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} |} SM ''U-66'' was the lead ship of the Type U-66 submarines or U-boats for the Imperial German Navy ((ドイツ語:Kaiserliche Marine)) during World War I. The submarine had been laid down in Kiel in November 1913 as ''U-7'', the lead ship of the ''U-7'' class for the Austro-Hungarian Navy (). They became convinced after the outbreak of war in August 1914 that none of these submarines could be delivered to the Adriatic via Gibraltar, and sold the entire class, including ''U-7'', 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 when 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 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. == Design and construction == After the Austro-Hungarian Navy had competitively evaluated three foreign submarine designs, it selected the Germaniawerft 506d design, also known as the Type UD, for its new ''U-7'' class of five submarines.〔Gardiner, p. 340.〕 The Navy ordered five boats on 1 February 1913.〔Gardiner, p. 343.〕 The ''U-7'' class was seen by the Austro-Hungarian Navy as an improved version of its ''U-3'' class, which was also a Germaniawerft design.〔〔The ''U-3''-class submarines, however, were less than half the displacement and nearly shorter than the ''U-7'' design. See: Gardiner, pp. 342–43.〕 As designed for the Austro-Hungarian Navy, the boats were to displace on the surface and while submerged. The double-hulled boats were to be long overall with a beam of and a draft of . The Austrian specifications called for two shafts with twin diesel engines ( total) for surface running at up to , and twin electric motors ( total) for a maximum of when submerged.〔 The boats were designed with five torpedo tubes; four located in the bow, one in the stern. The boats' armament was to also include a single 66 mm/26 (2.6 in) deck gun.〔 ''U-7'' and sister boat were both laid down on 1 November 1913, the first two boats of the class begun.〔Helgason, Guðmundur. ("WWI U-boats: U 66" ), ("U 67" ), ("U 68" ), ("U 69" ), ("U 70" ). ''U-Boat War in World War I''. Uboat.net. Retrieved 9 December 2008.〕 Their construction was scheduled for completion within 29 to 33 months,〔 but neither ''U-7'' nor any of her sister boats were complete when World War I began in August 1914.〔 Because the boats were under construction at Kiel on the Baltic Sea, the Austrians became convinced that it would be impossible to take delivery: the boats would need to be transferred into the Mediterranean past Gibraltar, a British territory.〔〔The Austro-Hungarian Navy's Germaniawerft-built ''U-3'' class boats had been towed from Kiel to Pola via Gibraltar in 1909. See: Sieche, p. 19.〕 As a result, ''U-7'' and her four sisters were sold to the Imperial German Navy on 28 November 1914.〔Gardiner, p. 177.〕〔In April 1915, just five months later, the German successfully entered the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar, proving that delivery could have been possible after all. See: Gardiner, p. 343.〕 ''U-7'' was renumbered by the Germans as ''U-66'' when her class was redesignated as the Type U-66. The Imperial German Navy had the submarines redesigned and reconstructed to German standards, increasing the surface and submerged displacements by , respectively. The torpedo load was increased by a third, from 9 to 12, and the deck gun size was upgraded from the size originally specified to .〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「SM U-66」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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