T 23 (ship, 1941)
 Sister boat T 35 1945 in the USA
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
T 23 was a fleet torpedo boat of the Kriegsmarine in World War II . It was put into service as the second boat of this class in the summer of 1942 and then moved to western France. On October 23, 1943, the T 23 and its sister boat T 27 sankthe British cruiser Charybdis by several torpedo hitswhile securing a German escort off the north coast ofBrittany. At the end of 1943, the T 23 surviveda battle between five German destroyers and six fleettorpedo boatsagainst two British light cruisers , with one destroyer and two torpedo boats being lost.
From August 1944 until the end of the war, the T 23 was involved in the retreat of the Wehrmacht in the Baltic Sea . The boat survived two advances in the Gulf of Finland undamaged , in which five units involved sank with major personnel losses.
After the end of the war, the T 23 was delivered as spoils of war to France via Great Britain and was then used as L'Alsacien from 1949 to 1955 with the sister boat Le Lorrain (ex T 28 ) by the French Navy .
Building history
T 23 was the second boat of the "Flottentorpedoboot 1939" type. The boats were called "Elbing destroyer" by the British because of their size and the only building yard. The first torpedo boats built in Germany after the First World War were the twelve boats of the predator and bird of prey class , built in accordance with the provisions of the Versailles Treaty, which were built for the Imperial Navy in the 1920s . Officially, they had a displacement of 800 ts, but actually more than 900 ts, and were armed with three 10.5 cm cannons. Ten years later, extensive construction programs began for the Navy , which also included other torpedo boats of the classes " 1935 " ( T 1 to T 12 ) and " 1937 " ( T 13 to T 21 ). With their standard displacement, these boats were supposed to fall below the 600 ts limit, which means that their tonnage was not taken into account in the armaments agreement in force at the time. In fact, these boats also displaced more than 800 ts. With six torpedo tubes and only one 10.5 cm gun, they were primarily torpedo carriers and did not meet the requirements later placed on them. The Navy therefore refrained from building further boats of this type and developed the much larger “Flottentorpedoboot 1939”. While six boats of the 1935 type were built at Deschimag in Bremen and six at Schichau-Werke, Schichau in Elbing built all nine boats of the 1937 type and also all of the fleet torpedo boats.
When the order was placed, the fleet contracts no longer played a role and the final design had a type displacement of 1294 ts or an operational displacement of 1755 ts, an internationally common destroyer size. The boats were a further development of the previous torpedo boats as smooth deckers with the pronounced sickle bow, strong deck jump and buckled ribs in the foredeck from the aft edge of the bridge to about the anchor holes. The superstructures differed from the destroyers in that they had a superstructure with a bridge that extended over the entire width of the deck and was located far forward. The artillery armament comprised four 10.5 cm guns: one at the bow, the second between the widely spaced funnels and two more at the stern. The anti-aircraft armament almost corresponded to the destroyers. There were also two sets of triple torpedo tubes.
The drive system consisted of two boilers and a turbine set installed directly behind them under each chimney. The maximum speed was only 28 knots in continuous operation under operational conditions and was thus significantly slower than the large destroyers, but the boats were very seaworthy. Between February 1942 and December 1944, the Elbingen shipyard delivered fifteen fleet torpedo boats.
The keel of T 23 was laid in August 1940 and on June 14, 1941 it was launched . On June 14, 1942, the boat was put into service by Lieutenant Friedrich-Karl Paul . Almost simultaneously with the T 20 on June 5 and T 21 on July 11, the last torpedo boats of the 1937 type were also delivered.
Mission history
T 23 was assigned to the 5th torpedo boat flotilla for the training period. This was followed by training and test drives in the Baltic Sea and exercises with the fleet off Bornholm . On November 11th, T 23 left Gotenhafen to move to France. From November 14th, the march was continued together with the old torpedo boat Kondor from Kiel through the Kiel Canal . On November 15, around 2 a.m., there was a battle with two British MTBs , in which neither the MTBs nor the torpedo boats were damaged. Both torpedo boats reached Le Havre on November 18 and La Pallice on November 21, 1942 , where they met the boats of the 5th torpedo boat flotilla ( bird of prey and predator classes) already lying there . On November 22, 1942, the flotilla chief changed from T 22 to T 23 .
As a first task, the T 23 with the torpedo boats Kondor , Falke and T 22 secured the departure of the Italian blockade breaker Cortellazzo , who wanted to run from Bordeaux to Japan . After the T-boats had left the ship, it was on 30 November by a Sunderland - flying boat discovered and provided by two detachierte of a convoy destroyer on December 1 and sunk. By the end of the year, T 23 was deployed to secure German ship movements between La Pallice and Le Verdon at the Gironde estuary with the aforementioned torpedo boats as well as T 14 , T 17 and T 18 .
Deployments in 1943
While escorts were mostly successful in coastal traffic, missions to pick up ships coming from the Atlantic were not always successful. The use of T 23 further with five torpedo boats on January 1, 1943 La Pallice in the Bay of Biscay to receive the Rhacotis was in vain because the from Japan coming Siegebreaker still west on the same day of Spain was sunk by a British cruiser. The six boats returned to La Pallice on January 2nd. Minor repairs were carried out on the boats in French shipyards. On February 1, 1943, T 23 was assigned to the newly established 4th torpedo boat flotilla. T 23 moved briefly to the English Channel at the beginning of May , but remained mainly on the Bay of Biscay, where submarines returning home were also taken in more frequently.
On the night of April 10, T 23 secured another attempt by the Italian blockade breaker Himalaya with the torpedo boats Kondor , T 2 , T 5 and T 22 as well as the destroyers Z 23 , Z 24 and Z 32 . By partial decryption of German radio traffic (see Ultra ), the British knew the German plans and attacked the dressing with Beaufort - torpedo planes to. Five planes were shot down by the German security. Five men fell on Z 24 and 31 were wounded. The German Association broke off his plan and returned to the Himalayas on 11 in the Gironde back
At the beginning of May 1943, T 23 from Le Havre was involved in three mine laying operations in the English Channel, some of which also T 22 , T 2 , T 5 , T 18 and the Kondor . A fourth operation out of Cherbourg was canceled on May 13th. By the end of July, T 23 carried out various repairs in shipyards in Brest and La Pallice. From mid-August, the boat from Brest took part in flotilla exercises in the Bay of Biscay with the sister boats T 22 , T 24 and T 25 . Via St. Nazaire the boats went to Nantes , where the flotilla was inspected by Grand Admiral Dönitz on August 25, 1943 .
At the beginning of October 1943, the Norwegian prize Nordvard , which had been converted into a submarine supplier ( Z-ship ), was relocated from Nantes through the English Channel to Norway , secured by six boats from the 2nd minesweeping flotilla . On October 3, 1943, the 4th T-Flotilla under Korvettenkapitän Franz Kohlauf left Brest with T 23 , T 22 , T 25 and T 27 to secure the transfer in the western channel. Shortly before midnight there was a battle between the torpedo boats at Les Sept Îles with the British destroyers Grenville and Ulster , both of which were hit, as well as the escort destroyers Limbourne (slightly damaged), Tanatside and Wensleydale of the Hunt class . T 27 was hit among the German boats and wounded. The Germans called at St. Malo that morning and secured the Z-ship's march to Cherbourg the following night .
On October 22nd, the 4th T-Flotilla with T 23 , T 26 , T 27 , T 22 and T 25 left Brest again to secure a German escort with the blockade breaker Münsterland . Against the blockade breaker, the British put the cruiser Charybdis , the destroyers Grenville and Rocket and the Hunt destroyers Limbourne , Wensleydale , Talybont and Stevenstone off Plymouth . Shortly after midnight on October 23, the T 22 and T 23 located the enemy units for the first time with their radio measuring devices . The flotilla chief Kohlauf thought the British attackers were superior, had his boats launch a torpedo attack and then turned away. T 23 put Charybdis out of action with a torpedo hit; Another torpedo hit by T 27 made the rescue of the cruiser, on which 426 men lost their lives, hopeless. In addition, T 22 sank the destroyer escort Limbourne with a torpedo with another 42 dead. 107 men of the Charybdis and 100 men of Limbourne were rescued from the British boats; the Germans stopped attacking the British. After the battle, the torpedo boats were running in the morning before St. Malo on the roads of Dinard one. During the day, the boats were attacked by British fighter bombers without being damaged. The following night, the boats were again used as remote security for the Münsterland , and all returned to Brest on October 24th.
On the night of November 26th to 27th 1943, T 23 carried out two mine laying operations in the canal and off the coast of Brittany with the T 22 , T 27 , Möwe , Kondor and Falke von Le Havre . On the march back from the second mission, the boats were unsuccessfully attacked by British MTBs. The following night there was another mine-laying mission, and after a three-night break, two more missions took place in the late evening of December 1 and 2, with the T 23 not taking over mines but serving as a security boat. After the second mission, the boats ran to Brest in order to carry out another mission as a mine-layer from there on December 4th.
In December 1943 a Naxos device was installed on T 23 .
Admission of blockade breakers from East Asia
On December 23rd, the 8th Destroyer Flotilla under Captain Hans Erdmenger sailed with Z 27 , Z 23 , Z 24 , Z 32 , Z 37 and ZH 1 from the Gironde estuary, to which the subordinate 4th from Brest. T-Flotilla (Korvettenkapitän Kohlauf) with T 22 , T 23 , T 24 , T 25 , T 26 and T 27 pushed in to pick up the blockade breaker Osorno (Captain Hellmann ) coming from East Asia ("Company Bernau"). The two flotillas marched together through the Bay of Biscay in heavy seas. Although since dawn on 24 December Sunderland - flying boats kept in touch with the Association succeeded Erdmenger that Osorno take lunch after another flying boat was shot down. Attack attempts by aircraft of the RAF Coastal Command were repelled by Ju-88 long-range fighters of the Fliegerführer Atlantik and the ships' flak. When entering the Gironde estuary on December 26, the crack Osorno the wreck of barrier breaker 21 (ex Nestor ) the trunk are needed to set up to at least the load of 3944 t rubber 1826 t tin and 180 t tungsten ore to save .
The torpedo boats returned to Brest on December 26th, only to set sail again on the 27th and overtake the Alsterufer blockade breaker in the outer Biscay and escort them into the Gironde estuary ("Operation Trave"). In addition to the 4th torpedo boat flotilla, the 8th destroyer flotilla also ran into the Bay of Biscay. On December 28, however, the Alsterufer was not found because it had been sunk by British planes the day before. At around 1 p.m., Z 27 spotted two British cruisers. The heavy swell prevented the German ships from developing their full speed in the following battle. The use of weapons by the nominally superior German artillery (25 × 15 cm and 24 × 10.5 cm cannons versus 19 × 152 mm and 13 × 102 mm cannons) was very difficult for the destroyers and for the Torpedo boats practically impossible. In the artillery battle with the British cruisers Glasgow and Enterprise sank T 25 (85 dead), T 26 (96 dead) and Z 27 (with the boss of the 8th Z flotilla, Erdmenger †, 220 dead). Multiple German torpedo attacks were unsuccessful and only the Glasgow suffered an artillery hit. The remaining German boats were able to detach themselves from the enemy under fog and run away. From the rest of the association, Z 24 , T 23 , T 24 and T 27 reach Brest, Z 32 and Z 37 reach Gironde and the Z 23 and T 22 St. Jean-de-Luz, which have evaded south . 64 German sailors were rescued from the Glasgow , 168 rescued from the Irish motor ship Kerlogue (335 t), which took survivors on board for over ten hours, four of whom died. The only 43 m long Kerlogue had a cargo of oranges that enabled the shipwrecked to survive. The Irish captain ignored the German request to bring the castaways ashore in Brest or La Rochelle , but did not follow British radio orders to call at Fishguard either. He reached his planned destination Cobh on January 1, 1944. Six castaways rescued Spanish destroyers, the German submarines U 505 and U 618 rescued 34 and 21 survivors, respectively. After the battle, the Glasgow and the Enterprise ran to Plymouth , where they arrived undamaged on December 29th despite some German air raids with glide bombs .
Deployments in 1944
On January 23, 1944, T 22 and T 23 were assigned to the 5th torpedo boat flotilla and then moved with the condor , the seagull and the griffin from Brest to Cherbourg and from there to Le Havre. From there, T 23 was involved with the other boats of the flotilla in the laying of three mine barriers in the canal from January 28th, before moving to Cuxhaven via Dunkirk and Hoek van Holland until February 2nd .
While T 22 continued to Danzig for overhaul , T 23 arrived on February 15, 1944 at the Deschimag shipyard in Bremen to stay at the shipyard. In mid-June 1944 the repaired boat moved to the Baltic Sea and carried out various test drives from Gotenhafen and trained the newly assembled crew.
In August 1944 the boat was assigned to the 6th torpedo boat flotilla under Corvette Captain Rudolf Koppenhagen in Reval, today Tallinn , which reinforced the German mine barriers in the Gulf of Finland . A mission on 17./18. August 1944 ended in disaster. When trying to strengthen the "sea urchin" barrier in Narwabucht , the flotilla got into a German mine barrier: T 22 , T 30 and T 32 sank at 59 ° 42 ' N , 27 ° 44' E and only T 23 reached after this Drive Helsinki . Rescue units of the 9th Security Division were able to save 141 castaways, but almost 400 men died on the sunken boats or were taken prisoner by the Soviets.
On September 14, T 23 , T 28 and the destroyers Z 25 , Z 28 and Z 36 ran again into the Gulf of Finland and reached Reval on September 15. On September 18, T 23 and T 28 left Reval together with the mine ships Brummer and Linz and ran to Baltischport and from there on September 19 to the Gulf of Finland to throw another mine barrier. On September 20, the torpedo boats returned to Reval and loaded further mines and left for Baltischport in the evening together with the M 18 and M 29 . From there, together with the two mine ships, they laid another mine barrier ("Nilhorn II") in the Gulf of Finland. On September 21, the two torpedo boats called at Reval again, the evacuation of which was already in full swing that day. Until late in the evening, the boats were involved in the defense against Soviet air attacks. The following day, after the most important port facilities were blown up, they escorted the last German transporters and naval ferry boats from Reval to Gotenhafen. The two torpedo boats again fended off several Soviet air attacks.
When the German troops on the Baltic Islands could not stop the Soviet forces and withdrew to the Sworbe peninsula by October 20 (" Operation Aster "), the situation on land was briefly stabilized by the intervention of the combat group under Vice Admiral Thiele . On October 22nd, T 23 and T 28 were also deployed at Sworbe as artillery support from sea.
The 6th destroyer flotilla under Captain Friedrich Kothe tried on 11/12. December 1944 with Z 35 , Z 36 , Z 43 as well as T 23 and T 28 to carry out the mine laying enterprise "Nil" before Reval. Because of the very bad weather, it was not possible to determine the exact location on the march, but Kothe did not break off the venture. When Endanlauf to mine throw came Z 35 and Z 36 to German mines (probably the "Nilhorn" operations from mid-September), and northeast of Tallinn decreased to 59 ° 34 ' N , 24 ° 49' O . Only 87 crew members survived, more than 540 died. 67 survivors were driven on life rafts in Finland and then extradited as prisoners of war under the Soviet Union's armistice agreements. Soviet speedboats also recovered some survivors from Z 35 . After the loss of the two destroyers, the two torpedo boats with the remaining destroyer broke off the mission with their mine cargo.
Operations in 1945
On 29 and 30 January 1945 came T23 with its sister boats T 33 and T 35 in the battle group 2 under Vice Admiral Thiele on the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen with the destroyers Z 25 and Paul Jacobi and the torpedo boats T 1 and T 12 support of the army in East Prussia . The combat group fired on land targets in front of the German attack leaders, who advanced from the bridgehead Cranz to the southwest in order to re-establish the land connection between Pillau and Königsberg . From February 2nd to 5th, T 23 stood in readiness off Samland with T 35 and T 36 and the heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer at sea to support the attempts of the German army to form a continuous front line. On February 9th and 10th, the Admiral Scheer was deployed with the Z 34 , T 23 , T 28 and T 36 against Soviet attackers in the German 4th Army. Further deployments of T 23 took place from February 18 to 19 and on February 23 off the south coast of Samland, when it was finally possible to establish a connection to Königsberg again.
Last missions
After the entry into force of the surrender in North West Germany and Denmark outside the German and Danish territorial waters freighter located Linz , Ceuta , Pompeii , the auxiliary cruiser Hansa , the destroyers Hans Lody , Friedrich him , Theodor Riedel and Z 25 and T-boats T 17 , T 19 , T 23 , T 28 and T 35 ran to Hela on May 5, 1945 and embarked soldiers and refugees there together with smaller boats. After the defense against Soviet torpedo cutter attacks off Kolberg , the ships arrived off Copenhagen on May 6th , where the fast warships were unloaded in the roadstead in order to be able to sail again. Together with the destroyers Z 38 , Z 39 and T 33 from Swinoujscie , Karl Galster , Friedrich Ihn , Hans Lody , Theodor Riedel , Z 25 , T 17 , T 19 , T 23 and T 28 called Hela again on May 7th and took more soldiers and refugees on board until the morning of May 8, before the ceasefire began. May 1945 were disembarked in Schleswig-Holstein .
Commanders
| June 14, 1942 to November 1943 | Corvette Captain Friedrich-Karl Paul | 1909-1998 |
| November 3, 1943 to May 8, 1945 | Lieutenant Werner-Friedrich Weinlig | 1912-1979 |
Post-war use
After some repair work while still in Germany, the T 23 was relocated to England as spoils of war in January 1946 and then to Cherbourg in February 1946. On February 4, 1946, the boat was put into service by the French Navy as L'Alsacien , at the same time as the sister boat Le Lorrain (ex T 28 ). Unlike the four Kriegsmarine destroyers that were taken over at the same time , the two torpedo boats were initially kept in the reserve. In 1948 the boats were slightly modernized by removing the German light anti-aircraft guns and installing 40 mm Bofors guns .
In 1949 the two boats came into active service in the Mediterranean with the French aircraft carrier group. In 1950, the identification of the L'Alsacien changed from T07 to D604 and it now served in the test group for anti-submarine weapons .
The boat was decommissioned on October 3, 1952 in Cherbourg, when the Hulk continued to be used for a while and then scrapped in 1955.
The Le Lorrain (ex T 28 ) remained in service with the French Navy until October 1955 and was only scrapped in 1959 after being used as the Hulk. From 1947 to 1955 France still had a third former fleet torpedo boat, the T 35, which was taken over by the US Navy , which served as a spare parts store for the active boats.
Individual evidence
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 17.-28. September 1944, Estonia / Baltic Sea
- ↑ Rohwer: 2. – 24. October 1944, Baltic Sea
- ↑ Rohwer: 11./12. December 1944, Baltic Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. January 15 - February 24, 1945, Baltic Sea
Remarks
- ↑ Nordvard , motor ship built in Sweden in 1925, 4,111 GRT, collected on September 16, 1940 by the auxiliary cruiser Pinguin , arrived in Bordeaux on December 3, 1940 with 179 prisoners; from November 1941 conversion to a Z-ship; sunk in Moss by British air raids on December 28, 1944 ; the remaining wreck is considered dangerous because of its ammunition load .
- ↑ Corvette Captain Franz Kohlauf 1910–1944.
- ↑ The Enterprise brought here around 16:00 pm, the maneuver shot by artillery fire torpedo boat T 26 by a torpedo to sink.
- ↑ Friedrich-Karl Paul was awarded the Knight's Cross in March 1945 as head of the 2nd torpedo boat flotilla . Later frigate captain of the German Navy
- ↑ Weinlig is said to have been awarded the Knight's Cross in May 1945 .
literature
- Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung [arr.]: The ships of the German Navy and Air Force 1939–1945 and their whereabouts. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 2000 (9th, revised and expanded edition), ISBN 978-3-7637-6215-6 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships: Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present. Koehler's publishing company, Herford,
- Wolfgang Harnack: Destroyer under the German flag: 1934 to 1945. Koehler, Hamburg 1997, (3rd, revised edition), ISBN 3-7822-0698-3 .
- John Jourdan, Jean Moulin: French Destroyers: Torpilleurs d'Escadre and Contre-Torpilleurs, 1922–1956. Seaforth Publishing, 2015.
- Volkmar Kühn: Torpedo boats and destroyers in action 1939–1945. The fight and destruction of a weapon. Flechsig, Würzburg 2006 (6th, ext. A. special edition), ISBN 978-3-8818-9637-5 .
- Anthony Preston: Superdestroyers - the German Narvik type 1936. Warship special2, Conway maritime press, Greenwich 1978, ISBN 0-85177-131-9
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-0097 .
- Mike J. Whitley: Destroyers in World War II: Technique - Class - Types. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 978-3-6130-1426-8 .
Web links
- Germany 10.5 cm / 45 (4.1 ") SK C / 32 on navweaps.com (accessed October 22, 2015)
- Germany 3.7 cm / L83 (1.5 ") SK C / 30 on navweaps.com (accessed April 29, 2014)
- Germany 2 cm / 65 (0.79 ") C / 30 and C / 38 on navweaps.com (English, accessed April 29, 2014)
- "1939" type fleet torpedo boats (1942–1944) (English, accessed October 24, 2015)
- L`ALSACIEN torpedo boats (1942–1943 / 1946) (English, accessed October 24, 2015)
- German Navy (accessed October 25, 2015)
- german-navy.de (accessed October 25, 2015)