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SM ''U-68'' was a Type U 66 submarine or U-boat for the German Imperial Navy ((ドイツ語:Kaiserliche Marine)) during the First World War. She had been laid down in December 1913 as ''U-9'' of the ''U-7'' class for the Austro-Hungarian Navy ((ドイツ語:Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine ''or'' K.u. K. Kriegsmarine)) but was sold to Germany, along with the others in her class, in November 1914. Under German control, the class became known as the U 66 type and the boats were renumbered; ''U-9'' became ''U-68'', and was redesigned and reconstructed to German specifications. She was launched in June 1915 and commissioned in August. Six days into her first war patrol, on 22 March 1916, ''U-68'' was sunk by , a British Q-ship, with all hands. ''U-68'' sank no ships in her brief career. A post-war German study found fault with ''U-68''s captain for not following established procedures for avoiding decoy ships. == Design and construction == After the Austro-Hungarian Navy had competitively evaluated three foreign submarine designs, it selected the Germaniawerft 506d design, also known as the Type UD, for its new ''U-7'' class of five submarines.〔Gardiner, p. 340.〕 The Navy ordered five boats on 1 February 1913.〔Gardiner, p. 343.〕 The ''U-7'' class was seen by the Austro-Hungarian Navy as an improved version of its ''U-3'' class, which was also a Germaniawerft design.〔〔The ''U-3''-class submarines, however, were less than half the displacement and nearly shorter than the ''U-7'' design. See: Gardiner, pp. 342–43.〕 As designed for the Austro-Hungarian Navy, the boats were to displace on the surface and while submerged. The doubled-hulled boats were to be long overall with a beam of and a draft of . The Austrian specifications called for two shafts with twin diesel engines ( total) for surface running at up to , and twin electric motors ( total) for a maximum of when submerged.〔 The boats were designed with five torpedo tubes; four located in the bow, one in the stern. The boats' armament was to also include a single L/26 deck gun.〔 ''U-9'' was laid down on 31 December 1913, the third of the ''U-7'' boats.〔Helgason, Guðmundur. (WWI U-boats: U 66 ), (WWI U-boats: U 67 ), (WWI U-boats: U 68 ), (WWI U-boats: U 69 ), (WWI U-boats: U 70 ). ''U-Boat War in World War I''. Uboat.net. Retrieved on 9 December 2008.〕 Her construction was slated to be complete within 29 to 33 months.〔 Neither ''U-9'' nor any of her sister boats were complete when World War I began in August 1914.〔 With the boats under construction at Kiel, the Austrians became convinced that it would be impossible to take delivery of the boats, which would need to be towed into the Mediterranean past Gibraltar, a British territory.〔〔The Austro-Hungarian Navy's Germaniawerft-built ''U-3'' class boats had been towed from Kiel to Pola via Gibraltar in 1909. See: Sieche, p. 19.〕 As a result, ''U-9'' and her four sisters were sold to the Imperial German Navy on 28 November 1914.〔〔In April 1915, just five months later, the German successfully entered the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar, proving that delivery would have been possible after all. See: Gardiner, p. 343.〕 ''U-9'' was renumbered by the Germans as ''U-68'' when her class was redesignated as the Type U 66. The Imperial German Navy had the submarines redesigned and reconstructed to German standards, which increased the surface displacement by and the submerged by . The torpedo load was increased by a third, from 9 to 12, and the deck gun was upgraded from the gun originally specified to an one.〔 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-68」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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