SMS S 20 (1912)
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S 20 was a large torpedo boat of the 1911 official draft of the Imperial Navy (so-called Lans-Krüppel). The boat was part of a twelve-unit series that wasawardedto Schichau-Werke by the Reichsmarinamt in1912. S 20 was sunk on June 5, 1917 during a reconnaissance voyage on the English Channel by superior British units.
history
Construction and commissioning
The Schichau shipyard in Elbing , West Prussia, began building the S 13 to S 24 series of boats in 1911 . The eighth boat with the hull number 871, for which the designation S 20 was intended, was ready for launch on December 4, 1912 . The boat was completed by late fall of the year and was put into active service by the Navy on December 9th. The construction cost around 1,600,000 marks .
Calls
The boat formed the VII. Torpedo Boat Flotilla with the sister ships of the complete series and in this context belonged to the 14th Torpedo Boat Half Flotilla with the boats S 19 to S 23 . In 1916 it changed to the stock of the 13th torpedo boat semi-flotilla.
At the beginning of the war it was used in the outpost service in the North Sea and as a submarine safety device when the heavy units of the deep sea fleet advanced , including the Skagerrak battle under the then commander Kaptl. Albert Benecke. For the first time, the boat was converted to the more powerful 8.8 cm L / 45 TK in 1916. The bridge was also rebuilt and the front windshield raised. From November 1916, Lieutenant Captain Erich Giese was in command of the boat. At the beginning of 1917, the 8.8 cm guns on the S 20 together with the other boats intended to be relocated to Flanders were exchanged for much more powerful 10.5 cm L / 45 cannons. On February 18, 1917, the boat moved to Zeebrugge together with the sister ships S 15 , S 18 and S 24 , the larger boats G 95 and G 96 and four A-II boats . S 20 formed the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla of the Destroyer Flotilla Flanders with its three sister boats .
The boat drove the following missions as part of this association:
- 25-26 February 1917 against English shipping in the English Channel
- March 17-18, 1917 against canal guard and The Downs , while the steamer SS Greypoint (894 GRT ) was sunk by S 20
- April 20-21, 1917 Bombardment of Calais , Dover (loss of the large boats G 42 and G 85 in battle)
- April 26-27, 1917 Bombardment of Margate and North Foreland
- June 4-5, 1917 Reconnaissance against Thornton Bank , including meeting with the British Coastal Bombardment Association (monitors, cruisers and destroyers) and the Harwich Force
The last stand and downfall
In the early morning hours of June 5, 1917, S 15 and S 20 left at around 3 a.m. for a routine reconnaissance run in the coastal apron of Zeebrugge. The aim of this enterprise was on the one hand to clear up possibly existing British units and on the other hand to control the passability of the mine-free compulsory roads. These activities can be seen against the backdrop of the German Flanders submarines stationed in Zeebrugge and Ostend . In addition, the Germans expected a possible coastal bombardment by British naval forces. After both boats had left the harbor and had actually already finished their patrol trip, it was thought that coastal motor boats could be recognized and they were followed. The suspected motor boats turned out to be a strong British association of the " Harwich Force ", consisting of the light cruisers of the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron ( HMS Centaur , Canterbury and Conquest ) and destroyers. The English ships managed to get within shooting range within a short time. "S 20" received a severe hit in the boiler system just three minutes after the start of the battle, which greatly reduced the speed. In the concentric fire of the British cruisers and destroyers, the boat sank at 5:15 a.m. to 51 ° 28 ' N , 2 ° 48' E , losing 49 men, including Erich Giese. Seven shipwrecked people were taken in by the English destroyer Satyr and another 27 seamen were later rescued by German naval forces and sea pilots.
The sister boat S 15 , which was also badly damaged during this operation, was brought into the port of Zeebrugge by hits despite the complete failure of the machinery.
In honor of the commander, the Navy named its twelfth destroyer Z 12 Erich Giese , which was commissioned on March 4, 1939 and was sunk in Narvik , Norway on March 13, 1940 .
literature
- Harald Fock: Black journeymen , Volume 2: Destroyers before 1914 , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1981, ISBN 3-7822-0206-6 .
- Erich Gröner : The German warships 1815-1945 Volume 2: Torpedo boats, destroyers, speed boats, minesweepers, mine clearance boats , Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-7637-4801-6 .
- Bernd Langensiepen , Dirk Nottelmann : The loss of S 20 - or: Many dogs are dead of the rabbit ... In: Marine-Nachrichtenblatt 4/2013, issue 3 pp. 2-14.