Thank you for confirming that. I always thought that this mass return in the dying days of the war was one of the most poignant and heroic stories of the u-boats in WW1. I think there was an element of choice for the crews and these boats you list all decided that they wanted to go home - needing to travel all the way round Ireland and Scotland. Again from memory, I think they all made it bar one. They arrived back in the middle of revolution and many of the officers ended fighting for the government. My money is that I read the original story in Martin Niemoller's book (UC 67); sadly I don't have this one any more, it being much too expensive and I ended getting it from the library. At the time, the event was not part of my researches so I did not take notes.

But now I do have a research interest - Erich Gerth and UC 53. Here's the next question. Why did UC 53 (and how many others?) decide not to join the trek to the fatherland and family, but instead decided to scuttle and take their chances overland? Were they all damaged like U 47? But, Gerth spent his last sea days in September and October sinking a clutch of small Italian fishing vessels (seems a trifle wanton at this very late stage of the war). I have sent for his last KTB to see if there are any clues.

Also, briefly, on the disintegration of Austria-Hungary at this time, it wasn't just the collapse of the Italian front, but nationalist movements all over seizing their chance to try to set up governments and / or to break away from the Hapsburg empire: Albania, Bohemia, Bosnia, Croatia, the Czechs, Hungarians, Moravia, Silesia ... Interestingly, right at the same time, 'a wave of Spanish influenza hit railroad personnel in Vienna, making idle 8,000 cars of rolling stock' (Hollweg, First World War), p.435. Very volatile; very dangerous.