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SM U-46

History
German Empire
Name: U-46
Ordered: 4 August 1914
Builder: Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig
Launched: 18 May 1915
Commissioned: 17 December 1915
Fate: Surrendered to Japan 26 November 1918
History
Japanese Empire
Name: O-2
Acquired: 26 November 1918
Commissioned: 1920
Decommissioned: 1921
Fate:
  • Possibly scrapped 1922;
  • Possibly foundered 21 April 1925 and
  • scuttled on or after 5 August 1927
General characteristics
Class and type: Type U-43 submarine
Displacement:
  • 725 t (714 long tons) surfaced
  • 940 t (930 long tons) submerged
Length: 65.00 m (213 ft 3 in) (o/a)
Beam:
  • 6.20 m (20 ft 4 in) (oa)
  • 4.18 m (13 ft 9 in) (pressure hull)
Height: 9.00 m (29 ft 6 in)
Draught: 3.74 m (12 ft 3 in)
Installed power:
  • 2 × 2,000 PS (1,471 kW; 1,973 shp) surfaced
  • 2 × 1,200 PS (883 kW; 1,184 shp) submerged
Propulsion: 2 shafts
Speed:
  • 15.2 knots (28.2 km/h; 17.5 mph) surfaced
  • 9.7 knots (18.0 km/h; 11.2 mph) submerged
Range:
  • 11,400 nmi (21,100 km; 13,100 mi) at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) surfaced
  • 51 nmi (94 km; 59 mi) at 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) submerged
Test depth: 50 m (164 ft 1 in)
Complement: 36
Armament:
Service record
Part of:
  • III Flotilla
  • 29 March 1916 – 11 November 1918
Commanders:
  • Kptlt. Leo Hillebrand
  • 17 December 1915 - 6 December 1917
  • Kptlt. Alfred Saalwächter
  • 7 December 1916 – 15 January 1917
  • Kptlt. Leo Hillebrand
  • 16 January – 11 November 1918
Operations: 11 patrols
Victories:
  • 52 merchant ships sunk (140,314 GRT)
  • 1 merchant ship damaged (7,378 GRT)

SM U-46 was one of the 329 submarines serving in the Imperial German Navy in World War I. U-46 was engaged in the combat during World War I and took part in the First Battle of the Atlantic. After the war, she served in the Imperial Japanese Navy as O-2.

Ordered on 4 August 1914, U-46 was constructed at the Kaiserliche Werft in Danzig, Germany. Launched on 18 May 1915, she was commissioned on 17 December 1915.

Assigned to the III Flotilla, U-46 began her first war patrol on 29 March 1916. Remaining in the III Flotilla for the rest of the war, she conducted a total of 11 war patrols before the war ended on 11 November 1918, and was credited with sinking 51 merchant ships totaling 138,942 gross register tons and one warship of 1,372 displacement tons and damaging one merchant ship of 7,378 gross register tons.

After the end of the war, she surrendered to Japan on 26 November 1918.

Transferred to Japan after surrendering, the submarine was commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1920 as O-2. Decommissioned in 1921, she was partly dismantled at Kure Navy Yard in April 1921.

Some sources claim that O-2 was scrapped in 1922. Other sources claim that in 1925, O-2 was rebuilt at Yokosuka Navy Yard to serve as a testbed for submarine salvage operations by the submarine salvage ship Asahi and foundered in the Pacific Ocean in a storm off the coast of Japan during her transfer voyage from Yokosuka to Kure on 21 April 1925, adding that an American merchant ship sighted her derelict hulk floating in the Pacific west of Oahu, Hawaii, on 5 August 1927, and that the hulk subsequently was scuttled.


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