abstract
| - SM U-66 was the lead ship of the Type U 66 submarines or U-boats for the German Imperial Navy () during the First World War. The submarine had been laid down in November 1913 as U-7, the lead ship of the U-7 class for the Austro-Hungarian Navy () but was sold to Germany, along with the others in her class, in November 1914. The submarine was ordered as U-7 from Germaniawerft of Kiel as the first of five boats of the U-7 class for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Navy became convinced that none of the submarines of the class could be delivered to the Adriatic via Gibraltar. As a consequence, the entire class, including U-7, was sold to the German Imperial Navy in November 1914. Under German control, the class became known as the U 66 type and the boats were renumbered; U-7 became U-66, and all were redesigned and reconstructed to German specifications. U-66 was launched in April 1915 and commissioned in July. As completed, she displaced , surfaced, and , submerged. The boat was long and was armed with five torpedo tubes and a deck gun. As a part of the Baltic and 4th Flotillas, U-66 sank 24 ships with a combined gross register tonnage of 69,967 in six war patrols. The U-boat also torpedoed and damaged the British cruiser Falmouth in August 1916. U-66 left Emden on her seventh patrol on 2 September 1917 for operations in the North Channel. The following day the U-boat reported her position in the North Sea but neither she nor any of her 40-man crew were ever heard from again. A postwar German study offered no explanation for U-66's loss, although British records suggest that she may have struck a mine in the Dogger Bank area.
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