SM UB-4
UB-4 sometime in 1915
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| History | |
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 German Empire
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| Name: | UB-4 |
| Ordered: | 15 November 1914 |
| Builder: | Germaniawerft, Kiel |
| Yard number: | 242 |
| Laid down: | 3 November 1914 |
| Launched: | March 1915 |
| Commissioned: | 23 March 1915 |
| Fate: | sunk by British Q-ship, 15 August 1915 |
| Service record | |
| Part of: |
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| Commanders: | Karl Gross |
| Operations: | 14 patrols |
| Victories: | 4 ships sunk for a total of 10,942 GRT |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | German Type UB I submarine |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 28.10 m (92.2 ft) (o/a) |
| Beam: | 3.15 m (10 ft 4 in) |
| Draught: | 3.03 m (9 ft 11 in) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: |
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| Range: |
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| Test depth: | 50 metres (160 ft) |
| Complement: | 14 |
| Armament: |
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| Notes: | 33-second diving time |
| Action of 15 August 1915 | |||||||
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| Part of *World War I | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kaiserliche Marine
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 Royal Navy
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Karl Gross | Ernest Martin Jehan | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| UB-4, 14 crewmembers | Inverlyon, unknown number of crew | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 14 KIA, UB-4 sunk | none | ||||||
Seiner MajestätUB-4 was a German Type UB I submarine (U-boat) in the German Imperial Navy (German: Kaiserliche Marine) during World War I. She was sunk by a British Q-ship disguised as a fishing smack in August 1915.
UB-4 was ordered in October 1914 and was laid down at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel in November. UB-4 was a little more than 28 metres (92 ft) in length and displaced between 127 and 142 tonnes (125 and 140 long tons), depending on whether surfaced or submerged. She carried two torpedoes for her two bow torpedo tubes and was also armed with a deck-mounted machine gun. UB-4 was broken into sections and shipped by rail to Antwerp for reassembly. She was launched and commissioned as SM UB-4 in March 1915.
UB-4 conducted the first sortie of the Flanders Flotilla in April, during which she sank the Belgian Relief ship Harpalyce, the first ship credited to the flotilla. She sank three more ships from mid-April to mid-August. On 15 August, UB-4 surfaced near the British Q-ship Inverlyon and was sunk by gunfire from the sailing vessel. None of UB-4's 14 crewmen survived the attack.
After the German Army's rapid advance along the North Sea coast in the earliest stages of World War I, the German Imperial Navy found itself without suitable submarines that could be operated in the narrow and shallow environment off Flanders. Project 34, a design effort begun in mid-August 1914, produced the Type UB I design: a small submarine that could be shipped by rail to a port of operations and quickly assembled. Constrained by railroad size limitations, the UB I design called for a boat about 28 metres (92 ft) long and displacing about 125 tonnes (123 long tons) with two torpedo tubes.UB-4 was part of the initial allotment of eight submarines—numbered UB-1 to UB-8—ordered on 15 October from Germaniawerft of Kiel, just shy of two months after planning for the class began.
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