Development and design
For their growing number of small craft, the Reichsmarine and later the Kriegsmarine needed appropriately equipped escort ships for each flotilla, which served the boat crews as accommodation and the boats as fuel, torpedo, mine, ammunition, fresh water and food depot. Initially, from 1927 onwards, the old Nordsee tender was converted accordingly and replaced by the newly built Tsingtau in 1934. In January 1939, the Tanga was added as a second ship. In 1938 the Navy ordered two more, but considerably larger and faster S-boat escort ships, the Carl Peters and her sister ship Adolf Lüderitz.
The ship was 114 meters long (103.6 m in the waterline) and 14.5 m wide, had a draft of 4.34 m and displaced 2900 tons (standard) and 3600 tons (maximum). Two double-acting MAN four-stroke diesel engines with Vulcan gearbox gave it 12,400 hp and a top speed of 23 knots. The range of action was 12,000 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 15 kn. The ship was armed with four 10.5 cm guns, one 4 cm Bofors flak, six 3.7 cm flak and eight 2 cm flak. The crew numbered 225 men. [1]
Construction and career
The Carl Peters was ordered in 1938 at A.G. Neptune and was laid down in Rostock, was launched on 13 April 1939, and was commissioned on 6 January 1940 under the command of Lieutenant Hinzke, the ship was assigned to the 1st Schnellboot Flotilla, in which the Tsingtau had previously served in this function. As early as April, it took part in the Weser Exercise operation with five boats from the flotilla, where it was involved in the occupation of the Norwegian port city of Bergen as part of Warship Group 3 (Kriegsschiffgruppe 3). On the morning of April 9, Carl Peters was initially hit by a torpedo from the old Norwegian torpedo boat Storm, which did not explode and therefore caused only minor damage. [2] Soon afterwards the unit came under fire from the coastal batteries at Kvarven in the Byfjord. The Carl Peters was hit in the mast, which did not cause any great damage to the ship, but killed and wounded several of the embarked army soldiers through splinters. The light cruiser Königsberg and the artillery training ship Bremse also received hits; Both of them could not return without repairs, and the next day the Königsberg was sunk by British dive bombers in the port of Bergen.
After the occupation of Bergen, the Carl Peters and her flotilla initially stayed in Norway, where the S-boats patrolled the fjords and along the coast. Then the flotilla was transferred to the North Sea and the English Channel. In May 1941, in preparation for the attack on the Soviet Union, it went to the Baltic Sea. In the spring of 1942 the 1st Schnellboot Flotilla was transferred to the Black Sea, and Carl Peters, now under the command of Kapitänleutnant Reuthal, was assigned to the 6th and then the 8th Schnellboot Flotilla.
On 1 September 1943, she joined the speedboat school flotilla.
When the Schnellboot-Lehrdivision was set up in April 1944, Carl Peters came as a support ship to the new 3rd Schnellboot-Schulflotille.
On 10 May 1945, two days after the German surrender, Carl Peters ran into a mine in the Geltinger Bay near Flensburg and sank.
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The Königsberg class, sometimes referred to as the K class, was a class of light cruisers of the German Reichsmarine and Kriegsmarine. The class comprised three ships named after German cities: Königsberg, Karlsruhe, and Köln, all built between 1926 and 1930. These ships were the first of the Reichsmarine with a modern cruiser design; their predecessor, Emden, was based on World War I-era designs. They were armed with a main battery of nine 15 cm (5.9 in) guns and with twelve 50 cm (20 in) torpedo tubes.
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Luchs was the fourth of six Type 24 torpedo boats built for the German Navy during the 1920s. The boat made multiple non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. During World War II, she played a minor role in the Battle of Kristiansand during the Norwegian Campaign of 1940. Luchs was sunk in Norwegian waters in July by either a British submarine or a floating mine.
Leopard was the fifth of six Type 24 torpedo boats built for the German Navy during the 1920s. The boat made multiple non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. During World War II, she played a minor role in the occupation of Bergen during the Norwegian Campaign of April 1940. Leopard was sunk at the end of the month when she was accidentally rammed by a minelayer that she was escorting.
The German torpedo boat T1 was the lead ship of her class of a dozen torpedo boats built for the Kriegsmarine during the late 1930s. Completed in late 1939, she was assigned to escort minelayers as they laid their minefields in the English Channel in September 1940. The boat participated in an abortive attempt to attack several convoys off the Scottish coast two months later. T1 was placed in reserve in April 1941 and was reactivated in June 1942 for duty with the Torpedo School. In April 1944 the boat returned to active duty and was assigned to the Baltic Sea area. She escorted a bombardment mission in January 1945 and was sunk during an air raid on 9 April.
The German torpedo boat T6 was one of a dozen Type 35 torpedo boats built for the Kriegsmarine during the late 1930s. Completed in 1940, she initially escorted ships through the Skaggerak before she was assigned to escort minelayers as they laid their minefields in the North Sea and English Channel in July. T6 started laying her own minefields two months later and was flagship of the 2nd Torpedo Boat Flotilla when she struck a mine and sank when attempting to attack several convoys off the Scottish coast in November.
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The German torpedo boat T17 was one of nine Type 37 torpedo boats built for the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Completed in mid-1941, the ship arrived in France in December. She helped to escort a pair of battleships and a heavy cruiser through the English Channel back to Germany in February 1942 in the Channel Dash and then was ordered to Norway for escort work. The ship returned to Germany in March for a refit before redeploying back to France. T17 began another refit in Germany in early 1943 and was then assigned as a training ship for U-boat flotillas.
The German torpedo boat T20 was one of nine Type 37 torpedo boats built for the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Completed in mid-1942, she was transferred to Norway in March 1943 for escort duties. The ship returned to Germany in October and was assigned to the Torpedo School. T20 returned to active duty a year later and supported German forces operating in the Baltic Sea. She was then assigned escort duties in the Skagerrak around the beginning of 1945, which included covering minelaying missions. The ship was allocated to the British after the war, but she was transferred to France in 1946. Unused by the French Navy, she was stricken from the Navy List in 1951 and subsequently scrapped.
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The Adolf Lüderitz was a fleet tender of the Kriegsmarine, sometimes also known as an aviso. She was named after the Bremen businessman Adolf Lüderitz (1834–1886), whose land acquisition in 1883 in what is now Namibia led to the establishment of the German protected area German South West Africa the following year.
Tanga was a fleet tender serving the Kriegsmarine. The second ship of this type in the navy, which served as accommodation for the crews of the Schnellboote and as a fuel, ammunition, fresh water and food depot for them.
Nazi Germany