SM U - 32 ( Austria - Hungary ) SM " U - 32 or U - XXXII " was a " U - 27 " class U - boat or submarine for the Austro - Hungarian Navy . " U - 32 " , built by the Hungarian firm of Ganz Danubius at Fiume , was launched in May 1917 and commissioned in June . " U - 32 " had a single hull and was just over in length . She displaced nearly when surfaced and over when submerged . Her two diesel engines moved her at up to on the surface , while her twin electric motors propelled her at up to while underwater . She was armed with two bow torpedo tube s and could carry a load of up to four torpedoes . She was also equipped with a deck gun and a machine gun . In her service career " U - 32 " hit five ships of , sinking four and damaging one . At Pola at war ' s end , the boat was handed over to Italy and scrapped in 1920 . Design and construction . Austria - Hungary ' s U - boat fleet was largely obsolete at the outbreak of World War I . The Austro - Hungarian Navy satisfied its most urgent needs by purchasing five Type UB I submarines that comprised the from Germany , by raising and recommissioning the sunken French submarine " Curie " as , and by building four submarines of the that were based on the 1911 Danish " Havmanden " class . After these steps alleviated their most urgent needs , the Austro - Hungarian Navy selected the German Type UB II design for its newest submarines in mid 1915 . The Germans were reluctant to allocate any of their wartime resources to Austro - Hungarian construction , but were willing to sell plans for up to six of the UB II boats to be constructed under license in Austria - Hungary . The Austro - Hungarian Navy agreed to the proposal and purchased the plans from AG Weser of Bremen . " U - 32 " displaced surfaced and submerged . She had a single hull with saddle tank s , and was long with a beam of and a draft of . For propulsion , she had two shafts , twin diesel engines of for surface running , and twin electric motors of for submerged travel . She was capable of while surfaced and while submerged . Although there is no specific notation of a range for " U - 32 " in " Conway ' s All the World ' s Fighting Ships , 1906 – 1921 " , the German UB II boats , upon which the " U - 27 " class was based , had a range of over at surfaced , and at submerged . " U - 27 " - class boats were designed for a crew of 23 – 24 . " U - 32 " was armed with two bow torpedo tube s and could carry a complement of four torpedoes . She was also equipped with a 75 mm / 26 ( 3 . 0 in ) deck gun and an machine gun . After intricate political negotiations to allocate production of the class between Austrian and Hungarian firms , " U - 27 " was ordered from Ganz Danubius on 12 October 1915 . She was laid down on 18 July 1916 at Fiume and launched on 11 May 1917 . Service career . After launching , the U - boat made her way to Pola , where , on 29 April 1917 , SM " U - 32 " was commissioned into the Austro - Hungarian Navy under the command of " Linenschiffleutnant " Gaston Vio . Vio , a 30 - year - old native of Fiume , was a first - time submarine commander . Vio and " U - 32 " began their first patrol on 3 July when they sailed from Pola for a Mediterranean deployment . East of Manfredonia two days later , an enemy submarine launched a spread of three torpedoes at " U - 32 " but the Austro - Hungarian submarine avoided them all . Two days later , " U - 32 " had an at - sea rendezvous with the German U - boat . The following day , Vio failed to hit a steamer in the Gulf of Taranto . On 15 July , " U - 32 " launched torpedoes against the British steamer " Incemore " . Hit east - southeast of Malta , the 3 , 060 - ton ship was en route from Marseilles to Salonika when she was attacked . " Incemore " was damaged but continued on her way ; no one aboard the steamer was killed in the attack . The U - boat docked in Cattaro to end her first patrol four days later . The next Mediterranean patrol for " U - 32 " began on 14 August . Sister boat met up with her at sea on 29 August . Two days later , " U - 32 " stopped a Greek sailing vessel , " Agios Georgios " and examined her , but let her go on her way . Vio put in his boat at Cattaro on 4 September , ending the boat ' s second patrol . On 12 October , " U - 32 " departed Cattaro for Durazzo , arriving the next day . On the 18th , the submarine departed there for Brindisi , screening for a sortie by the Austro - Hungarian cruiser and a destroyer group . When " U - 32 " reached Brindisi the following day , she was greeted by Italian torpedo boat s which dropped five depth charge s over her . After putting in at Cattaro on the 19th , she quickly departed for Pola to repair damage to her conning tower . After two months of repairs at Pola , " U - 32 " set out on 27 December but had to return with engine problems . She departed for the Mediterranean the following day and cruised between Alexandria and Malta , but returned to Cattaro in late January 1918 without success . Another patrol beginning in late February was similarly fruitless and " U - 32 " returned to Cattaro empty - handed again on 26 March . While at Cattaro , Vio was relieved of command on 24 April and replaced by " Linenschiffleutnant " Otto Kasseroller , who had formerly been in command of . Kasseroller was a 31 - year - old Salzburg native . On 8 May , " U - 32 " began her first cruise with Kasseroller at the helm . Five days out , the Greek sailing ship " Julia " was stopped near Cape Matapan . After allowing " Julia " s crew to board a lifeboat , Kasseroller sank " Julia " with fire from the U - boat ' s deck gun . After the 48 - ton ship was sunk , " U - 32 " towed the lifeboat close to the shore . As a result , none of the Greek ship ' s crew died in the attack . A week later , on 20 May , " U - 32 " sank two more Greek sailing ships : the 58 - ton " Agios Dionysios " , and the 30 - ton " Angeliki " . The following day Kasseroller torpedoed a British steamer . " Chatham " , of , was headed from Karachi to Marseilles with grain and onions when " U - 32 " sent her down from Cape Matapan . Continuing her most successful patrol , " U - 32 " met with the German off the coast of Africa on 3 June , but returned to Cattaro on the 6th . During the remainder of June and into July , " U - 32 " patrolled in the Adriatic out of Cattaro , calling at the Albanian ports of Durazzo and San Giovanni di Medua . Continuing this same duty into August , " U - 32 " was forced to crash dive to avoid an attack by another submarine on 19 August . Five days later an airplane attacked the U - boat , dropping a total of five bombs . After the attack , " U - 32 " made her way to Cattaro and , in early September , headed back to Pola . After making a stop at Fiume , the submarine docked at Pola on 13 September and remained there through the end of the war . She was ceded to Italy as a war reparation , and scrapped in 1920 . In total , " U - 32 " sank four ships and damaged one other ship , hitting a combined total of . Ships sunk or damaged . < nowiki > * < / nowiki > damaged but not sunk