Dragen (ship, 1929)
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The Dragen was a torpedo boat and lead ship of the Dragen class of the same name of the Danish Navy built in 1929 . In 1941, Denmark had to sell the boat to the German Navy , which used it as the TFA 3 torpedo intercepting boat . On May 14, 1945 the ship sank after a mine hit in the Geltinger Bay .
Construction and technical data
As a replacement for the old and used torpedo boats of the Söridderen class (also in the spelling Søridderen class; boats: Söulven , Flyvefisken , Söridderen ) and the Tumleren class (boats Spaekhuggeren , Vindhunden , Tumleren ) from 1911 sought the leadership of the Danish Navy Mid-1920s after replacement. She opted for an improved version of the Söridderen class, the Dragen class, for which the Folketing approved funds for initially three ships in 1929. In 1933-35 three more boats of the modified Glenten class were added . The keel of the first boat took place in 1929 on the Orlogsværftet in Copenhagen under the hull number 148, when it was launched on November 8, 1929, the ship was named Dragen ("Dragon"). The Navy put the ship into service on July 15, 1930.
The boat was 59.6 m long, 5.95 m wide and 2.23 m draft . The water displacement was 284–288 t standard and 335 t maximum. The machinery consisted of two Brown Boveri - turbines with 6000 PSI , the two screws a cruising speed of 21 knots and enabled a top speed of 27.5 knots. The crew was originally supposed to consist of 46 men, but with additional equipment it was 51 men. The boat was equipped with two Bofors 7.5 cm L / 40 guns, two Madsen 2.0 cm anti-aircraft guns , two Madsen 8 mm machine guns and eight 45.6 cm torpedo tubes (two fixed in Bow installed, two times three amidships on deck) armed. In addition, mine rails for 30 to 40 mines were installed on the boat.
history
Danish Navy
When it went into service on July 15, 1930, the ship was also given the tactical identifier T1 . Like the sister ships Hvalen ( T2 ) and Laxen ( T3 ), which were added in July 1931 , the Dragen carried out routine tasks in the 1930s. In addition to training the crew, the boat took part in exercises and maneuvers and carried out patrols. At the beginning of the Second World War , the Dragen was in Aarhus and was relocated with the squadron to Frederikshavn in the autumn . The main tasks of the boats were now patrols and clearing floating mines. In the harsh winter of 1939/40, activities were restricted and most of the navy crews were on leave. In the spring, Dragen resumed its activities and continued to operate until the start of the German attack on April 9, 1940 ( Operation Weser Exercise ).
After the German occupation of Denmark, the country retained its armed forces to a reduced extent from initially 5300, then 2200 soldiers. As the most modern units of the Danish Navy, the boats of the Dragen - and Glenten -class - including the Dragen - were placed in the Naval Arsenal Holmen , the weapons removed and the crews demobilized.
In January 1941, Germany requested the six torpedo boats of the Dragen and Glenten classes from Denmark , as the Navy had an urgent need for torpedo fishing boats and was looking for boats abroad for training submarine crews. The German Reich did not want to accept a rejection and exerted massive pressure to achieve the surrender. Eventually the Danish government had to give in, in return Denmark was promised to provide steel and other materials for new buildings. The handover to the Navy took place on February 5, 1941. As a sign of his protest, King Christian X of the Danish flag on Amalienborg Palace put at half-mast.
Navy
Due to the ice winter, the boats could not be brought to Germany until spring. On April 1, 1941, the unarmed Dragen class boats were towed to Lübeck and converted there by the Flender works . Among other things, the bridge was closed for year-round use, the hull demagnetized and a 2.0 cm Flak C / 30 installed as armament . On July 3, 1942, the boat was put back into service as the "Torpedo Catcher Abroad" TFA 3 . All six Danish boats were assigned to the 26th U-Flotilla in Pillau and Gotenhafen . For a quick identification of the torpedo boats, geometric symbols were painted on the bridge structure. Ten days after the end of the war, TFA 3 ran into a mine in the Geltinger Bay together with the speedboat companion Carl Peters and sank. The wreck was lifted and scrapped in 1952.
literature
- Robert Gardiner / Roger Chesneau: Conway's All the world's fighting ships 1922-1946 , Conway Maritime Press, London 1980, ISBN 0-8317-0303-2 .
- Søren Nørby: Med Orlogsflaget på Halv. Udleve ring af søværnets torpedobåde i foråret 1941 (Danish) [ Naval flag at half mast. The delivery of the torpedo boats in the spring of 1941 ], In: Marinehistorisk Tidsskrift 4/2002, pp. 89–116, online view as PDF .
- Jarosław Malinowski: Duńskie torpedowce typu “Dragen” i “Glenten” [Danish torpedo boats of the type “Dragen” and “Glenten”] , In: Okręty Wojenne No. 96 (4/2009) , pp. 16–23, online view as PDF .
- Jens Andersen: Udleveringen af torpedobådene - fra et tysk perspective [The delivery of torpedo boats from a German perspective] , In: Marinehistorisk Tidsskrift , Volume 47, No. 2 - May 2014, pp. 3–13, online view as PDF .
- Tom Wismann: Supplerende oplysninger vedrørende de danske torpedobådes tjeneste som torpedo fishing boats (TFA 1–6) in the Kriegsmarine [Additional information on Danish torpedo boats as torpedo fishing boats TFA 1–6 in the Kriegsmarine] , In: Marinehistorisk Tidsskrift , May 47, No. 2 - May 2014, pp. 14–19, online view as PDF .
- Erich Gröner : Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German Warships 1815-1945, Volume 5 Auxiliary Ships II: Hospital Ships, Accommodation Ships, Training Ships, Research Vehicles, Port Service Vehicles , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1988, ISBN 3-7637-4804-0 .
Web links
- Danish Naval History (Danish / English), accessed December 25, 2018
- Dragen torpedo boats (1930–1931) at navypedia.org, accessed December 25, 2018
Footnotes
- ↑ Gardiner, Chesneau, p. 282.
- ↑ Malinowski, pp. 16-19.
- ↑ a b Gröner, p. 161.
- ↑ Dragen Class at navalhistory.dk
- ↑ Malinowski, pp. 20f.
- ^ The Danish Navy on April 9th, 1940 at navalhistory.dk
- ↑ Malinowski, p. 21.
- ↑ Nørby p. 91, p. 94.
- ↑ Andersen, p. 4.
- ↑ Nørby, pp. 94f., P. 103.
- ↑ a b Malinowski, p. 22.
- ^ Nørby, p. 89, pp. 103-106.
- ↑ Andersen, p. 11.