Polecat (ship, 1927)
.jpg) The Iltis IT between wolf and tiger
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The polecat was a torpedo boat of the Reich and Kriegsmarine and belonged to the predator class . The ship initially served as a training ship, later it was used in the context of the Spanish Civil War . During the Second World War , the polecat took part in various mine operations in the North Sea and was entrusted with a variety of escort and security tasks.
The polecat sank in a battle with British motor torpedo boats (MTB) after a torpedo hit off the Dutch coast.
history
construction
The torpedo boat was laid down together with the Wolf on March 8, 1927 at the Reichsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven under construction number 110 . Both boats were running on 12 October 1927 from the stack . Admiral a. D. Wilhelm von Lans , who was in command of the gunboat SMS Iltis during the Boxer Rebellion , gave the baptismal address, his wife christened the new torpedo boat.
In service from 1927 to 1932
The commissioning of the Iltis took place on October 1, 1928. It received the IT peace label and belonged to the 3rd torpedo boat semi-flotilla. The subsequent test drives took place until December 20, 1928, after which the Iltis was used for training during the usual maneuvers . In 1930 the ship took part in a Mediterranean voyage. The following year, a summer trip to Norwegian waters followed from June 15 to July 3. On February 6, 1932, the polecat was decommissioned and the wolf was transferred to her ship personnel .
In service from 1932 to 1937
On October 1, 1932, the Iltis was put into service again and reassigned to the 3rd torpedo boat semi-flotilla. Their permanent staff was recruited from the decommissioned Leopard . With this crew, the Iltis visited Helsinki and Riga in the summer of 1933 . This was followed by another training voyage in Swedish waters. In September 1936 the ship and its crew set a course for Spanish waters together with the Tiger , where they replaced the two ships Kondor and Möwe . After that the polecat was part of the international sea blockade . In October of the same year the polecat ran back to Germany, only to return the following month and, together with other ship units, to take part in the unsuccessful attempt to rescue the imprisoned Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera . In December 1936 the ship arrived back in Germany. On June 3, 1937, the polecat ran out again in Spanish waters, but returned in July and was taken out of service again on the 17th of the month.
In service from 1938 to 1942
On January 5, 1938, the Iltis was put back into service and made available for training purposes of the 3rd and 5th Destroyer Divisions. With effect from February 1, 1938, the polecat together with the Tiger and the Wolf formed the 3rd torpedo boat flotilla, which crossed Spanish waters from March to July 1938. After the return of the three torpedo boats, the 3rd was renamed the 6th torpedo boat flotilla. This flotilla was enlarged in April 1939 by the previous 4th torpedo boat flotilla. Previously, in March 1939 , the Iltis was involved in the reintegration of the Memelland into the German Reich together with other German ship units .
After the outbreak of World War II, the polecat was used for defensive mining companies and for trade wars in the North Sea. In addition, she was entrusted with various security and escort tasks. On November 13, 1939 , the Iltis secured the light cruisers Nuremberg and Cologne , which in turn covered several destroyers mining the Thames estuary. Further security tasks followed on November 17th as part of the “Thames Mitte” mining company. On January 30, 1940, the polecat collided in the North Sea with the submarine U 15 , which then sank with its entire crew of 25 men. The polecat was then brought to a shipyard for repairs. Due to the resulting lay time, the ship was not involved in the Weser Exercise company in April 1940 . On July 26, 1940, the Iltis and four other torpedo boats provided escort for the damaged battleship Gneisenau on its transfer from Norway to Kiel . During this voyage, the Luchs was sunk by a torpedo hit by the British submarine Thames . Then the polecat was again involved in the laying of mine barriers.
In September 1940 the torpedo boat was moved to France . In the port of Le Havre which was Iltis September 26, hit by a bomb. Six crew members died and another seven were injured. After another repair period in the port of Cherbourg , the Iltis did not take part in mine barriers again until the end of December 1940. These ventures continued until March 1941. During this time, in February 1941 , the Iltis also provided escort for the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, which was leaving for an Atlantic undertaking . On February 16, 1941, the 6th T-Flotilla was disbanded. The boats, including the polecat , were placed under the 5th T-Flotilla. On 21 and 22 March 1941 was Iltis next to the Jaguar again escorted in Brest incoming battle group Gneisenau / Scharnhorst under Admiral Günther Lütjens that the company Berlin returned from the Atlantic.
At the end of March 1941, the polecat was withdrawn from its previous sea area and ordered to the Norway area. She arrived in Stavanger with the Jaguar . The jaguar had lost its oar on the way there and had to be towed by the polecat . The polecat drove on to Bergen . Together with Z 23 and Z 24 , she accompanied Admiral Scheer on March 30th on her way from Kiel to the island of Anholt . From April 11 to June 22, 1941 the polecat lay in the shipyard of Schiedam . Then she was posted in July and August 1941 to escort duties in the Danish-Norwegian area. On August 25 of the same year, the 5th T-Flotilla was released from Group Nord, the Iltis from then on belonged to the 24th U-Flotilla, where it served as a training and fishing boat. In January 1942 she was taken back into combat. After a stay in the shipyard in Schiedam to repair ice damage, the torpedo boat belonged again to the 5th T-Flotilla. With this association, the ship took part in the Cerberus company , the canal breakthrough of the Gneisenau , Scharnhorst and Prinz Eugen , in February 1942. After that, the polecat was used again in escort service in the western area, during which it got into battles with British units several times.
Whereabouts
On May 10, 1942, the polecat took over the escort of the auxiliary cruiser Stier on the route from Hoek van Holland to the Bay of Biscay . On May 13, 1942, the Iltis was attacked by several British motor torpedo boats while carrying out this assignment . After a torpedo which broke Iltis apart and sank within minutes to 4:04 at Boulogne at position 50 ° 46 ' N , 1 ° 34' O . Rescue attempts by the British forces failed. German speedboats hurrying up to rescue 33 survivors two hours later; 115 crew members died, including the commandant.
Commanders
| October 1, 1928 to September 1929 | Captain Ulrich Brocksien |
| September 1929 to September 1931 | Oberleutnant zur See / Kapitänleutnant Rudolf Peters |
| September 1931 to February 6, 1932 | Lieutenant Captain Hans Michahelles |
| October 1, 1932 to September 1933 | Lieutenant Captain Hans-Joachim Gloeckner |
| September 1933 to September 1935 | Oberleutnant zur See / Kapitänleutnant Paul Friedrich Düwel |
| October 1935 to July 17, 1937 | Lieutenant Arthur Wenninger |
| January 5, 1938 to February 1938 | Lieutenant Viktor Schütze |
| February 1938 to October 1940 | Captain Heinrich Schuur |
| October 1940 to May 13, 1942 | Lieutenant Captain Walther Jacobson |
literature
- Gröner, Erich / Dieter Jung / Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . tape 2 : torpedo boats, destroyers, speedboats, minesweepers, mine clearance boats . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-7637-4801-6 , pp. 80-83 .
- Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 5 : Ship biographies from Kaiser to Lütjens . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 206–208 (Approved licensed edition Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg, approx. 1990).
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ a b c d e Hildebrand / Röhr / Steinmetz: The German warships. Volume 5, p. 207.
- ↑ a b c d e Hildebrand / Röhr / Steinmetz: The German warships. Volume 5, p. 208.
- ↑ Gröner / Jung / Maass: The German warships. Volume 2, p. 82.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Hildebrand / Röhr / Steinmetz: The German warships. Volume 5, p. 206.
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