. News: The Torpedoed "Hirano Maru". 4 January 2012. The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser. 13 December 1918.
  2. News: 独政府を相手に損害賠償の訴え. 4 January 2012. Osaka Asahi Shinbun. 10 July 1919. Japanese. 2 March 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180302164815/http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/das/jsp/ja/ContentViewM.jsp?METAID=10055855&TYPE=IMAGE_FILE&POS=1. dead.
  3. Merchant ship tonnages are in gross register tons. Military vessels are listed by tons displacement.
  4. ub91. UB 91. 1boat. 8 February 2015.
  5. News: BBC News. WW1: New memorial for Pembrokeshire's Japanese dead. 4 October 2018.