HMS H6 was a British H-class submarine of the Royal Navy built by Canadian Vickers & Co. during World War I.

History

She was completed on 10 June 1915 and was commissioned by the Royal Navy the same year. However, her service in the Royal Navy was short. On 19 January 1916, she ran aground near the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog, after which she was interned by the Royal Netherlands Navy. On 4 May 1917, an agreement was reached to sell H6 to the Netherlands.

HMS H6

Dutch service

The Royal Netherlands Navy renamed H6 to HNLMS O 8 and refitted her, with knowledge gained from the interned German submarine . After UC-8 was bought from Germany O 8 was equipped with UC-8s Zeiss periscope. During maintenance in October 1921, O 8 partly sank in the harbour at Den Helder. Because only minor damage was sustained, she was repaired and continued in service. In the summer of 1925, O 8 together with the other Dutch vessels , , , and were part of an exercise in the Baltic Sea.

HMS H6

During the German attack on the Netherlands at the start of the Second World War, O 8 was still in Dutch service. At the time she was undergoing maintenance and as a result could not escape during the invasion. Instead it was decided to scuttle her.

HMS H6

German service

After the surrender of the Netherlands, the German forces were able raise O 8 and found her almost fully intact.

Germany took O 8 into service as UD-1 and transferred her from Den Helder to Kiel. In Kiel, she was used as training ship to train crews for the German U-boats. Because of her age, she was decommissioned on 23 November 1943. On 3 May 1945, she was scuttled again in the harbour at Kiel.

References

Bibliography

External links

'Submarine losses 1904 to present day' - Royal Navy Submarine Museum

British H-class submarines

Ships built in Montreal

1915 ships

World War I submarines of the United Kingdom

Maritime incidents in 1916

Royal Navy ship names

Submarines of the Royal Netherlands Navy

World War II submarines of the Netherlands

Submarines of the Kriegsmarine

U-boats scuttled in 1945

World War II submarines of Germany

World War II shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea

Naval ships of the Netherlands captured by Germany during World War II

Maritime incidents in May 1940

Maritime incidents in May 1945