SM U - 40 ( Austria - Hungary ) SM " U - 40 or U - XL " was a " U - 27 " class U - boat or submarine for the Austro - Hungarian Navy . " U - 40 " , built by the Austrian firm of Cantiere Navale Triestino ( CNT ) at the Pola Navy Yard , was launched in April 1917 and commissioned in August . She 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 . During her service career , " U - 40 " sank three ships and damaged two others , sending a combined tonnage of to the bottom . " U - 40 " was at Fiume at war ' s end and was surrendered at Venice in March 1919 . She was granted to Italy as a war reparation and broken up the following year . 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 Navy agreed to the proposal and purchased the plans from AG Weser of Bremen . " U - 40 " 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 - 40 " 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 - 40 " 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 . " U - 40 " was ordered from Cantiere Navale Triestino ( CNT ) after funds for her purchase were raised and donated to the Austro - Hungarian Navy by the " Östereichischen Flottenverein " . She was laid down on 8 August 1916 at the Pola Navy Yard , and launched on 21 April 1917 . Service career . " U - 40 " underwent diving trials on 3 July 1917 , reaching a depth of . One month later , on 4 August , the SM " U - 40 " was commissioned into the Austro - Hungarian Navy under the command of " Linienschiffsleutnant " Johann Krsnjavi . Previously in command of , Krsnjavi was a 30 - year - old native of Djakovo ( the present - day Đakovo in Croatia ) . " U - 40 " departed on her first patrol on 5 August , sailing through the Brioni islands . Two days out , the submarine came under attack by two aircraft . Bombs from the two planes damaged one of " U - 40 " s fuel tanks but the U - boat was able to continue to her Mediterranean patrol area . There , east of Malta , she unsuccessfully attacked a steamer on the 15th . Four days later — a little more than two weeks after the U - boat ' s commissioning — Krsnjavi and " U - 40 " achieved their first kills . " Gartness " , a British steamer of , was transporting manganese ore , lead , and arsenic from Ergasteria for Middlesbrough when torpedoed by " U - 40 " some southeast of Malta . The ship ' s master and twelve other crewmen were killed in the attack . Ten days later , after a rendezvous with sister boat in the Ionian Sea , " U - 40 " damaged the collier " Clifftower " in a torpedo attack . " Clifftower " , carrying a load of coal from Newcastle , suffered no casualties in the attack . After successfully passing through the Otranto Barrage on 31 August , " U - 40 " concluded her first patrol when she docked at Cattaro on 3 September . On 15 October , " U - 40 " set out from Cattaro on her next patrol . She spent two days , 16 to 18 October , patrolling off Durazzo . Departing there , she headed for her assigned patrol area off Port Said . On 20 October , two aircraft from Corfu forced Krsnjavi to make an emergency dive , but the U - boat escaped damage . On 25 October , " U - 40 " encountered a severe storm that damager one of her fuel tanks . Three days later , Krsnjavi ordered the boat back to port when the gyrocompass broke . The boat made Cattaro on 1 November and underwent repairs there over the next five weeks . Departing from Cattaro on her third patrol on 10 December , Krsnjavi steered the boat to her patrol area : cruising the Mediterranean between Alexandria and Malta . The first day of the new year brought " U - 40 " s next success . On 1 January 1918 , the " Sandon Hall " , a British steamer headed from Basra to London with a cargo of linseed oil and date s , was sent to the bottom north - northeast of Linosa . A torpedo attack two days later on another steamer produced no result . Having exhausted her supply of torpedoes , " U - 40 " headed back to port . On 6 January , the U - boat ' s deck gun was used to destroy a floating mine . The following day the boat was fired upon by three drifter s of the Otranto Barrage but safely returned to Cattaro on 8 January . After two month at Cattaro , Krsnjavi lead " U - 40 " out on her fourth patrol on 5 March . The U - boat came under attack on consecutive days while headed into the Mediterranean . On 9 March , two destroyer s forced her to crash dive , while the following day a pair of aircraft did the same . Nine days later , " U - 40 " torpedoed the Canadian steamer " Lord Ormonde " , but only damaged the 3 , 914 - ton ship . On 20 March , " U - 40 " sent the Greek cargo ship " Antonios M . Theophilatos " and her load of ammunition to the bottom . " U - 40 " launched an unsuccessful torpedo attack on a steamer in a convoy on 23 March . " U - 40 " ended her patrol on 2 April at Cattaro . Gibson and Prendergast report on the claim of the Italian torpedo boat that she had depth charge d and sunk " U - 40 " in the Adriatic on 26 April . As Gibson and Prendergast note , " U - 40 " did not sink that day , discrediting the report . " U - 40 " did depart from Cattaro for Pola at the end of May to undergo repairs for the next two months . " U - 40 " departed from Pola on 5 August , but developed a leak a few days out and put in at Cattaro on 10 August . The U - boat returned to Pola about two weeks later and remained there until October . While at Pola , command of " U - 40 " passed to " Linienschiffsleutnant " Wladimir Pfeifer on 19 September . The 27 - year - old native of Leskovec ( in present - day Slovenia ) , was previously in command of and had , like Krsnjavi , also served a stint as commander of " U - 11 " . On 19 October , " U - 40 " departed Pola and eventually arrived at Fiume , where she remained through the end of the war . The U - boat was taken to Venice on 23 March 1919 , where she was surrendered to the Italians as a war reparation . She was scrapped at Venice the following year . In her 15 - month service career , " U - 40 " sank three ships with a combined tonnage of 9 , 838 , and damaged two others . Ships sunk or damaged . < nowiki > * < / nowiki > damaged but not sunk