Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Georg von Trapp
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===World War I=== On 17 April 1915, Trapp took command of {{ship|SM|U-5|Austria-Hungary|6}}. He conducted nine combat patrols in ''U-5'', and sank two enemy warships. One was the French armored cruiser {{ship|French cruiser|Léon Gambetta||2}}, sunk at {{Coord|39|30|N|18|15|E}} on 27 April 1915, {{convert|25|km|nmi mi|abbr=off}} south of Cape Santa Maria di Leuca. In hunting and sinking ''Gambetta'', Trapp achieved a notable success as commander of the first-ever underwater nighttime (and only the second) submarine attack on a vessel in the Adriatic.<ref name="foundation_naval"/> Just over three months later, he sank the Italian submarine {{ship|Italian submarine|Nereide|1913|2}} at {{Coord|42|23|N|16|16|E}} on 5 August 1915, {{convert|250|m|yd}} off [[Palagruža|Pelagosa (Palagruža) Island]].<ref>von Trapp, p. 41.</ref> He also captured the Greek steamer ''Cefalonia'' off [[Durrës|Durazzo]] on 29 August 1915. Some sources incorrectly credit Trapp with sinking the Italian troop transport and [[armed merchant cruiser]] {{SS|Principe Umberto||2}},<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cummins |first1=C. Lyle |title=Diesels for the first stealth weapon : submarine power 1902-1945 |date=2007 |publisher=Carnot Press |location=Wilsonville, Oregon |isbn=9780917308062 |page=105 |quote=George Ritter von Trapp, of von Trapp Family Singers fame ... was also skipper when she torpedoed ... the loaded Italian troop transport ''Principe Umberto'' ...}}</ref> which resulted in the greatest loss of life in any submarine attack in World War I, but the ship was actually sunk by ''U-5'', commanded by Friedrich Schlosser.<ref>{{cite web |title=Linenschiffleutnant Friedrich Schlosser |url=https://www.uboat.net/wwi/men/commanders/533.html |website=uboat.net}}</ref> Trapp was transferred to the {{ship|SM|U-14|Austria-Hungary|6}}, the former [[Curie (Q 87)|French submarine ''Curie'']], which had been sunk and salvaged by the Austro-Hungarian Navy.<ref>{{harvnb|von Trapp|2007|p=67}}</ref> He conducted ten more war patrols in the much larger submarine, attacking merchant ships instead of warships. Between April 1917 and October 1917, ''U-14'' sank 11 Allied merchant ships under Trapp's command. In May 1918, he was promoted to [[Corvette captain|''Korvettenkapitän'']] (equal to [[lieutenant commander]]) and given command of the submarine base at [[Kotor|Cattaro]] in the [[Gulf of Kotor]]. However, Austria-Hungary's defeat in World War I led to the empire's collapse. The territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was divided among seven countries, with the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes]] keeping most of the seacoast. The [[Republic of German-Austria]] was landlocked and no longer had a navy, putting an end to Trapp's naval career.<ref name=salute/>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)