Sleipner class

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The Sleipner at sea, 1937
The Æger

The Sleipner-class was a class of six small destroyers of the Norwegian Navy built between 1936 and 1940: Sleipner , Æger , Gyller , Odin , Balder and Tor . Four of the boats ( Gyller , Odin , Balder and Tor ) were captured by the Wehrmacht during the German invasion of Norway and were used as torpedo boats in the Navy from 1940 to 1945 under new names ( lion , panther , leopard and tiger ) .

history

After the First World War , the Norwegian Navy kept a large number of different torpedo carriers in service. The oldest boats were still used as guard and M boats since the mid-1920s. Due to the economic situation and the political stability of the region, however, funds for the purchase of modern torpedo carriers were only approved with the budgets of 1933/1934.

Design and equipment of the class were progressive for its time and compared to the previous Draug class in particular regarding the antiship and Fla - artillery and underwater weapons greatly improved. For example, aluminum was used for the first time in Norway to build bridges , masts and chimneys , and the hull was made of special hardened steel. Five of the six boats were built at the shipyard of Karljohansvern , the former “Marinens Hovedverft”, the Royal Norwegian Navy in Horten , while the Tor was built by Fredrikstad Mekaniske Verksted in Fredrikstad .

Although the boats were called destroyers ( Jagere ), their size and armament were more like the torpedo boats of the larger navies. They displaced only 735 tons - the Navy had requested ships of about 1000 tons in size, but had to be content with the smaller design for cost reasons - and were only equipped with three Bofors 4-inch (102 mm) guns and a double set of 21-inch ( 53.3 cm) torpedo tubes armed. Due to their small size, however, the boats only had a relatively small radius of action and limited seaworthiness .

Technical specifications

The boats were 74.3 m long and 7.75 m wide, had a maximum draft of 4.15 m and a construction displacement of 735 tons. The hull made of high-strength steel was largely welded. In the middle area there was a longitudinal frame construction at the ends of the ship. Two diesel-powered De Laval steam turbines produced an output of 12500 hp on the shafts and a top speed of 32 knots . The steam was supplied by three Yarrow boilers . The range of action was 3500 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 15 knots. The crew consisted of 75 men.

The armament consisted of three 10.2-cm guns, a 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns , two 12.7 mm Colt -Fla- MG , amidships two 53.3-cm torpedo tubes in a twin set and four depth charge launchers . However, there were slight variations within the class. The lead ship Sleipner had only two 10.2 cm guns and could not use them for anti-aircraft defense because of their limited elevation angle. Æger had the aforementioned armament. Gyller had four torpedo tubes in two sets of twins. Instead of the 40 mm flak, Odin had a 20 mm flak. Balder and Tor were still under construction at the time of the German invasion of Norway , and it is not known whether any further armament modifications were planned. The Tor (or Tiger ) was armed after its capture by the Navy with two 10.5-cm guns, one 4-cm anti-aircraft gun, and two 20-mm anti-aircraft guns; there were also two 53.3-cm torpedo tubes in a twin set and up to 24 mines . In 1941 one of the 10.5 cm guns was replaced by two additional 20 mm flak. The Balder (or Leopard ) received two 10.5 cm guns, a 4 cm flak, two 20 mm flak and two 53.3 cm torpedo tubes in a twin set and up to 24 mines.

Fates

  • The Sleipner moved at the start of the German invasion to the entrance of Romsdalsfjord , participated in the seizure part of a German freighter and a fishing trawler, was on April 25, according to the UK and provided after the Norwegian flag escort service along the British coast. She was decommissioned on March 10, 1944 and mothballed. In May 1945 the boat returned to Norway, where it remained mothballed until it was converted into a frigate in 1948 . In 1959 the boat was scrapped.
The wreck of the Æger , 1940
  • The Æger was during the German attack on Norway on April 9, 1940 near Stavanger , sank the German supply freighter Roda (6780 GRT) there in the nearby Byfjord and was then used by Ju 88 dive bombers of III. Group of Kampfgeschwaders 4 (III./KG 4) was so badly damaged that it had to be abandoned, driven onto the coast near Hundvåg and finally scrapped. Your three 10.2 cm guns were removed by the Wehrmacht and used as a port protection battery in Grødeimhammeren.
The Gyller as a frigate, 1953
  • The Gyller served in the winter of 1939/40 together with her sister ships Æger and Sleipner in northern Norway, where they monitored the neutrality of the country in the winter war between the Soviet Union and Finland . During the German occupation of Norway, the boat lay in Kristiansand on April 9 , where it shot at attacking air force fighter planes and then sailed out to intercept any attackers in front of the port. When the ship was later back at the pier to fill up with water, it fell into the hands of the surprisingly incoming German unit without a fight, as did the sister ship Odin . The boat was overhauled and re-armed by the Navy and then put into service as the Löwe torpedo boat . The Löwe first came to the 7th torpedo boat flotilla and in 1940 provided escort service in the Skagerrak and Kattegat , then served as a torpedo catcher for the 27th U-Flotilla , a training flotilla , in Gotenhafen until the end of the war . On 30 January 1945, accompanied Leo the Wilhelm Gustloff on its last trip; When the Wilhelm Gustloff sank, the boat saved 472 people. The boat was in Flensburg at the end of the war and was returned to Norway. There it served as an escort destroyer until 1948 and was then converted into a frigate. The boat was decommissioned in 1959 and sold for scrapping.
The Odin
  • The Odin was still on 8 April 1940, the rescue of the survivors of the German troop and material transport ship Rio de Janeiro involved, the prior Lillesand which is under British command Polish submarine Orzeł with three torpedoes had been sunk. The following morning, the boat was confiscated by the German invasion forces in the port of Kristiansand near the Marvika naval base without a fight. The boat was partially rebuilt and put into service by the Navy on April 20 as the Panther torpedo boat . Its main armament now consisted of only two 10.5 cm guns, one of which was replaced in 1941 by two additional 20 mm flak. In addition, it was now equipped with mine racks and up to 24 mines . The Panther served in the 7th torpedo boat flotilla and until the end of 1941 did escort and school service in the Skagerrak and Kattegat. From January 1942 until the end of the war, she also served as a torpedo catch boat for the 27th U-Flotilla in Gotenhafen. At the end of the war, the boat was in Holmestrand on the Oslofjord . It was returned to Norway, served as a destroyer escort until 1948, then was converted into a frigate and decommissioned in 1959 and sold for scrapping.
  • The gate was at the time of the German invasion, although with crew, but still without weapons, for final outfitting in Fredrikstad. In order not to let it fall into enemy hands, the crew sank their boat in the dockyard. The Navy lifted the boat on April 16 and brought it to Drammen on April 22 , where it was repaired and equipped. The work was completed in June 1940 at the Karljohansvern Naval Shipyard in Horten , and on June 13th the boat was put into service as the Tiger torpedo boat by the Navy. The Tiger was also assigned to the 7th torpedo boat flotilla and used for escort and school service in the Skagerrak and Kattegat. After the dissolution of this flotilla, the boat came to the 27th submarine flotilla in Gotenhafen as a torpedo catcher. At the end of the war, the boat was in Korsør, Denmark . It was returned to Norway and put into service there as a destroyer escort. In 1948, like its four sister ships, it was converted into a frigate. The decommissioning and scrapping took place in 1959.
  • The Balder fell into the hands of the German invaders in the shipyard on April 9, 1940, still unfinished. After completion, she was put into service on July 26, 1940 as the torpedo boat Leopard and used with the 7th torpedo boat flotilla for escort service in the Norway-Denmark area. In January 1942 she was transferred to Gotenhafen as a torpedo catch boat. The boat came back to Norway after the end of the war, served there as a destroyer escort until 1948, then was converted into a frigate and finally demolished in 1962.

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Gyller had two torpedo tube double sets.
  2. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/40-04.htm
  3. ↑ The torpedo boat Tiger of predator class was after a collision with the destroyer on August 27, 1939 Max Schultz declined.
  4. ^ The predator-class torpedo boat Leopard sank on April 30, 1940 after a collision with the mine ship Prussia on April 30, 1940 in the Skagerrak.

literature

  • Frank Abelsen: Norwegian naval ships 1939–1945. Sem & Stenersen AS, Oslo, 1986, ISBN 82-7046-050-8 (Norwegian & English).
  • Svein Carl Sivertsen: (Ed.): Jageren Sleipner i Romsdalsfjord sjøforsvarsdistrikt April 1940. Hundvåg: Sjømilitære Samfund ved Norsk Tidsskrift for Sjøvesen, 1999 (Norwegian).
  • Ole F. Berg: I skjærgården og på havet - Marinens krig April 8, 1940 - May 8, 1945. Oslo: Marinens krigsveteranforening, Oslo, 1997, ISBN 82-993545-2-8 (Norwegian).
  • Folke Hauger Johannesen: Gå på eller gå under. Factum Forlag AS, Oslo, 1988, ISBN 82-540-0113-8 (Norwegian).
  • Bjørn Hafsten & Tom Arheim: Marinens Flygevåpen 1912–1944. Oslo: TankeStreken AS, Oslo, 2003, ISBN 82-993535-1-3 (Norwegian).
  • EA Steen: Norges Sjøkrig 1940-1945 - Volume I. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo, 1954 (Norwegian).
  • Arne Løvlie: Norske våpen i tyske hender - De militære bedrifter under okkupasjonen 1940–1945. Norwegian Armed Forces Museum, Oslo, 2004, ISBN 82-91218-41-2 (Norwegian).
  • Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945, Vol. 2: Torpedo boats, destroyers, speed boats, minesweepers, mine clearance boats , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1983, ISBN 3-7637-4801-6 .
  • MJ Whitley: Destroyers in World War II , Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 .

Web links