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SM ''U-4'' or ''U-IV'' was a ''U-3''-class submarine or U-boat built for and operated by the Austro-Hungarian Navy ((ドイツ語:Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine ''or'' K.u.K. Kriegsmarine)) before and during the First World War. The submarine was built as part of a plan to evaluate foreign submarine designs, and was the second of two boats of the class built by Germaniawerft of Kiel, Germany. ''U-4'' was authorized in 1906, begun in March 1907, launched in November 1908, and towed from Kiel to Pola in April 1909. The double-hulled submarine was just under long and displaced between , depending on whether surfaced or submerged. The design of the submarine had poor diving qualities and several modifications to ''U-4''s diving planes and fins occurred in her first years in the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Her armament, as built, consisted of two bow torpedo tubes with a supply of three torpedoes, but was supplemented with a deck gun, the first of which was added in 1915. The boat was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy in August 1909, and served as a training boat—sometimes making as many as ten cruises a month—through the beginning of the First World War in 1914. At the start of that conflict, she was one of only four operational submarines in the Austro-Hungarian Navy U-boat fleet. Over the first year of the war, ''U-4'' made several unsuccessful attacks on warships and captured several smaller vessels as prizes. In July 1915, she scored what ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906–1921'' calls her greatest success when she torpedoed and sank the Italian armored cruiser , the largest ship hit by ''U-4'' during the war. In mid-May 1917, ''U-4'' was a participant in a raid on the Otranto Barrage which precipitated the Battle of Otranto Straits. In a separate action that same month, ''U-4'' sank her second largest ship, the Italian troopship ''Perseo''. She scored her final success in July 1917 with the sinking of a French tug. In total, ''U-4'' sank twelve ships totaling over . She survived the war as Austria-Hungary's longest serving submarine, was ceded to France as a war reparation, and scrapped in 1920. == Design and construction == ''U-4'' was built as part of a plan by the Austro-Hungarian Navy to competitively evaluate foreign submarine designs from Simon Lake, Germaniawerft, and John Philip Holland.〔Gardiner, p. 340.〕 The Austro-Hungarian Navy authorized the construction of ''U-4'' (and sister ship, ''U-3'') in 1906 by Germaniawerft of Kiel, Germany.〔 ''U-4'' was laid down on 12 March 1907 and launched on 20 November 1908.〔〔In their book ''The German Submarine War, 1914–1918'', R. H. Gibson and Maurice Prendergast report that ''U-4'' was launched in 1909 (p. 384).〕 After completion, she was towed via Gibraltar to Pola,〔 where she arrived on 19 April 1909.〔 ''U-4''s design was an improved version of Germaniawerft's design for the Imperial German Navy's first U-boat, ,〔 and featured a double hull with internal saddle tanks. The Germaniawerft engineers refined the design's hull shape through extensive model trials.〔 ''U-4'' was long by abeam and had a draft of .〔 She displaced surfaced and submerged.〔 She was armed with two bow torpedo tubes, and was designed to carry up to three torpedoes.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「SM U-4 (Austria-Hungary)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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