WWI U-boats

UB 31

Type UB II
ShipyardBlohm & Voss, Hamburg (Werk 255)
Ordered 22 Jul 1915
Launched 16 Nov 1915
Commissioned 24 Mar 1916
Commanders
18 Mar 1916 - 11 Aug 1916 Oblt. Karl Vesper (Royal House Order of Hohenzollern)
12 Aug 1916 - 31 Jan 1918 Oblt. Thomas Bieber (Royal House Order of Hohenzollern)
1 Feb 1918 - 2 May 1918 Oblt. (R) Wilhelm Braun
Career 25 patrols
16 May 1916 - 24 Feb 1917 Baltic Flotilla
24 Feb 1917 - 2 May 1918 Flandern Flotilla
Successes27 ships sunk with a total of 73,810 tons.
8 ships damaged with a total of 34,699 tons. (View ships hit by UB 31)
Fate 2 May 1918 - Lost on a mine in the Strait of Dover at 51°02’N, 01°10’E. 26 dead (all hands lost).

The wreck of UB 31 clearly establishes that she was mined. The boat's exact date of loss is not known, but would have been between about April 26 and May 3, 1918.

The U-boat's destruction has traditionally been linked to an attack by Lord Leitham, Ocean Roamer, and other patrol vessels on May 2, 1918. This attack though was against the already dead UB 78, which had sank on a mine two weeks earlier

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