Laxen (ship, 1930)
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The Laxen was a torpedo boat built in 1930 for the Danish Navy . Under German pressure, Denmark had to deliver the boat to the Navy in 1941 , which used it as the TFA 6 torpedo intercepting boat . On June 18, 1945, the ship was badly damaged in an explosion and was scrapped in 1952.
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, the Danish navy sought 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 last, third, boat took place in 1930 on the Orlogsværftet in Copenhagen under construction number 150, when it was launched on November 28, 1930, the ship was named Laxen ("salmon"). The Navy put the ship into service on July 30, 1931.
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 machine system consisted of two Atlas turbines from Danish production with 6000 PSi , which enabled a cruising speed of 21 knots and a top speed of 27.5 knots with two screws . 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 was commissioned on July 30, 1931, the ship was also given the tactical identifier T3 . Like the sister ships Dragen T1 and Hvalen T2 , the Laxen 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 Laxen 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, the Laxen resumed operations and continued until the beginning 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 classes - including the Laxen - were laid up 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 political 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 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 rebuilt at 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 August 15, 1941, it was given the name “Torpedofangboot Ausland” TFA 6 , and on July 3, 1942, the Navy put the boat into service. All six boats were assigned to the 26th U-Flotilla in Pillau and Gotenhafen . They were given geometric symbols on the bridge structure for quick identification. A few weeks after the end of the war, TFA 6 was together with sister ships TFA 1 , TFA 2 and TFA 5 in Flensburg and was just as badly damaged in the explosion of an ammunition dump on June 18, 1945, as were the three sister ships and the submarine support ship Donau . In 1952 the wreck of TFA 6 was scrapped in Odense .
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
- Dragen Class at navalhistory.dk (Danish / English), accessed on May 25, 2020
- Dragen torpedo boats (1930–1931) at navypedia.org, accessed May 25, 2020
Individual evidence
- ↑ 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