The First World War

[squigg58]

Originally Posted by tygrkhat40

IMO, no it doesn't. A sinking is due to external forces; an attack, hitting an obstacle, weather conditions, etc. A scuttling is due to internal forces.

Yeah ... that was my line of thought! After all, the reports I've read said that the Foucault was submerged when attacked and was forced to the surface. That sounds like the opposite of a sinking to me!

The problem with so many "firsts" is that it often comes down to semantics. HMS B10 was sunk, but not on the open sea, and she was subsequently raised. It was only as a result of a balls-up with a naked flame and a fuel tank that resulted in her being scrapped rather than returned to service. For me "sunk" tends to suggest "lost". If you take it to the extreme, would you describe a ship as being "sunk" if she had two feet of water beneath her keel and settled on the bottom, only to be refloated the following day?

The bottom line is that I still don't know if any submarines were "sunk" by aircraft in WWI, so if anyone knows of any other incidents (B10, Foucault, UB-36, UC-36 and UB-32 having been mentioned), I'd be most grateful!

I'm now going to try to find the first submarine sunk during WWII ... but that's for another thread!