WWI U-boats

UC 72

Type UC II
ShipyardBlohm & Voss, Hamburg (Werk 288)
Ordered 12 Jan 1916
Launched 12 Aug 1916
Commissioned 5 Dec 1916
Commanders
5 Dec 1916 - 25 Aug 1917 Oblt. Ernst Voigt (Royal House Order of Hohenzollern)
Career 8 patrols
17 Feb 1917 - 25 Aug 1917 Flandern Flotilla
Successes41 ships sunk with a total of 58,699 tons.
2 ships damaged with a total of 1,529 tons. (View ships hit by UC 72)
Fate 24 Aug 1917 - Mined while homebound through the Straits of Dover. Exact date of loss uncertain but not before August 23, 1917.. 31 dead (all hands lost).

Wreck identified in 2013 by a dive team led by Innes McCartney and Gerry Dowd.

Previously recorded fate
Sunk by Q-ship Acton on August 20, 1917. Two ship sinkings the next date that no other U-boat could be responsible for mean that UC 72 survived this encounter.


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