Built at Kiel as one of four submarines of the Ay class for Turkey, Batiray as she was to have been named, was not handed over to the Turkish Navy, being seized by Germany and commissioned into the Kriegsmarine in 1939.

[1] The design was a modification of the Type IX to fit Turkish requirements.

UA was commissioned on 20 September 1939 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Hans Cohausz.

She had been built as a minelayer by the Turks but the Germans used her like a Type IX U-boat.

During her service, she sank eight Allied ships, including the British 13,950 GRT armed merchant cruiser HMS Andania.