German torpedo boat T20

Sister ship T21 at sea, 2 July 1946, en route to be scuttled with her load of poison gas
History
Nazi Germany
Name: T20
Ordered: 5 October 1938
Builder: Schichau, Elbing, East Prussia
Yard number: 1447
Laid down: 28 November 1939
Launched: 12 September 1940
Completed: 5 June 1942
Fate: Scrapped, 1951
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type: Type 37 torpedo boat
Displacement:
Length: 85.2 m (279 ft 6 in) o/a
Beam: 8.82 m (28 ft 11 in)
Draft: 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in)
Installed power:
Propulsion:
Speed: 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Range: 1,600 nmi (3,000 km; 1,800 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Complement: 119
Armament:

The German torpedo boat T20 was one of nine Type 37 torpedo boats built for the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) during World War II. Completed in mid-1942, she was transferred to Norway in March 1943 for escort duties. The boat 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. The boat was then assigned escort duties in the Skaggerak around the beginning of 1945, which included covering minelaying missions. The boat 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.

Design and description

The Type 37 torpedo boat was a slightly improved version of the preceding Type 35 with better range.[1] The boats had an overall length of 85.2 meters (279 ft 6 in) and were 82 meters (269 ft 0 in) long at the waterline.[2] The ships had a beam of 8.87 meters (29 ft 1 in), and a mean draft of 2.8 meters (9 ft 2 in) at deep load and displaced 888 metric tons (874 long tons) at standard load and 1,139 metric tons (1,121 long tons) at deep load.[3] Their crew numbered 119 officers and sailors.[4] Their pair of geared steam turbine sets, each driving one propeller, were designed to produce 31,000 shaft horsepower (23,000 kW) using steam from four high-pressure water-tube boilers[2] which would propel the boats at 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph). They carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 1,600 nautical miles (3,000 km; 1,800 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).[3]

As built, the Type 37 class mounted a single 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK C/32 gun on the stern. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a single 3.7 cm (1.5 in) SK C/30 anti-aircraft gun superfiring over the 10.5 cm gun and a pair of 2 cm (0.8 in) C/30 guns on the bridge wings. They carried six above-water 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes in two triple mounts and could also carry 30 mines (or 60 if the weather was good).[5]

Modifications

Early-war modifications were limited to the conversion of the foremast into a tripod mast, installation of a FuM 28[Note 1] radar with fixed antennas angled 45° to each side and a 2 cm gun superfiring over the main gun. Boats participating in the Channel Dash in February 1942 were ordered to have their aft torpedo tube mount replaced by a quadruple 2 cm gun mount, but it is not certain if this was actually done. Confirmed deliveries of this mount began in May when they were installed in the superfiring position during refits on T13 and then on T14 in June. In September, installation of a single 3.7 cm gun was ordered, either the Flak M42 or the Flak M43, in lieu of the aft torpedo tubes, in all surviving boats, but it is also uncertain if this was done. By war's end, T20 was armed with two 3.7 cm guns, one quadruple 2 cm mount and two pairs of 2 cm twin-gun mounts, one pair in the bridge wings and the other on platforms abaft the funnel. She still retained all of her torpedo tubes and had received twenty-one 8.6-centimeter (3.4 in) RAG anti-aircraft rocket launchers.[6]

Construction and career

T20 was ordered on 5 October 1938 from Schichau, laid down at their Elbing, East Prussia, shipyard on 28 November 1939[7] as yard number 1447,[2] launched on 12 September 1940 and commissioned on 5 June 1942. On 1–3 October, the boat conducted exercises in the Baltic with the battleship Scharnhorst, the light cruisers Leipzig and Nürnberg, the destroyers Z25, Z31 and Z37, her sisters T16, T17, T21 and the torpedo boats T22, Falke and Kondor. On 7 March 1943, T20, T16, T21 and the torpedo boats Greif and Jaguar, joined the escorts for Scharnhorst in the Skaggerak, although bad weather forced them to put into Bergen, Norway. T20 and T21 were part of the escort force for the battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst and the heavy cruiser Lützow as they sailed from Narvik, Norway, to the Altafjord on 22–24 March.[8]

The boat returned to Germany in October and was assigned to the Torpedo School until March 1944 when she began a refit that lasted until August. Reassigned to the 3rd Torpedo Boat Flotilla, T20 and her sisters T13 and T18 sortied into the Archipelago Sea as a show of force on 12–13 September after the Prime Minister of Finland, Antti Hackzell, broke off diplomatic relations with Germany and ordered German forces to leave Finland on 2 September. On the return voyage, T18 was sunk by Soviet aircraft. On 23 September, T20, T13, T17 and T19 escorted the last evacuation convoy from Tallinn, Estonia, to Germany. During 10–12 and 13–15 October, the 3rd Torpedo Boat Flotilla, with T20, T13, T16 and T21, screened Lützow and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen as they bombarded advancing Soviet troops near Memel. Afterwards, the 3rd Flotilla was transferred to the Skagerrak for convoy escort duties. The boat helped to escort a minelaying mission in the North Sea on 13–14 January 1945. Together with T17 and T19, T20 escorted another minelaying mission there on 17–18 March. The torpedo boat was allocated to the British when the Allies divided the surviving ships of the Kriegsmarine amongst themselves in late 1945. The Royal Navy had no interest in her and she was transferred to France in February 1946 and was renamed Baccarat on 4 February. The boat was immediately placed in reserve until she was stricken on 8 October 1951 and subsequently scrapped.[9]

Notes

  1. ↑ German: Funkmess-Ortung (Radio-direction finder, active ranging)
  1. ↑ Whitley 1991, p. 50
  2. 1 2 3 Gröner, p. 193
  3. 1 2 Whitley 1991, p. 202
  4. ↑ Gardiner & Chesneau, p. 238
  5. ↑ Whitley 1991, pp. 50–51; Whitley 2000, p. 71
  6. ↑ Whitley 1991, p. 52; Whitley 2000, pp. 72–73
  7. ↑ Whitley 1991, p. 211
  8. ↑ Rohwer, pp. 199, 236, 240; Whitley, pp. 164–165, 211
  9. ↑ Rohwer, pp. 355, 359, 363, 373–374, 386, 394, 401; Whitley, pp. 168, 171, 173, 180, 188, 191, 199, 211

References

  • Gardiner, Robert & Chesneau, Roger, eds. (1980). Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships 1922–1946. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
  • Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Volume 1: Major Surface Warships. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-790-9.
  • Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939-1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
  • Whitley, M. J. (2000). Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. London: Cassell & Co. ISBN 1-85409-521-8.
  • Whitley, M. J. (1991). German Destroyers of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-302-8.
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