A-boat

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The A-boat (also called coastal torpedo boat ) of classes AI to A III was a type of German torpedo boat specially designed for use off Flanders during the First World War . The A-boat should also be able to be used as a fast minesweeper and escort vehicle, although it was too slim for this and too weak in terms of armament. At only 20 to 25 knots , as a torpedo boat, it hardly had any opportunity to take offensive action. Actually, these boats were designed for the coastal apron and can be seen as the ancestors of today's speedboats . In the first series, 25 boats were built from 1916, in the second and third series until 1918 a further 66 boats were built. Due to the significantly shorter construction time compared to the large torpedo boats, a total of 113 boats were ordered by 1918, 91 of which were delivered and put into service.

AI boat (official draft 1914)

The torpedo boat A 12 as the Belgian A2 Prince Charles after 1918
Technical data of the AI ​​boats A 1 to A 25
Length : 41.0 m
Width : 4.60-5.00 m
Draft : 1.50 m
Displacement : 110/137 t
Drive : two coal-fired water tube boilers and a standing three cylinder
triple expansion piston engine with 1200 PSi
Maximum speed : 19–20 kn
Armament : 1 × 5.0 cm torpedo boat cannon L / 40 or 1 × 5.2 cm SK L / 55 , 2 torpedo tubes 45 cm
Crew : 28 men

These boats represented a new edition of the small torpedo boats of the series S 32 to S 41 from 1886. Fifteen of these boats, including the A 20 , were dismantled, transported by rail to occupied Belgium and assembled there. The remaining ten boats were used for mine detection and coastal protection purposes. The boats of the AI ​​series ( A 1 to A 25 ) came into service between January 29 and October 15, 1915. Mainly because of the speed deficit, the boats were not used as torpedo carriers and the torpedo tubes were removed. Afterwards the boats were only used for security, mine detection and tender tasks. At the end of the war, the A 20 was interned in the Netherlands together with twelve other boats , fell back to Germany in 1940 and was only broken up as US war booty in Wilhelmshaven in 1948.

A-II boat (official draft 1915)

Since the class AI boats turned out to be a faulty construction for the tasks at hand, no further units were built. Instead, it was decided to use an improved design based on the Sirio-class boats built by Schichau (Elbing) in 1905 for the Italian Navy ; the A-II boats were built as an official design in 1915:

The torpedo boat A 47 as a Belgian A 47 after 1918
Technical data of the A-II boats A 26 to A 55
Length : 49.0 m
Width : 5.62–5.32 m
Draft : 2.34 m
Displacement : 252 t
Drive : an oil-fired water tube boiler and a Schichau geared turbine with 3250 PSw on one shaft
Maximum speed : 25.8 kn
Armament : 2 × 8.8 cm TK L / 30, 1 torpedo tube 45 cm
Crew : 29 men

They were built under the numbers A 26 to A 49 at the Schichau shipyard in Elbing . After that, ordered A 50 to A 55 also from Schichau in Elbing. The ships, which were twice as large as the AI ​​boats, were also able to act better due to their higher speed and greater seaworthiness.

A-III boat (official draft 1916)

In the course of the war it turned out that the boats of the A-II class were not yet fully satisfied. The design office of the navy then designed a larger two-screw boat using the Torpedo boat Tumleren built in 1910 by the Schichau shipyard for the Danish Navy . In contrast to the AI ​​and A-II boats, these vehicles showed excellent sea characteristics.

The torpedo boat A 68 around 1918
Technical data of the A-III boats from A 56
Length : 60.0–61.10 m
Width : 6.30–6.40 m
Draft : 2.34 m
Displacement : 381–392 t
Drive : two oil-fired water tube boilers and two Schichau geared turbines or two direct-acting AEG Vulcan turbines with 5800 to 6000 HPw on two shafts
Maximum speed : 26.7–28.2 kn
Armament : 2 × 8.8 cm Utof L / 30, 1 torpedo tube 45 cm (but SMS A 80 3 × 8.8 cm Utof L / 30, no torpedo tube )
Crew : 50–55 men

The A-II boats were followed by a series of twelve enlarged A-III boats. A 56 to A 67 and A 80 to A 91 were built at the Vulcan shipyard in Stettin and A 68 to A 79 and A 92 to A 95 again near Schichau. More boats were piled up at the end of the war, but were then scrapped unfinished.

Since the type A III was convincing in its performance, a series of 24 other boats were built as so-called large torpedo catching boats for the Navy from 1941 onwards, based on a technically modified design . The dimensions and performance parameters remained roughly the same, only the boats were primarily used for the transport of torpedoes as part of training and no longer in naval warfare.

See also

Remarks

  1. there are contradicting information on this, also in Gröner vol. 2 edition 1983 and Gröner vol. 2 improved edition 1998; although only one boiler is indicated in the manuals, the general plan for these boats lists two boilers. The general plan can be viewed in the Federal Archives-Military Archives in Freiburg.
  2. "Utof"> Utof = abbreviation for U -Boots- and To rpedoboots- F lugabwehrkanone . An anti-aircraft gun with a particularly narrow mount , which, thanks to its design, could also be mounted on the narrow decks of submarines and early torpedo boats.

literature

  • Harald Fock: Black journeymen. Vol. 1 Torpedo boats until 1914. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford 1979, ISBN 3-7822-0193-0 .
  • Harald Fock: Z-before! Vol. 1 International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats 1914 to 1939. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford 1998, ISBN 3-7822-0207-4 .
  • Robert Gardiner: Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1985, ISBN 0-87021-907-3 .

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