SM UC-63


SM UC-63 was a German Type UC II minelaying submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy during World War I. The U-boat was ordered on 12 January 1916, laid down on 3 April 1916, and was launched on 6 January 1917. She was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy on 30 January 1917 as SM UC-63. In nine patrols UC-63 was credited with sinking 36 ships, either by torpedo or by mines laid. UC-63 was torpedoed and sunk by off Goodwin Sands on 1 November 1917; only one crewman survived the sinking.

Design

A German Type UC II submarine, UC-63 had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. She had a length overall of, a beam of, and a draught of. The submarine was powered by two six-cylinder four-stroke diesel engines each producing , two electric motors producing, and two propeller shafts. She had a dive time of 48 seconds and was capable of operating at a depth of.
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a submerged speed of. When submerged, she could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at. UC-63 was fitted with six mine tubes, eighteen UC 200 mines, three torpedo tubes, seven torpedoes, and one Uk L/30 deck gun. Her complement was twenty-six crew members.

Service career

UC-63 entered service on 30 January 1917, under the command of Oblt Karsten von Heydebreck. She was assigned to the Flanders U-boat Flotilla, based at Bruges in occupied Belgium.
UC-63 carried out nine war patrols, operating mainly in the North Sea against British fishing trawlers. She had considerable success, sinking seven and damaging two more in a single day in June 1917. In August 1917 she fought an action against two armed trawlers, Nelson and Ethel & Millie. Both of these were sunk, and the crew of Ethel & Millie were picked up by the U-boat, after which they were not seen again. The suspicion then, and subsequently, is that they were disposed of by the U-boat commander, perhaps by being left to drown while the U-boat submerged. The German government had made it clear they regarded the crews of merchant ships who fought back against U-boat attacks as francs-tireurs, and thus liable to execution.
UC-63 was lost in November 1917; in a nine month career UC-63 sank 36 ships, totalling 35,900 GRT, and damaging four more.

Fate

On 1 November 1917, while operating off the Goodwin Sands, UC-63 was sighted by British submarine E 52. She was torpedoed and sunk with the loss of all but one of her 27 crew.

Summary of raiding history

Citations