The German torpedo boat T21 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 ship returned to Germany in October and was assigned to the Torpedo School. T21 returned to active duty in May 1944 and supported German forces operating in the Baltic Sea. The boat began a major refit in December which had not been completed when the war ended in May 1945. She was allocated to the United States after the war, but was only used to dispose of gas munitions by scuttling her in deep water in 1946.
Design and description The Type 37 torpedo boat was a slightly improved version of the preceding Type 35 with better range.Whitley 1991, p. 50 The boats had an overall length of and were long at the waterline.Gröner, p. 193 The ships had a beam of , and a mean draft of at deep load. They displaced at standard load and at deep load. Their crew numbered 119 officers and sailors.Sieche, p. 238 Their pair of geared steam turbine sets, each driving one propeller shaft, were designed to produce using steam from four high-pressure water-tube boilers which was intended to give the boats a maximum speed of . They carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of at .Whitley 1991, p. 202
As built, the Type 37s mounted a single SK C/32 gun on the stern. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a single SK C/30 anti-aircraft gun superfiring over the 10.5 cm gun and a pair of C/30 guns on the bridge wings. They carried six above-water torpedo tubes in two triple mounts amidships and could also carry 30 mines (or 60 if the weather was good).Whitley 1991, pp. 50–51; Whitley 2000, p. 71
Modifications Early-war modifications were limited to the conversion of the foremast into a tripod mast, installation of a FuMO 28 radar with fixed antennas angled 45° to each side. Quadruple 2 cm gun mounts began slowly replacing the 3.7 cm gun beginning in May 1942 as the ships were refitted. Another quadruple 2 cm mount had been fitted on the searchlight platform amidships in T21 by 1944. 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 uncertain if this was actually carried out. Some ships did receive additional Bofors guns. They all received twin 2 cm gun mounts that replaced the single mounts in the bridge wings. Before the end of the war, all of the surviving boats probably had at least two 3.7 cm or 4 cm guns aboard.Whitley 2000, pp. 72–73
Construction and career T21 was ordered on 5 October 1938 from Schichau, laid down at their Elbing, East Prussia, shipyard on 27 March 1939Whitley 1991, p. 211 as yard number 1448, launched on 2 November 1940 and commissioned on 11 July 1942. On 1–3 October, the ship conducted exercises in the Baltic with the battleship , the light cruisers and , the destroyers , and , her sisters T13, , and the torpedo boats , and . On 7 March 1943, T21, , T20 and the torpedo boats and , joined the escorts for Scharnhorst on her voyage to the Arctic in the Skaggerak, although bad weather forced them to put into Bergen, Norway. T21 and T20 were then part of the escort force for the battleships and Scharnhorst and the heavy cruiser Lützow as they sailed from Narvik, Norway, to the Altafjord on 22–24 March.Rohwer, pp. 199, 236, 240; Whitley, pp. 164–165, 211
The ship returned to Germany in October and was assigned to the Torpedo School until April 1944 when she returned to active duty supporting German forces in the Baltic. T21 began a refit at the Oderwerke shipyard in Stettin in August that lasted until September. During 10–15 October, the 3rd Torpedo Boat Flotilla, with T21, T16, T20 and T13, screened Lützow and the heavy cruiser as they bombarded advancing Soviet troops near Memel, Lithuania. Screened by the 2nd and 3rd Torpedo Boat Flotillas with (, , , T13, T16, and T21), Prinz Eugen and the heavy cruiser shelled Soviet positions during the evacuation of Sworbe, on the Estonian island of Saaremaa, between 20 and 24 November. In December T21 began a major refit in Elbing, but the shipyard was threatened by advancing Soviet forces in February 1945 and she was towed to the Deschimag shipyard in Bremen on the 4th. The ship was decommissioned on 22 April. T21 was allocated to the United States when the Allies divided the surviving ships of the Kriegsmarine amongst themselves in late 1945. She was cannibalized for spare parts, loaded up with poison gas ammunition and scuttled in the Skaggerak on 10 June 1946.Rohwer, pp. 361, 363, 373–374; Whitley, pp. 168, 171, 173, 188, 194, 211
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