Qualla: SM U-68 https://qualla.com/sm-u-68 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: SM U-68 https://qualla.com/sm-u-68 SM U-68: Introduction https://qualla.com/sm-u-68/ She had three names and two flags before she ever saw open water. Laid down in December 1913 at the Germaniawerft yard in Kiel as *U-9* for the Austro-Hungarian Navy, she changed hands in November 1914 when Austria sold its five-boat class to Germany, rendered as inconvenient now that Italy controlled the Adriatic exits. The Imperial German Navy renumbered her *U-68*, redesigned her hull, increased her displacement, swapped the 6.6 cm deck gun for an 8.8 cm SK L/30, and pushed her torpedo load from nine to twelve. She was launched in June 1915 and commissioned in August. Six days into her first war patrol, every soul aboard was dead.

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/r/sm-u-68-wp/gc0r-sm-u-68-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full SM U-68: An Inexperienced Captain https://qualla.com/sm-u-68/ *U-68*'s commander was Kapitänleutnant Ludwig Güntzel, and the German High Seas Fleet U-boat command later admitted he should not have been given a boat. Standard practice was to send a new captain to sea first as a guest under a more experienced commander, to learn the patient, ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/r/sm-u-68-wp/gc0r-sm-u-68-an-inexperienced-captain.mp3 0:06 2 full SM U-68: Six Days, Then Farnborough https://qualla.com/sm-u-68/ *U-68* departed the Ems on 16 March 1916 for her first patrol, bound for the operating area off Britain's west coast. At 07:00 on 22 March, off the southern Irish coast near Dingle, she sighted what appeared to be a slow, unarmed merchant ship. She fired a torpedo. It missed the ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/r/sm-u-68-wp/gc0r-sm-u-68-six-days-then-farnborough.mp3 0:06 3 full SM U-68: The First Depth Charge https://qualla.com/sm-u-68/ Twenty-one rapidly fired British rounds hit *U-68* repeatedly. She began to sink. Campbell, alert to the chance to finish her off before she could escape underwater, ordered *Farnborough* steered over the submarine's location, and dropped a depth charge - a new weapon, untested i...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/r/sm-u-68-wp/gc0r-sm-u-68-the-first-depth-charge.mp3 0:06 4 full SM U-68: Below the Hull https://qualla.com/sm-u-68/ It is easy, reading the action reports, to focus on the cleverness of the Q-ship and the textbook failure of the U-boat commander. But there were thirty-eight other men aboard *U-68*, and they had no say in Güntzel's tactical choices. The crew of a Type U 66 submarine numbered th...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/r/sm-u-68-wp/gc0r-sm-u-68-below-the-hull.mp3 0:06 5 full