Type U 10

Type U 10 (“B I”- Boats)
U 10, U 11 and U 15 to U 17= 5 U-boats

At the outbreak of World War I the Austro-Hungarian Navy had commissioned just 6 U-boats, a 7th U-Boat was commissioned not before the beginning of the war. Further 5 U-boats were under construction in Germany, were sold, however, already in November 1914 to Germany. Therefore, an urgent requirement for additional submarines emerged.

While on the on side the fastest possible addition was considered to be achievable through construction under licence of the well proven Danish submarine type “Havmanden”, soundings with Germany on the other side resulted in a solution to build within a short period of time three U-boats in Germany of the German type “B I” single hull coastal submarine, of which the operation by similar U-Boats (UB 7, UB 8 and UB 3) of the Imperial German Navy at Pola had made great impressions, building order was given on 30 March 1915.

At the same time tensions between Austria-Hungary and Italy as well as the negotiations with Germany on the construction of U-Boats for the Austro-Hungarian Navy led to a first and fast solution: Germany would sell to Austria-Hungary beforehand two U-Boats (UB 1 and UB 15) under construction which were scheduled to be commissioned by the Imperial German Navy in June 1915.

As early as May 1915 both U-Boats were transported by rail from Germany to Pola, the German UB 1 was commissioned on 12 July 1915 as Austro-Hungarian U 10 and UB 15 as U 11. The three other Austro-Hungarian U-Boats put on order in Germany (U 15 to U 17) were disassembled and transported by rail from Bremen, Germany to Pola in August 1915, where all three were reassembled and commissioned on 06 October 1915.