SMS S 53 (1915)
 Side view of the identical sister boat S 56
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S 53 was a large torpedo boat of the so-called official draft 1913 of the German Imperial Navy . The boat was part of a series that originally comprised 14 unitsand was awardedto Schichau-Werke as a mobilization or MS order bythe Reichsmarineamte (RMA)after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. S 53 was sunk on June 21, 1919 in the bay of Scapa Flow as part of the self- sinking of the Imperial High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow by its own crew .
Building 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, because the Tirpitz'sche torpedo boat doctrine still applied primarily that the torpedo was the primary weapon and the artillery of the boats only served their defense. The boats were also the first torpedo boats of the Imperial Navy to be fueled exclusively with oil.
Due to the outbreak of war, the RMA felt compelled in August 1914, due to the expected war losses, to significantly increase modern light naval forces beyond the applicable Second Fleet Act : As part of the mobilization order, it ordered the 12 boats of the 1914 series ordered in April ( G 37 to G 42 and V 43 to V 48 ) another 48 torpedo boats at the AG Vulcan ( Stettin ), Germaniawerft ( Kiel ) and Schichau in Elbing shipyards, which are very experienced in torpedo boat building . The order to Schichau included the boat numbers from S 49 to S 66 .
S 53 belonged to a modified design by Schichau, which, like all boats of the Ms order, was originally built according to the pre-war shipyard designs, but was then to be redesigned for coal firing on the instructions of the RMA. This requirement was dropped again in March 1915 and instead stipulated that boats S 49 to S 52 were to be built according to the original design with a change in the internal layout and all subsequent boats with an extension of a frame width of 3.5 m. These specifications only served to increase the bunker supply of oil. However, this administrative hiccups caused considerable construction delays.
War missions
S 53 was put into service on December 17, 1915 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Friedrich Götting , who later rose to the rank of admiral in the Navy . The boat then completed the mandatory test drives as well as its training period in the Baltic Sea . Due to the lack of modern vehicles and for realistic war training, it took part in the escort trips for iron ore transports from Sweden that are usual in the theater of war there. At the same time it was the III. Torpedo boat flotilla subordinated to Korvettenkapitän Wilhelm Hollmann and intended as the guide boat of the flotilla. In addition to the usual 85-man crew, this necessitated the takeover of further personnel from the flotilla staff. With the influx of new boats, the older boats of the III. T-Flotilla surrendered to the newly formed 21st Torpedo Boat Half-Flotilla. S 53 was reported as ready for war on April 5, 1916 and then transferred to the North Sea to the flotilla.
Shortly after arriving in Wilhelmshaven on April 27, 1916, it participated in the flotilla association in securing an advance by the battle cruisers Derfflinger and Moltke to bring in the special group of the North Sea outpost flotilla, including the angry British fishing steamer Horus . The boat was then always one of the very active units involved in advances, safety trips and mine search tasks. The next major operation took place on May 4th together with the small cruiser Rostock against withdrawing British units who had undertaken a failed air raid against the airship port in Tønder . At the end of the month, the two battle fleets collided in the Skagerrak Battle . The boat was part of the safety shield of the deep sea fleet and again drove submarine safety for the Rostock , which served as the flagship of the first leader of the torpedo boats . S 53 was especially involved in the confusing night fighting. After a unsuccessful torpedo attack on the British flotilla commander Broke , the boat rescued nine castaways of the sunk British flotilla commander Tipperary a short time later and shortly afterwards recovered almost the entire crew of the small cruiser Elbing of 477 men, which was abandoned after severe damage .
During the overhaul work necessary after the battle, the S 53 was equipped with more powerful guns. Instead of the previous 8.8 cm L / 45 cannon (projectile weight 9.75 kg), the flotilla's boats were converted to the much stronger 10.5 cm L / 45 torpedo boat cannon (projectile weight 17.5 kg). The next advance of the III. T-Flotilla took place on August 18 against Sunderland . After the ship of the line Westphalia was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS E 23 , the operation had to be canceled. Another advance into the Hoofden together with the small cruisers Regensburg , Frankfurt and Pillau under cover of the 1st Squadron of the High Seas Fleet on September 25th did not bring any success.
After urgent demands from the Marine Corps Flanders , the boat with the entire flotilla and the IX. Torpedo boat flotilla - a total of 22 large, fast and modern boats to Flanders on the night of October 23rd to 24th, 1916 to reinforce the weak units there. As a result, there were frequent clashes with the British security forces in the English Channel : On October 26, a total of 21 boats of the III. and IX. T-Flotilla, reinforced by three boats from the Destroyer Flotilla Flanders , entered the Downs and the English Channel and destroyed part of the British guard lines at the Dover Barrier : six drifters serving as guard boats and the old destroyer HMS Flirt were sunk, and came immediately afterwards It was the first naval battle in the Canal , in which three British destroyers from the 6th Destroyer Division rushing from Dover - Amazon , Nubian and Mohawk - were damaged in pursuit of the German boats. On the German side, only G 91 suffered some damage.
A short time later, the entire III. T-flotilla to Germany. Here, shortly after Christmas , S 53 took part in an unsuccessful advance with the cruisers Regensburg , Stralsund , Bremse and Brummer to the large fishing bank north of the Doggerbank , which had to be canceled due to bad weather. The boat then underwent a major overhaul.
After completion of the overhaul work that was necessary due to the constant use, the entire flotilla relocated to Flanders on March 23, 1917. Meanwhile, Corvette Captain Adolf Kahle became the new Flotilla Chief, before Corvette Captain Theophil Gautier on September 1, 1917 and Carl August Claussen from April 1, 1918 until the end of the war . At the same time the chief of the III. Torpedo boat flotilla, which from now on was permanently stationed in Flanders, was appointed FdT Flanders (leader of the torpedo boats in Flanders).
The renewed missions on the Flemish coast consisted of outpost services, mine sweeping, advances against the British guard lines in the English Channel and the defense against coastal bombardment units. During an advance on April 20, it came to the second naval battle in the Canal , a skirmish with the two flotilla leaders Swift and Broke patrolling the Strait of Dover , in which the G 42 and G 85 were lost. S 53 could hit the Swift , which suffered severe damage. On September 1, 1917, Lieutenant Carl Kossack became the commandant of the boat.
When defending against the Zeebrugge block attempt on the night of April 23rd to 24th 1918, the boat was on the inside of the Zeebrugger pier and could therefore only intervene indirectly and slightly with its own guns, so a large part of the crews were used for infantry operations together, who succeeded in the decisive counterattack against the disembarked British landing forces. The torpedo boat sailor Hermann Künne , who died in the process, stood out. (The Kriegsmarine later named their destroyer Z 19 after him.) The boat was meanwhile damaged by the old British cruiser HMS Vindictive , intended as a block ship . It was not operational again until May and then participated in various mine detection and mine laying companies. During one of the frequent nightly British bombing raids on the German-occupied Flemish cities, the Bug was damaged on August 29th.
The End
The boat had to leave Zeebrugge together with all other sailing boats on October 1, 1918 due to the worsening overall situation on the western front and moved back to Germany. The Flemish bases were given up and the ships of the Marine Corps that were not ready to sail or too slow were blown up or were interned in the Netherlands .
After the armistice of Compiègne, S 53 and 49 other large torpedo boats belonged to the units to be surrendered as required by the victorious powers. It ran as part of the transfer association on November 20, 1918 from Wilhelmshaven to the British naval base Scapa Flow and was interned there with a remaining crew. On June 21, 1919, it was self- scuttled by its crew in Scapa Flow Bay . The wreck was lifted on August 13, 1924 and then scrapped on site until 1927.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jib: Z-forward! Vol. 1 p. 47
- ↑ The boats were generally designated with the first letter of the shipyard, i.e. with V (Vulcan shipyard in Stettin or Hamburg), G (Germania shipyard in Kiel) or S (Schichau shipyard in Elbing) and the serial number.
- ↑ http://www.oocities.org/~orion47/WEHRMACHT/KRIEGSMARINE/Vizeadmirals/GOETTING_FRIEDRICH.html
- ↑ See Rollmann: Ostsee, Vol. 2, pp. 336 and 354
- ↑ Groos: Nordsee, Vol. 5, p. 157
- ↑ Groos, Nordsee, Vol. 5, pp. 159-174
- ↑ Groos, Nordsee, Vol. 5, p. 379
- ↑ Gladisch: Nordsee, Vol. 6, p. 225
- ^ Reginald Bacon : The Dover Patrol 1915–1917, Volume II. George H. Doran, New York, 1919, p. 28
- ↑ Gladisch: Nordsee, Vol. 6, p. 157
- ↑ Groß: Nordsee, vol. 7, p. 146, note 4
- ↑ Marine-Nachrichtenblatt No. 4, pp. 2–23
- ↑ Large: North Sea, Vol. 7, p. 310
- ↑ Groß: Nordsee, Vol. 7, p. 312
- ↑ Large: North Sea, Vol. 7, p. 315
- ↑ Large: North Sea, Vol. 7, p. 395
Web links
literature
- Harald Fock: Z-before! Vol. 1 International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats 1914 to 1939. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford, 1998, ISBN 3-7822-0207-4 .
- Walter Gladisch : The War at Sea 1914–1918. The war in the North Sea. Volume 6: From June 1916 to spring 1917. Mittler & Sohn, 1937.
- 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 .
- Otto Groos : The War at Sea 1914–1918. The war in the North Sea. Volume 5: From the beginning of January to June 1916. Mittler & Sohn, 1925.
- Gerhard P. Groß : The War at Sea 1914–1918. The war in the North Sea. Volume 7: From early January to June 1916. Critical Edition, Mittler & Sohn, 2006, ISBN 3-8132-0855-9
- Paul Köppen: The War at Sea 1914–1918. The surface forces and their technology. Mittler & Son, 1930.
- Bernd Langensiepen , Dirk Nottelmann : Evans of the Broke against Bernd von Arnim. An "eternal riddle" from the night of April 20 to 21, 1917. In: Marine-Nachrichtenblatt 2010 , No. 4, pp. 2–23
- Heinrich Rollmann : The War at Sea 1914–1918. The war in the Baltic Sea. Volume 2: The war year 1915. Mittler & Sohn, 1929.