SMS S 50 (1915)
 The similar S 56
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SMS S 50 was a large torpedo boat designed in 1913 for the German Imperial Navy . Built at the Schichau shipyard in Elbing , it belonged to the second series S 49 to S 66 manufactured there and within this series to the not yet extended boats up to S 52 .
S 50 took part in the Skagerrak Battle in 1916 . In January 1917 it should be with the other boats of the VI. Torpedo boat flotilla to be relocated to Flanders. In bad weather the British Harwich Force turned the boats. S 50 managed to torpedo the British destroyer Simoom .
The boat was built in 1918 with the VI. T-Flotilla interned in Scapa Flow and sank there on June 21, 1919 as part of the self-sinking of the fleet.
history
The large torpedo boats of the 1913 official draft were a departure from the 1911 preliminary draft and an attempt to procure smaller and inexpensive boats. The new design reached the size of the British destroyer, but had a lighter armament with 88 mm guns. They were the first torpedo boats of the Imperial Navy to be powered exclusively by oil. As with the procurement of torpedo boats for the Imperial Navy since the beginning of the century, the construction contracts went to the shipyard of Ferdinand Schichau in Elbing, the Kruppsche Germania shipyard in Kiel and the AG Vulcan in Stettin , after which the boats with the first letters of the shipyards (p , G, V) and consecutive numbers.
The Schichau shipyard was commissioned to build boats S 31 to S 36 in the budget year 1913 , while the other six boats were commissioned by Vulcan from Szczecin. Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, the order was expanded to include boats S 49 to S 66 as a mobilization order . These boats were completed from July 1915 to May 1917.
The first six boats from Elbing displaced 802/971 t and were 79.6 m long. The four following boats S 49 to S 52 were very similar, displacing 802/1074 t with the same hull size. From S 53 the following boats were extended by 3.5 m and displaced 919/1170 t. The oil supply increased from 252 t to 305 t and gave these last boats an increased range thanks to a marching turbine installed on the starboard shaft.
The boats were originally armed with three 8.8 cm L / 45 C 14 guns and six torpedo tubes in two twin tube sets on the center line of the boats and two individual tubes on the sides of the forward ship area. From S 60 onwards, three much more effective 10.5 cm guns of the L / 45-C 16 Tk type were installed. On the boats that were initially armed with the 8.8 cm cannons and still surviving, the larger guns were gradually retrofitted until 1917.
The S 50 launched on April 24, 1915, was taken over by the Navy in August 1915 as the eighth Schichau boat of the 1913 type and joined the VI. Torpedo boat flotilla. As part of this formation it belonged to the 12th torpedo boat half flotilla.
Calls
Under Kapitänleutnant Philipp Recke, S 50 took part at Hippers 1st reconnaissance group in the 12th half-flotilla with V 69 , V 45 , V 46 and G 37 in the Battle of the Skagerrak , of which V 45 and G 37 took part in the course of the battle, the heavily damaged flagship Hippers, the Lützow , secured and were involved in their evacuation. None of the boats in this semi-flotilla was lost.
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At the end of January 1917 the VI. T-Flotilla under Corvette Captain Max Schultz reinforce the Big Torpedo Boats in Flanders . The British learned of the Germans' plan early on and went to sea with the Harwich Force under Commodore Tyrwhitt with six light cruisers , two flotilla leaders and 18 destroyers to intercept the approaching eleven German torpedo boats. The British units formed four groups: in front of the Meuse there were seven destroyers, led by the Grenville , patrolling three staggered guard lines. A second group at Schouwen Bank led the Nimrod , which was on two guard lines with seven or four destroyers. The cruisers also operated in two groups of three ships each.
The British ships reached their assigned areas of operations before midnight and waited over three hours for the approaching Germans in the severe frost that covered the ships with ice. The German flotilla, led by V 69 , encountered the cruiser group with the flagship Centaur , the Aurora and the Conquest standing closer to the coast in the early morning of January 23, 1917 when it was still dark and switched sides to the British cruisers to happen. The rearmost cruiser Conquest opened fire and both sides fought an artillery battle. During the night, the British did not realize that the German command boat received a serious hit early on and that it temporarily got out of control because the rudder blocked. The V 69 , which was temporarily running in a circle, was rammed by the G 41 and could only run eight knots. The two damaged boats turned and ran back towards the Dutch territorial waters. The other boats continued their course with heavy smoke and passed unseen between the two British destroyer groups. Only S 50 remained a little behind. At the start of the battle it was running directly behind the lead boat V 69 and temporarily deviated from course due to its uncontrolled maneuvers. The boat lost contact with the flotilla and was looking for a way to Zeebrugge on its own at 23 knots.
All British units could see during the night that the British command group was fighting. From there, however, no orders came, only the message that the Germans had given up their formation. Some destroyers therefore left their stations and ran towards the battlefield to confront the Germans who were probably retreating. When this was recognized on the Centaur , Commodore Tyrwhitt ordered the return to the starting positions. The cruiser Penelope of the second cruiser group caught up with the Centaur group in accordance with the original plan of operations and discovered a single torpedo boat, the damaged and returning leader boat V 69 . The cruisers of the second group then ran to this boat and shot at it in the light of their searchlights. A frozen gun exploded on the Undaunted , killing two men. On the Penelope and the Cleopatra it was believed that the attacked boat was sinking for good, and the cruisers departed without waiting for actual sinking and without rescue measures. So could V 69 under Lieutenant Hermann Boehm continue its journey and escaped to IJmuiden with a collapsed chimney, large holes in the fuselage and several dead, including the fatally wounded flotilla. The boat was able to return to Germany later. The second damaged boat, the G 41 , was not discovered and changed course again near the Dutch coast towards Zeebrugge, which could only be reached at slow speed due to the massive nose damage caused by the collision with the driver's own boat.
While the leader boat, which was retreating from the battlefield, was being shot at by the British cruisers, the eight torpedo boats of the VI passed by. Flotilla the lightship at the Schouwen Bank undetected by the four British destroyers patrolling there and escaped to Zeebrugge.
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The solo S 50 , which had lost the connection to the flotilla, was less lucky and was discovered by the British that night. The Nimrod, returning to its original position, with its six destroyers ( Morsoom , Phoebe , Mansfield , Manly , Matchless and Morris ) discovered S 50 in front of Schouwen Bank . While the Nimrod group was still catching up on the German boat, S 50 hit the destroyers Simoom , Starfish , Surprise and Milne that had remained there head-on . Here was S 50 , the happiness that the British him in keel line came towards what disabled the use of weapons and S 50 easier to concentrate on the top British ship. S 50 scored artillery hits and hit the Simoom , which had only come into service the previous month, with a torpedo, whereupon its magazine exploded. The Nimrod and their destroyers overtook the German boat and blocked its march. S 50 turned and fled towards the Dutch coast without being seriously pursued; after reaching the Dutch waters it ran close to the coast to Zeebrugge. The British took care of the sinking Simoom , from which the Morris took over the survivors before the Nimrod sank the wreck. 47 men were killed on the Simoom .
In autumn 1917 S 50 and the VI belonged to it. T-Flotilla back to the deep sea fleet and were commanded to the Baltic Sea Special Association, which was supposed to support the amphibious landing company for the occupation of the Baltic islands Saaremaa (Ösel), Hiiumaa (Dagö) and Muhu (Moon) ( Albion company ). S 50 belonged to the 12th half-flotilla with V 43 , V 44 , V 45 and V 46 led by Korvettenkapitän Rudolf Lahs . Guide boat of the VI. Flotilla was again the meanwhile repaired V 69 .
S 50 remained with the deep sea fleet. At the end of the war it was in the 12th half-flotilla of the VI. T-Flotilla and was interned with V 43, V 44, V 45, V 46 and S 49 in Scapa Flow . The berth of the flotilla was relatively unfavorable for the self-sinking of the boats decided in 1919 , but the S 50 succeeded, as did the V 45 and S 49 . The guide boat V 44 as well as V 43 and V 46 sank - partly after the intervention of the British - in relatively shallow water; therefore they could easily be raised and distributed among the victorious powers. V 43 came to the USA, where it was sunk as a target ship in 1921, V 44 remained in Great Britain (scrapped in 1922) and V 46 was given to France, where it was cannibalized until 1924.
S 50 was only lifted and scrapped in Scapa Flow in the mid-1920s as part of the wreck removal.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Newbolt: NAVAL OPERATIONS , Vol. 4
- ↑ Het Verhaal van de Torpedo Boat V69 (Dutch)
- ↑ HMS Simoom , J. Brown hull number 455, 975/1173 t, 30 October 1916 launched
Web links
- Large torpedo boat 1913
- Henry Newbolt: History of the Great War - NAVAL OPERATIONS , Vol. 4, Longmans, Green, London 1928
- Wereldoorlog raakt ook IJmuiden
- Het Verhaal van de torpedo boat V69
- Duits oorlogsmonument in IJmuiden and V 69
- Naval battle in the southern North Sea The Chief of the Admiralty's Staff of the Navy.
literature
- Geoffrey Bennett: The Skagerrakschlacht , Wilhelm Heyne, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-453-00618-6
- John Campbell: Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting , Conway Maritime Press, London 1998, ISBN 0-85177-750-3
- Robert Gardiner, Randal Gray: Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921 , Conway Maritime Press, London (1985), ISBN 0-85177-245-5 .
- Anthony Preston: Destroyer , Hamlyn, London (1977), ISBN 0-600-32955-0