To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander

Sixteen. Curie

of water. They continued the trip with the electric motors, and they tried to repair the damage at least temporarily. At that point three destroyers approached the boat. It was completely hopeless , but one last effort had to be made. The boat could hope to escape underwater, but the pumps no longer worked. During the dive, the incoming water ran forward, and with a bow weight of 40 degrees, the boat shot into the deep. More water constantly poured in from the increasing pressure; by this time the storage batteries were swamped, and the forming chlorine asphyxiated the men. Six men fell over one after the other. Then the electric motors broke down. With that, the boat was finished. Now all that mattered was to save the crew. They succeeded in blowing out the ballast tanks, and the boat shot from 30 meters’ depth to the surface of the water. The last command rang out: “Every man abandon ship!” Line officer Karl Strnad, the commander, stood in the tower. Everyone who left the ship to jump into the water had to pass him. He stood smiling, leaning against the wall, shook each man’s hand one last time and thanked him. Then he went below and sank with his boat into the deep. An Austrian navy officer. Two men were killed by gunfire from the destroyer; the rest were taken prisoner. Sixteen.Curie Until autumn 1915 the U-boat station in Rose expands. Five tiny U-boats, each dismantled in three parts, come by train from Germany. Each separate piece is ready to be assembled where it belongs. In Pola they are riveted together, pipelines and cables connected, and they are finished, ready to be used. No doubt these are small things with only one engine, but they are reliable . The boats have the most modern equipment and a large cruising radius. They can go underwater in twenty seconds. CURIE 65 But another, a sixth boat, is added as well. In December 1914, the French U-boat Curie attempted to enter the port of Pola. She had been towed by a cruiser to the middle of the Adriatic and, near the entrance to the harbor at Pola, she managed to discover the mine passage by observing incoming ships; then she went as far as the long breakwater that was designed to protect the harbor from enemy U-boats. A netting barricade was attached to the head of the long dock; this netting would be opened for arriving and departing ships. The heavy beams that carry this wire netting were drawn deep into the water by its weight so that they were hard to discover with a periscope. The nets were the nemesis of the Curie. Free from the head of the breakwater, the U-boat steered toward the harbor and was caught. She tried to break loose and surfaced, but the netting went up with her and even her engines could not free her. A shore battery lies facing the head of the dock. From there and from a vessel they noticed the barriers rocking, saw the surfacing tower, and riddled it with bullets. At that the boat sank, but surfaced immediately again with its entire body; the hatches on deck were pushed open and the crew jumped out and into the water. Then the boat sank. Her second officer was still standing in the tower; he had been hit in the chest. In the meantime, the harbor was alerted and many boats rushed over to rescue the swimmers. The Curie was then raised and restored; now she travels as U14 under the Austrian flag. All countries keep the designs of their submarines confidential; thus there is a great stir as U-14 takes her mooring in Rose. She has a tiny tower, more like a higher hatch, behind which an iron scaffolding projects up with a platform, constituting the command post. Three rudders serve for diving, which enable her also to make changes in depth and also in the horizontal position. A torpedo shaft is forward in the bow’s hold; six torpedoes 66 CURIE lie exposed outside on the boat’s hull and can be launched from inside. Some can be fired forward, some broadside. Inside there is a lot of room; bulkhead doors subdivide the boat so the engines and their noise can be cut off from the remaining space...