"UB-53" 1917-1918: Is There A WW1 Website Like The WW2 "U-Boat Net?"

[François SAEZ]

no page 7

page 8

(RL translation:

"24. Jan. Thursday. Quiet sea and calm wind. Nothing special.

25. Jan. Friday. 315 PM sighted a sailing vessel, ran off without having been seen. 800 PM came to Stromboli {Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily and the "toe" of Italy} 3 steamers and 3 {wuzzits} in ... Go to under water attack because of the bright moonlight. Stern torpedo hit on ... steamer. 3500 T. 1033 proceeded along on the surface again.

26. Jan. Saturday. 115 ... ... ... ... again in ... Dived, made attack 155 obtained hit on ... 4000 T steamer. 220 surfaced, laid ... ... last steamer. 358 dived to attack, made attack on the 4 destroyer ... zigzag course ... leading the steamer.

[François SAEZ]

page 9

[François SAEZ]

page 10

[François SAEZ]

no page 11

so page 12

[François SAEZ]

page 13

[François SAEZ]

page 14

(RL translation: please reduce scan size so I can see the whole page on the screen at once. This is waaaay too hard to decipher without being able to see all the word lumps in a sentence at once. I need "context" to pick out what scribbles are!)

[François SAEZ]

no page 15

so page 16

[François SAEZ]

page 17a

(RL translation: the circled bit was UC 53's contribution to the war communiqué on "Further subamrine successes in the central Mediterranean"--

"On 31st January one of our U-boats successfully bombarded the Aromolle Chemical Factory in Palermo from close range.")

[François SAEZ]

page 17b

[François SAEZ]

page 18 and last

I know it is not easy to read but the more you can translate will help

[Rick Research]

Start here and THEN go back to the beginning, OY!

Well, this is what happens when Un Certain Type wants info BEFORE providing the CORRECT data to the All-Wise Imperialoids!!!


For this is NOT "UB 53" at all!

I don't know what the life preserver ring says on the photo you start with under your bad caption "Crew of UB 53" ( it says "SMS U XX" 2 numbers). The crewman under "picture 2" tied up under the mountain has caption "Submarine 'C 53' in harbor from the cutter" with May 1917 date. Crewman X also CORRECTLY identifies it on his diary on your page 2 as "My 4th Distant Voyage on U 'C 53'."

As indeed confirmed by the silhouette of this submarine, it was, in fact

UC 53

a coastal MINELAYING submarine (the built up fore-deck was where the mines were stored and released from)

UC 53 was launched 20 March 1917, commisioned 10 May 1917, and served until the end of the war with a German crew as the Austro-Hungarian submarine "U 96." She was scuttled at Trieste 28 October 1918. Belonged to the Mediterranean (Mittelmeer) Submarine Flotilla.

I have zero information on crew etc since this submarine was not lost to enemy action, but to abandonment of the Pola naval base. The Kapitänleutnant in the middle of scan 5 crew on deck photo MIGHT have been Kurt Albrecht (2.1.1887-KIA 8.5.1918), who was CO of UC 53 in 1917, but was killed as CO of U 32.

Because it will be WAAAAAY too confusing to translate from here on previous pages, I will use my Semi-Amazing Super Powers (or Amazing Semi-Super Powers) to retro-translate each page as you show it, same page. Note that I cannot translate into English German technical terms for some weird type, apparently, of sailing vessel not found in my dictionary. I could do bark, barkentine, brig, dory, sloop, smack, etc etc but not the "wuzzits" that seem to have abounded in Adriatic waters.

BTW, Jules Verne, that will be 50¢ per word.

[François SAEZ]

Thanks Rick for the correction and the translations

[Tony & Kaiser]

François,

Avez-vous plus de photographies de cuirassé? I have gone mad and I am building a large-scale pre-dreadnought from wood, the SMS Pommern which was a Deutschland-klasse battleship. On page 1, it appears that your U-boat is tied up to a Deutschland class ship. (?) Do you have any more photographs of them beside this ship? Thanx, Tony

[François SAEZ]

I will check Tony - just give me some time