The Type 1939 torpedo boats, also known as the Elbing class by the Allies, were a group of 15 torpedo boats that were built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.
The first eight ships to be completed were sent to western France in pairs after they finished working up from late 1942 through the beginning of 1944. They were tasked to escort convoys, blockade runners and submarines through the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay. The ships also laid minefields. Not long after the first pair arrived, they sank a British cruiser and an escort destroyer without loss or damage to themselves in the Battle of Sept-Îles in October 1943. 2 months later, two ships were sunk by British cruisers in the Battle of the Bay of Biscay in December 1943. During the action of 26 April 1944 and subsequent operations, Allied forces intercepted three Type 39s of which two were lost, although they sank a Canadian destroyer in exchange. Of the two remaining ships based in France when the Allies invaded Normandy (Operation Neptune) on 6 June, one ship helped to sink a Norwegian destroyer before escaping to Germany and the other was sunk by fighter-bombers in August.
All of the remaining Type 39s were committed to the Baltic Sea from April 1944, where they escorted convoys, laid mines and provided naval gunfire support to Axis forces and operations. One ship was sunk by the Soviets while supporting Finnish operations in the Gulf of Finland in June, three were sunk in August when they accidentally entered an existing German minefield when they were attempting to lay a new one, and another sank after hitting a mine during gunnery training in November. The Type 39s began bombarding Soviet positions in October during the Soviet Moonsund Landing Operation as the Germans began evacuating the islands off the west coast of Estonia, and they continued to do so for the rest of the war, often in conjunction with cruisers. In May, with the collapse of Germany imminent, their role changed to evacuating people from areas that were threatened by the advancing Soviets, and they helped to rescue hundreds of thousands before the German surrender. One ship was lost to Soviet aircraft during this time.
Four Type 39s survived the war and were seized by the Allies as war reparations. The United States Navy briefly evaluated one before turning it over to the French in 1947 as spares for their pair that the French Navy kept in service until 1954–1955. The Soviet Union used their ship until about the same time before scrapping it in 1956.
Background and design Grand Admiral () Erich Raeder, commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine, was unhappy with the proposed Type 1938B-class destroyer in early 1939 and ordered that a smaller , , all-purpose torpedo boat design be evaluated on 8 July. The beginning of World War II in September 1939 caused the Kriegsmarine to re-evaluate its shipbuilding program, and it cancelled the Type 1938Bs in favor of more s. The smaller design emerged as the Type 39 torpedo boat that was a radical change from the preceding, and much smaller, torpedo boats like the Type 35 and Type 37 classes that were specialized for torpedo attack and had limited utility outside that role. The Type 39s used the same troublesome high-pressure boilers as the earlier designs, but their propulsion machinery was arranged into separate units so that one hit could not completely immobilize the ship.Whitley 1991, pp. 34–35, 52–54
The ships had an overall length of and were long at the waterline.Gröner, p. 195 They had a beam of , and a mean draft of at deep load. The Type 39s displaced at standard load and at deep load. Their hull was divided into 13 watertight compartments and it was fitted with a double bottom that covered 67–69% of their length. The Type 39s were considered excellent seaboats and were very maneuverable. Their crew numbered 206 officers and sailors.Sieche, p. 238
The Type 39 ships had two sets of Wagner geared steam turbines, each driving a single three-bladed propeller, using steam provided by four Wagner water-tube boilers that operated at a pressure of and a temperature of . The turbines were designed to produce for a speed of . The ships carried a maximum of of fuel oil, which gave a range of at .Whitley 1991, p. 203 In service the steam consumption of the engine-room auxiliary machinery proved to be excessive, and the boilers could not generate enough steam to drive the turbines at their designed capacity. This reduced the Type 39s' top speed to and their range to at 19 knots.Whitley 2000, pp. 73–74
Armament and sensors The main armament of the Type 39 class consisted four 42-caliber SK C/32 guns in single mounts; one forward of the superstructure, one between the funnels, and two aft, one superfiring over the other.Whitley 2000, p. 74 Its mount had a range of elevation from −10° to +70° and the gun fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of . It had a range of at an elevation of +44.4°.Campbell, p. 246
Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a pair of twin 80-caliber SK C/30 anti-aircraft (AA) gun mounts positioned on a platform abaft the rear funnel. The power-operated mount had a maximum elevation of 85° which gave the gun a ceiling of less than ; horizontal range was at an elevation of 35.7°. The single-shot SK C/30 fired projectiles at a muzzle velocity of at a rate of 30 rounds per minute.Campbell, p. 256 The ships were also fitted with six C/38 guns in one quadruple mount on the aft superstructure and a pair of single mounts on the bridge wings. The gun had an effective rate of fire of about 120 rounds per minute. Its projectiles were fired at a muzzle velocity of which gave it a ceiling of and a maximum horizontal range of .Campbell, p. 258 Each ship carried 2,000 rounds per gun.
The Type 39s were also equipped with six above-water torpedo tubes in two triple mounts amidships and could also carry 30 mines; the full complement of 60 mines made the ships top-heavy which could be dangerous in bad weather. They used the G7a torpedo which had a warhead and three speed/range settings: at ; at and at .Campbell, p. 263 For anti-submarine work the ships were fitted with a sonar and four depth charge launchers. The Type 39s were equipped with a FuMO 21 search radar.Friedman, p. 205; Whitley 1991, pp. 52–55; Whitley 2000, p. 73
Modifications
The bridge wing 2 cm mounts were replaced by twin mounts in 1943–1944. In January–February 1944, T22, T23, T24 and T27 had their bridge wing guns replaced by quadruple mounts, FuMB7 "Naxos" and FuMB8 "Wanz G" radar detectors fitted and a rangefinder installed on the searchlight platform amidships. Other boats received a FuMO 63 K Hohentwiel radar on the searchlight platform and all of them were fitted with a variety of radar detectors late in the war. The 1944–1945 anti-aircraft suite for these ships is not known in detail. Either T23 or T28 received single 3.7 cm, either the Flak M42 or the Flak M43, or Bofors guns in lieu of the bridge wing guns and the twin 3.7 cm SK C/30 guns. T33 and T36 may also have had two twin-gun 2 cm mounts forward of the bridge.Friedman, p. 205; Whitley 1991, pp. 52–55; Whitley 2000, pp. 73–74
Construction Before the war the Kriegsmarine planned to build 39 Type 39s, T22–T60, in an ambitious building schedule such that T52 was expected to be completed on 1 April 1942. The beginning of World War II in September 1939 disrupted its plans and T31–T60 were dropped from the program, although T31–T36 were later reinstated. The ships were ordered in two batches from Schichau, T22–T30 on 10 November 1939 (originally as Type 37 torpedo boats), followed by T31–T36 on 20 January 1941. All were built at the company's shipyard in Elbing, East Prussia, (now Elbląg, Poland) hence the Allied name for the class. Construction was delayed by shortages of labor and materials.Whitley 1991, pp. 54, 211–212
Ships + Construction data Number Laid downWhitley 1991, pp. 211–212 Launched Completed Fate 1 July 194020 July 194128 February 1942Sunk by mine, 18 August 1944 1 August 1940 14 June 194114 June 1942Served in the French Navy as L'Alsacien; condemned, 1955 21 September 1940 13 September 194117 October 1942Sunk by aircraft, 24 August 1944 30 November 1940 1 December 194112 November 1942Sunk by torpedo, 28 December 1943 10 May 1941 26 March 194228 February 1943 2 July 194120 June 194217 April 1943Ran aground, 28/29 April 1944, subsequently destroyed, 6 May 24 September 1941 8 October 194219 June 1943Served in the French Navy as Le Lorrain; condemned, 1954 12 December 194116 January 194321 August 1943Sunk by gunfire, 26 April 1944 10 April 1942 13 March 194324 October 1943Sunk by mine, 18 August 1944 29 June 194222 May 19435 February 1944Sunk by torpedo, 20 June 1944 27 October 1942 17 April 19438 May 1944Sunk by mine, 18 August 1944 20 January 19434 September 194316 June 1944Served in the Soviet Navy as Primerny; scrapped 1957 5 March 1943 23 October 194312 August 1944Sunk by mine, 20 November 1944 20 April 1943 12 December 19437 October 1944Served in the United States Navy as DD-935; transferred to France, 1947; condemned, 3 October 1952 10 June 1943 5 February 19449 December 1944Sunk by aircraft, 5 May 1945
Service history The first two ships completed, T22 and T23, were the first to be deployed to France when they arrived there in October–November 1942. Together with other torpedo boats, they escorted Italian blockade runners in their attempts to break out into the Atlantic through the Bay of Biscay in November and again in April 1943. The following month they were deployed to the English Channel where they laid minefields in May and June. The sisters returned to the bay in July, reinforced by the arrival of T24 and T25, and they were all grouped together in the 4th Torpedo Boat Flotilla. They were tasked to escort submarines, convoys and blockade runners through the bay for the next several months, interspersed with the occasional minelaying mission.Rohwer, pp. 215, 241, 249, 254, 279; Whitley 1991, pp. 144–146, 211–212
T26 and T27 arrived in September and were also assigned to the 4th Flotilla. On 22/23 October the flotilla was providing distant cover for the blockade runner Münsterland as she sailed up the Channel when they discovered a British force attempting to intercept her off the coast of Brittany. The torpedo boats maneuvered to attack them and they fired all of their torpedoes before the British could spot them visually. Aware that they were out-gunned, the flotilla commander successfully disengaged before the British could recover from the successful attack. Two torpedoes sank the light cruiser and another blew off the bow of the escort destroyer , which later had to be scuttled.Rohwer, p. 282; Whitley, pp. 147–148
Battle of the Bay of Biscay