UB 88 at Balboa Canal Zone, 1919
From the Dictionary of American Naval
Fighting Ships
(DANFS)
UB 88
(Former German Submarine: dp.
510 (surf.), 640 (subm.); l. 182'; b. 19'; dr. 12'; s. 13.6
k. (surf.), 8 k. (subm.); cpl. 34; a. 5 20" tt., 1 4.1";
cl. UB-88).
UB-88 was laid down in February 1917 at Hamburg, Germany,
by the Aktiengesellschaft Vulcan; launched on 11 December
1917; and placed in commission in the Imperial German Navy
on 26 January 1918, Oberleutnant zur See Johannes Ries in
command.
After shakedown in the North and Baltic Seas, UB-88 was
assigned to the I U-Flotille Flandern (1st Submarine
Flotilla, Flanders) at Zeebrugge on the Belgian coast. She
departed Kiel, Germany, on 4 June and headed via the
eastern route, around Denmark and through the Skaggerak,
south to Zeebrugge. During the voyage to her first duty
station, the submarine scored her first victory. Passing
down the east coast of England on the 10th, she encountered
a convoy of five freighters and six trawlers escorted by
two destroyers and a pair of aircraft. In a submerged
attack, she fired a single torpedo which struck and sank
the 1,555-ton Swedish steamer SS Dora. The convoy's escorts
conducted a brief depth charge attack, but UB-88 escaped
with negligible damage.Two days later, she arrived safely
in Zeebrugge and reported for duty with I U-Flotille
Flandern.
Between June and October, UB-88 conducted three war cruises
out of Zeebrugge. The first-along the east coast of
England-began when she put to sea on 20 June. On the third
day out, she encountered a southbound convoy between
Flamborough Head and Sunderland. She made a submerged
torpedo attack and succeeded in sinking another Swedish
steamer, the 1,624-ton SS Avance. The following day, the
U-boat ran into another south-bound convoy, numbering about
30 ships. One of those ships rammed her main periscope but
the submarine managed a successful submerged attack using
her secondary periscope and sank the 1,706-ton British ship
SS London. The convoy's escorts answered with nine depth
charges, but the submarine managed to evade their attacks.
During the pre-dawn hours of 25 June, she encountered and
sank another British steamer, the 4,482-ton SS African
Transport. The 25th was UB-88's lucky day for, that
evening, she ran onto a 20-ship convoy heading south. The
U-boat sank SS Moorlands and then survived a 16-charge
depth bombing by the convoy escorts.
Four days later, UB-88 scored another double in one day.
Just before sunrise she made a surface torpedo attack and
sank the small British steamer SS Sixth Six. Near dusk that
evening, she singled SS Florentia out of a north-bou nd
convoy and sank her in another surface torpedo attack. Two
days later, she concluded the cruise at Zeebrugge.
On 29 July, the submarine put to sea again to hunt Allied
merchant shipping in the English Channel. While operating
between Le Havre and the Isle of Wight, she encountered two
steamers escorted by a French destroyer and launched two
torpedoes. One hit the 6,045-ton British steamer SS
Bayronto while the other missed completely. Though damaged,
Bayronto made it into port because the French destroyer
prevented UB-88 from finishing off her victim by barraging
her with 45 depth charges. Two days later, off Brest, the
submarine met a large American convoy bound for France.
UB-88 attempted to maneuver into position for a submerged
torpedo attack, but the convoy changed course and foiled
her efforts. Shortly before the convoy entered port at
Brest, the four escorting cruisers parted company with it
and made for the open sea. In so doing, they presented a
target that the U-boat's commander could not pass up. She
fired a torpedo at one of the warships, but it missed its
mark. For her impertinence UB-88 suffered a staggering
depth-charge barrage of 15 to 20 minutes in duration. She
sustained severe concussion damage to her electrical
system, but prompt and efficient damage control enabled her
to remain in action and to continue the patrol.
The following day, she scored her third daily double.
Operating to the south of Brest, she came upon a
south-bound convoy escorted by armed trawlers and sporting
observation balloons. The U-boat drew a bead on SS Lake
Portage and fired a torpedo at the 1,998-ton American ship,
which sank soon thereafter. Later, she singled SS Berwind,
another American ship, out of a north-bound convoy and sank
her with a single torpedo. The following day, another
north-bound convoy crossed her path. In a submerged attack,
UB-88 torpedoed and sank a 1,901-ton Norwegian steamer, SS
Hundvaago. She rounded out that cruise with one last attack
on 9 August during the return voyage to Zeebrugge. The
submarine scored a torpedo hit on the 4,090-ton British
ship SS Anselma de Larringa near the mouth of the Seine
River. Although damaged, her victim succeeded in reaching a
friendly port. UB-88 continued her homeward voyage and
reentered Zeebrugge on 11 August.
After almost a month of preparations, the U-boat returned
to sea on 7 September for her final cruise as a unit of I
U-Flotille Flandern. Following a long voyage through the
North Sea, around the Orkney Islands, and down the west
coast of Ireland, she reached her operations area off the
northern part of France's west coast on 14 September. Two
days later, she claimed her first victim of the patrol when
she fired the torpedo which sank SS Philomel, a 3,050-ton
British steamer traveling south in convoy with about 19
other ships. Three days later, she fired two torpedoes at a
30-ship convoy. Apparently both missiles hit the same ship,
SS Fanny, a 1,484-ton Swedish steamer bound from England to
Bordeaux with a cargo of 1,930 tons of coal. The following
day, she began her long return voyage to Zeebrugge via the
same route-around the British Isles and through the North
Sea. En route home, shortly after midnight on 22 September,
she encountered her last target, SS Polesley. In a surfaced
attack, UB-88 scored a torpedo hit which sent the 4,221-ton
British steamer to the bottom just off the coast of
Cornwall. The submarine then resumed her course and entered
Zeebrugge on 29 September. She remained there only
overnight. The next day, she got underway to return to
Germany. On 3 October, she arrived in Heligoland and joined
her new unit II U-Flotille, Hochseeflotte (2d Submarine
Flotilla, High Seas Fleet). She remained inactive-first at
Heligoland and, then, at Wilhelmshaven-through the end of
World War I.
Soon after the 11 November armistice ended hostilities,
UB-88 surrendered along with the other warships of the High
Seas Fleet. They were interned-probably at Harwich,
England-on 26 November 1918. When the United States Navy
expressed an interest in acquiring several German
submarines to be used in conjunction with the current
Victory Bond drive and to enable American crews to learn
their supposed secrets, UB-88 and five other boats were
allocated to the United States with the agreement that they
would be destroyed upon the conclusion of the bond
campaign. Naval personnel were dispatched from the United
States early in 1919, and they took over the warship on 23
March 1919. Soon thereafter, UB-88 was placed in special
commission for the voyage across the Atlantic, Lt. Cmdr.
Joseph L. Nielson in command.
After a brief period allotted to the crew to make repairs
and familiarize themselves with the foreign submarine's
machinery, UB-88 stood out of Harwich on 3 April in company
with Bushnell (Submarine Tender No. 2) and three other
former German U-boats, U-117, UC-97, and UB-148. That task
unit, dubbed the Ex-German Submarine Expeditionary Force,
steamed via the Azores and Bermuda to New York, where it
arrived on 27 April. Not long after reaching New York,
UB-88 and the other four boats became the center stage
attraction for a horde of tourists, reporters, and
photographers, as well as for technicians from the Navy
Department, submarine builders, and equipment suppliers.
During her stay in New York, UB-88 received additional
refurbishment in preparation for her participation in the
bond drive.
Finally, orders arrived dispersing five of the six U-boats
to different sections of the American coasts and waterways
for visits to various ports along the way. UB-88 drew the
longest itinerary of the five U-boats. She was assigned to
the ports on the east coast south of Savannah, Ga.; ports
on the Gulf coast; the Mississippi River as far north as
Memphis, Tenn., and the west coast. She departed New York
on 5 May in company with her tender, the Coast Guard ship
Tuscarora. On the first part of the cruise, she visited
Savannah, Jacksonville, Miami, and Key West. At the time
she departed Key West, the submarine had to bid farewell to
Tuscarora, because boiler trouble forced the cutter to
remain there for repairs. Bittern (Minesweeper No. 36)
became her tender and escorted the U-boat through the
remainder of her voyage.
From Key West, UB-88 headed for Tampa, thence to Pensacola,
and on to Mobile and New Orleans. At the latter port, she
entered the Mississippi River. For the next month, she made
calls at ports large and small along the great river.
Though her schedule originally called for her to travel as
far north as St. Louis, Mo., she made it only as far as
Memphis before the rapidly falling water level forced her
to cut short her voyage on the Mississippi and head
downriver. UB-88 returned to New Orleans on 1 July and
entered drydock for repairs to her port tail shaft. The
submarine completed repairs on 22 July and departed New
Orleans to begin a cruise to ports along the Texas coast
and thence to the Canal Zone. A breakdown between Houston,
Tex., and Colon, Canal Zone, meant that Bittern had to tow
the submarine the final 200 miles into Colon. After
receiving repairs, provisions, and visitors, UB-88
transited the canal on 12 August. Following a two-day visit
to Balboa, she headed north along the Mexican coast to San
Diego and, after stops at Acapulco and Manzanillo in
Mexico, reached her destination on 29 August.
The last leg of her voyage took the submarine north to San
Pedro, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco in
California, Astoria and Portland in Oregon; and Seattle,
Tacoma, and Bremerton in Washington. On the return voyage,
she stopped at San Francisco only, departing that port on 6
November for the submarine base at San Pedro, where she
arrived the next day. After being laid up at San Pedro for
four months, UB-88 began the dismantling process on 1 April
1920. That operation was completed by 31 August, and UB-88
was placed out of commission on 1 November 1920. The
following year, the U-boat returned to sea for the last
time, and, on 3 January 1921, she took her final plunge
when Wickes (DD-75) sank her with gunfire.