Qualla: SM UB-85 https://qualla.com/sm-ub-85 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:16 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: SM UB-85 https://qualla.com/sm-ub-85 SM UB-85: Introduction https://qualla.com/sm-ub-85/ Kapitanleutnant Gunther Krech surrendered SM UB-85 to His Majesty's Drifter Coreopsis II on the morning of 30 April 1918, off the coast of Belfast. The submarine had been partly flooded through a half-open hatch and forced to the surface, where it was abandoned by the crew of 34 under British gunfire. None of the German sailors were killed. They were taken prisoner. Under interrogation, Krech is said to have told an extraordinary story: the night before, while UB-85 had surfaced to recharge her batteries, a large sea creature had risen from the deep, climbed onto the deck, and damaged the hull. His men had fired their sidearms at the beast until it sank back into the water, but the submarine could no longer dive. Whether Krech actually said this, or whether the story was elaborated by his interrogators or the British press, has never been settled. The mystery has been irreducibly part of the U-boat's reputation ever since.

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]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/p/sm-ub-85-wp/gcsp-sm-ub-85-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full SM UB-85: A Bremen Submarine, Built in a Year https://qualla.com/sm-ub-85/ UB-85 was a Type UB III submarine, the most common German coastal U-boat design of the late First World War. She was ordered on 23 September 1916, built at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, launched on 26 October 1917, and commissioned on 24 November 1917 under Krech's command. Li...

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]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/p/sm-ub-85-wp/gcsp-sm-ub-85-a-bremen-submarine-built-in-a-year.mp3 0:06 2 full SM UB-85: Sunk by a Drifter https://qualla.com/sm-ub-85/ On 30 April 1918, UB-85 was on her second war patrol when she was detected by HM Drifter Coreopsis II off the Northern Irish coast. Drifters were small herring-fishing vessels requisitioned for war work, slow and lightly armed, but their job was to lay anti-submarine nets and pro...

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]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/p/sm-ub-85-wp/gcsp-sm-ub-85-sunk-by-a-drifter.mp3 0:06 3 full SM UB-85: The Story of the Beast https://qualla.com/sm-ub-85/ What happened next belongs to history and to folklore in roughly equal measure. The official British account of the interrogation noted that Krech had given a strange explanation for his vessel being unable to submerge. According to the story, which was repeated in British newspa...

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]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/p/sm-ub-85-wp/gcsp-sm-ub-85-the-story-of-the-beast.mp3 0:06 4 full SM UB-85: The Wreck https://qualla.com/sm-ub-85/ In October 2016, engineers laying the Western HVDC Link, an undersea cable connecting Scotland with Wales, encountered the almost intact wreck of a Type UB III submarine on the seabed off the Galloway coast. Marine archaeologist Dr Innes McCartney identified it tentatively as eit...

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]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/s/p/sm-ub-85-wp/gcsp-sm-ub-85-the-wreck.mp3 0:06 5 full