List of the largest ships hit by U-boats in World War I
During the First World War, U-boats of the German Imperial Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy sank over 6,000 Allied and neutral ships totaling over 14,200,000 tons. Many additional ships that are not included in those totals were damaged, but were able to return to service after repairs. This list contains the approximately 100 ships over 10,000 tons that were either damaged or sunk by U-boats by torpedoes, submarine-laid mines, gunfire, or other means.
List
Ships listed are presented in descending order on the tonnage figure. Those that were damaged are indicated with an asterisk after their names. Three ships—,, and —appear on the list twice. Justicia was damaged by on 19 July 1918 and sunk while under tow the following day by. Celtic was damaged by and in separate incidents in February 1917 and March 1918, respectively. Southland was seriously damaged by in September 1915 and sunk by in June 1917. All U-boats listed are German unless otherwise noted in the table.Kapitänleutnant Otto Weddigen in sank three Royal Navy cruisers that appear on the list—,, and —in a little more than an hour during the action of 22 September 1914. The first three victims of UB-14s career—the, the British troopship, and the troopship in July, August, and September 1915, respectively—were all on the list.
Four U-boat commanders appear four or more times on the list. Kptlt. Hans Rose in sank two ships and damaged two others between June 1917 and April 1918, while Kptlt. Otto Steinbrinck in did the same between March and July 1917. Between October 1916 and October 1918, Kptlt. Wolfgang Steinbauer sank three ships on the list in and damaged a fourth in. Kptlt. Gustav Sieß—responsible for sinking the largest ship on the list, the hospital ship struck a mine and sunk —topped the list with five entries, four sunk in and a fifth sunk in, all between April 1916 and April 1917. Other notable commanders that appear on the list are Kptlt. Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière who sank the most tonnage of any submarine commander ever, and Linienschiffsleutnant Georg Ritter von Trapp of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, known as the patriarch of the family made famous in The Sound of Music and its subsequent film adaptation.
Ship | Nationality | Tons | Date | U-boat | Commander | Notes |
48,758 | 21 November 1916 | Gustav Sieß | Sunk by Mine | |||
32,234 | 19 July 1918 | Otto von Schrader | Damaged, taken under tow | |||
32,234 | 20 July 1918 | Hans Oskar Wutsdorff | Sunk while under tow from 1st attack | |||
30,396 | 7 May 1915 | Walther Schwieger | Sunk with great loss of life | |||
22,189 | 21 December 1914 | Egon Lerch | Returned to port under own power | |||
20,904 | 15 February 1917 | Alfred von Glasenapp | Struck mine, returned to port under tow | |||
20,904 | 31 March 1918 | Wilhelm Meyer | Torpedoed, returned to port under tow | |||
19,380 | 29 May 1915 | Ernst von Voigt | Decoy disguised as, sunk | |||
18,565 | 7 April 1917 | Otto Steinbrinck | Struck mine, returned to port | |||
18,510 | 4 October 1916 | Wolfgang Steinbauer | Torpedoed while empty | |||
18,400 | 18 October 1918 | Wolfgang Steinbauer | Lightly damaged by 2 torpedoes | |||
18,372 | 5 September 1918 | Heinrich Middendorf | Heavy damage, returned to port under own power | |||
18,300 | 19 March 1917 | Robert Moraht | Torpedoed and sunk | |||
18,168 | 31 May 1918 | Walter Remy | Torpedoed and sunk, most lives saved | |||
18,099 | 25 February 1917 | Gerhard Berger | ||||
18,000 | 29 September 1918 | Otto Dröscher | ||||
16,350 | 9 November 1918 | Heinrich Kukat | ||||
16,339 | 1 July 1918 | Helmut Brümmer-Patzig | ||||
15,801 | 19 August 1915 | Rudolf Schneider | ||||
15,544 | 19 November 1916 | Karl Vesper | ||||
15,000 | 1 January 1915 | Rudolf Schneider | ||||
14,966 | 4 October 1916 | Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière | ||||
14,900 | 27 May 1915 | Otto Hersing | ||||
14,892 | 25 January 1917 | Alfred von Glasenapp | ||||
14,348 | 4 May 1917 | Otto Schultze | ||||
14,348 | 5 February 1918 | Wilhelm Meyer | ||||
Minnewaska | 14,317 | 29 November 1916 | Johannes Kirchner | |||
14,300 | 2 October 1917 | Otto Rohrbeck | ||||
14,278 | 1 January 1917 | Wolfgang Steinbauer | ||||
14,150 | 11 April 1918 | Hans Trenk | ||||
14,000 | 27 April 1916 | Gustav Sieß | ||||
14,000 | 9 January 1917 | Kurt Hartwig | ||||
13,936 | 4 February 1918 | Gerhard Schulz | ||||
13,911 | 16 March 1916 | Arthur Metz | ||||
13,753 | 26 February 1916 | Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière | ||||
13,714 | 7 September 1917 | Karl Edeling | ||||
13,680 | 19 July 1918 | Richard Feldt | ||||
13,603 | 17 July 1918 | Wilhelm Werner | ||||
13,543 | 23 March 1916 | Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière | ||||
13,528 | 30 January 1918 | Robert Moraht | ||||
13,500 | 2 January 1917 | Gustav Sieß | ||||
13,441 | 14 June 1917 | Ernst Wilhelms | ||||
13,427 | 12 December 1916 | Franz Becker | ||||
13,405 | 19 October 1916 | Egon von Werner | ||||
13,405 | 27 January 1918 | Leo Hillebrand | ||||
13,370 | 8 May 1916 | Walther Schwieger | ||||
12,927 | 19 October 1917 | Ernst Hashagen | ||||
12,750 | 25 November 1916 | Hans Walther | ||||
12,644 | 17 February 1917 | Hermann von Fischel | ||||
12,527 | 18 January 1916 | Egon von Werner | ||||
12,515 | 1 March 1918 | Johannes Spieß | ||||
12,469 | 9 September 1918 | Karl Petri | ||||
12,431 | 27 February 1916 | Matthias Graf von Schmettow | ||||
12,416 | 27 April 1915 | Georg Ritter von Trapp | ||||
12,350 | 28 April 1917 | Thomas Bieber | ||||
12,222 | 28 October 1917 | Helmut Gerlach | ||||
12,097 | 5 February 1917 | Friedrich Moecke | ||||
12,077 | 23 July 1917 | Karl Petri | ||||
12,045 | 7 September 1918 | Karl Petri | ||||
12,036 | 14 March 1917 | Hans Degetau | ||||
12,009 | 14 November 1916 | Gustav Sieß | ||||
12,002 | 20 March 1917 | Herbert Pustkuchen | ||||
12,000 | 22 September 1914 | Otto Weddigen | ||||
12,000 | 22 September 1914 | Otto Weddigen | ||||
12,000 | 22 September 1914 | Otto Weddigen | ||||
11,999 | 12 February 1917 | Herbert Pustkuchen | ||||
11,985 | 25 May 1915 | Otto Hersing | ||||
11,899 | 2 September 1915 | Heino von Heimburg | ||||
11,899 | 4 June 1917 | Otto Wünsche | ||||
11,635 | 26 June 1917 | Alfred Saalwächter | ||||
11,495 | 26 March 1918 | Franz Becker | ||||
11,484 | 1 July 1917 | Walter Roehr | ||||
11,483 | 1 March 1917 | Otto Steinbrinck | ||||
11,477 | 29 August 1917 | Georg Ritter von Trapp | ||||
11,423 | 27 June 1918 | Helmut Brümmer-Patzig | ||||
11,140 | 22 March 1917 | Ralph Wenninger | ||||
11,137 | 18 February 1917 | Walter Roehr | ||||
11,120 | 25 April 1917 | Max Viebeg | ||||
11,117 | 13 August 1915 | Heino von Heimburg | ||||
11,106 | 7 April 1918 | Hans Rose | ||||
11,100 | 27 December 1916 | Wolfgang Steinbauer | ||||
11,000 | 26 July 1917 | Otto Steinbrinck | ||||
10,963 | 15 April 1917 | Gustav Sieß | ||||
Yasaka Maru | 10,932 | 21 December 1915 | Max Valentiner | |||
10,920 | 4 September 1915 | Walther Schwieger | ||||
10,850 | 20 June 1915 | Max Valentiner | ||||
10,850 | 5 June 1916 | Curt Beitzen | ||||
10,798 | 9 April 1917 | Otto Steinbrinck | ||||
10,757 | 21 August 1917 | Ernst Killmann | ||||
10,644 | 18 May 1918 | Martin Schwab | ||||
10,509 | 23 July 1918 | Otto von Schrader | ||||
10,494 | 26 January 1918 | Egon von Werner | ||||
10,435 | 21 August 1917 | Hans Rose | ||||
10,422 | 17 April 1917 | Wilhelm Barten | ||||
10,402 | 27 June 1917 | Hans Rose | ||||
10,320 | 26 October 1916 | Carl-Siegfried Ritter von Georg | ||||
10,289 | 4 August 1918 | Waldemar Kophamel | ||||
10,160 | 21 August 1915 | Max Valentiner | ||||
10,157 | 20 April 1917 | Hellmuth Jürst | ||||
10,118 | 7 July 1915 | Heino von Heimburg | ||||
10,064 | 15 October 1917 | Hans Rose | ||||
10,040 | 26 June 1918 | Walter Warzecha | ||||
10,037 | 15 March 1918 | Karl Kroll |