Commissioned in Feb. 1916 the German submarine SMS UB-29 was a menace to allied shipping from the start. Her first victim, the French cargo ship Nominoe, was sent to the bottom on Mar. 19, 1916, thirty-two others would follow her between March and December 1916. Oberleutnant zur See Herbert Pustkuchen accounted for all but three of these, he went on to SMS UC-66 and sink another twenty-eight ships. He died in June of 1916 when UC-66 failed to return.

The new commander of UB-29 was Oberleutnant zur See Erich Platsch, who took command on Nov. 3, 1916. He made one war patrol sinking a couple of very small vessels, capturing two small Dutch vessels and sinking the 4,200 ton Norwegian cargo ship Meteor, this on Dec. 7, 1916. On Dec. 13, 1916 UB-29 became the first German submarine to be sunk with the new modern type of depth charge courtesy of HMS Landrail. Just after midnight the submarine was spotted in a crash dive directly ahead of the Landrail. Ready for action the crew of Landrail crossed over the site where the U-boat had gone under and dropped two of the new depth charges, soon debris and oil came to the surface, the UB-29 destroyed with her entire twenty-two man crew.