T 5 (ship, 1937)
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T 5 was a torpedo boat of the German Navy . It ran on 22 November 1937 as the first boat of the type 1935 from the stack . It was one of sixboats of this class builtby Deschimag in Bremen and was put into service on January 23, 1940 in Bremen for the 2nd torpedo boat flotilla.
In June 1940 the boat was used for the first time in escort service between Frederikshavn and Horten . The boat was used in the North Sea , off Norway , in the English Channel , in the Bay of Biscay and in the Baltic Sea . It sank on March 14, 1945 at Hela after a mine hit ; 24 men of the crew and many of the embarked refugees were killed.
Building history
Of the twelve boats of the “Torpedoboot 1935” type, six were built at Deschimag's Weser plant in Bremen and six at the Schichau works in Elbing . The standard displacement of these first torpedo boats in the armament program of the Kriegsmarine was supposed to fall below the 600 ts limit, which means that their tonnage would not have been taken into account in the international armaments agreement in force at the time. In fact, however, the boats displaced more than 800 ts, as did the bird of prey and predator class torpedo boats acquired by the Imperial Navy in the mid-1920s . With six torpedo tubes and only one 10.5 cm gun, the newbuildings were primarily torpedo carriers and did not meet the later requirements. After nine more boats of the very similar type " 1937 ", all of which were built near Schichau, the Kriegsmarine decided not to build further boats of this type and developed the much larger " Flottentorpedoboot 1939 " as a follow-up type.
The 21 boats of the 1935 type did not come into service until World War II from October 8, 1939 ( T 8 ) to August 6, 1940 ( T 10 ), when the provisions under which they had been planned no longer played a role. However, it was no longer possible to adapt the boats to the needs identified during the war, so that after the completion of the nine boats of the 1937 class, which were finished between May 1941 and July 1942, the construction of this type was abandoned. The first fleet torpedo boats were completed alongside the last boats of the 1937 type.
Mission history
Although the T 5 was launched as the first boat of the class, it was only put into service on January 23, 1940 in Bremen. The first in command was Kltn Rudolf Koppenhagen. Together with the T 8 , T 7 , T 6 , T 11 and T 12, which were also built in Bremen, the boat formed the 2nd torpedo boat flotilla under Kkpt Walter Riede in the North Sea, while the six boats built near Schichau formed the 1st torpedo boat flotilla in the Baltic Sea . The flotilla was used from summer 1940 to spring 1941 in the North Sea, occasionally also in the English Channel, for branch trips, mine-laying operations and escort duties.
On 24./25. In June 1940, the T 5 completed its first frontline deployment when the boat with the T 1 and T 8 secured a convoy from Frederikshavn to Horten . On July 17, the T 5 secured the mine ships Roland , Queen Luise , Kaiser , Prussia , Cobra and the Hanseatic City of Danzig again with the T 8 as well as the torpedo boats Greif , Iltis and Jaguar from Wilhelmshaven on the second attempt at a large mine barrier (660 EMC mines, 900 Explosive buoys ) to the north of the " West Wall " and west of the Skagerrak, which was relocated as planned by the 19th. The miners' association ran out again on July 23 to lay another lock in the northern North Sea. The T 5 was the only boat of the 2nd T-Flotilla to be secured again, to which the Luchs and the minesweepers M 18 and M 19 also stepped. Again the barrier could be moved as planned; only on the march back was a British air raid. In order to avoid reported enemy MTBs , the mine ships ran in the direction of Kristiansand and into the Kattegat .
In order to secure the transfer of the battleship Gneisenau, which was makeshiftly repaired after a submarine torpedo hit, from Trondheim to Kiel , T 5 reinforced that of the BdA , Rear Admiral Schmundt , on July 25 from Utsira with the torpedo boats Luchs , Iltis , Kondor and Jaguar Light cruiser Nuremberg commanded escort with the destroyers Hans Lody , Friedrich Ihn , Paul Jacobi and Karl Galster . An attacking British submarine sank the torpedo boat Luchs on the 26th , but the battleship reached Kiel without further damage.
In August the boat took part in securing the expansion of the "Westwall" minefields in the North Sea and accompanied on 20/21. the supply ship Dithmarschen and the partially repaired artillery training ship Bremse from Stavanger to Wilhelmshaven.
On 1st / 2nd In September 1940, the Führer der Minerschiffe (FdM) laid a mine barrier with around 600 mines in the southwestern North Sea with the mine ships Tannenberg , Roland and Cobra . The company was secured by the 5th destroyer flotilla with three destroyers, the 5th torpedo boat flotilla with four boats and the 2nd T-flotilla with T 5 , T 6 , T 7 and T 8 , which moved to Cherbourg after the company . On September 5, T 5 and T 8 laid mines in the English Channel near Boulogne for the first time . On the nights of September 6th, 9th and 16th, the flotilla was also deployed with all four boats as mine layers in the Dover Strait . Contact with light British naval forces occurred only during the last deployment. T 5 ran on 20./21. September 1940 back to Wilhelmshaven and then on to routine maintenance work in the Baltic Sea.
Such was T 5 not involved in the largest closed using the class as the first and second T flotilla on 6 and 7 November 1940, T 1 , T 4 , T 9 , T 10 and T 6 , T 7 and T 8 advanced against the Scottish east coast. When T 6 was lost east of Aberdeen at 57 ° 8 ' N , 1 ° 58' W by a mine hit by 48 crew members, the operation was broken off without direct enemy contact.
Operations in the North Sea
The T 5 accompanied with five other boats the departure of the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper in the North Atlantic on November 30 and December 1, 1940 from Brunsbüttel to Norway and then on December 3 with T 1 and T 12 those coming from Gotenhafen and to Trade war expiring auxiliary cruiser Kormoran through the Skagerrak . A subsequent planned mine operation to reinforce the "Westwall" mine barriers with five more torpedo boats and the light cruisers Nuremberg and Cologne was canceled due to bad weather. Two other planned mine operations with sister boats and three mine ships in mid-January 1941 could not be carried out due to the weather conditions. On January 25, 1941, the T 5 with the T 9 and T 10 and the Falke accompanied the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, which were sailing into the North Atlantic, along the Norwegian coast.
From January 26 to February 4, 1941, the mine ships Tannenberg , Brummer , Queen Luise and Hanseatic City of Danzig were able to carry out the planned northern extension of the “Westwall” barriers with barriers “20 Pommern”, “21 Oder” and “22 Rügen ”, which were secured in addition to T 5 by T 12 , T 9 , T 10 , Falke and the minesweepers M 15 and M 22 , whereby not all ships and boats took part in each of the three missions.
Operations in the Baltic Sea
The war with the Soviet Union led to the relocation of the 2nd T-Flotilla mainly to security tasks in the eastern Baltic Sea and on August 15, 1941 to the consolidation of all boats of the class in the 2nd Flotilla, which then in addition to T 5 also T 2 , T 4 , T 7 , T 8 , T 11 and T 12 were available. On September 13 and 14, T 2 , T 5 , T 8 and T 11 fired at Soviet positions on Ösel, now Saaremaa , as a sham operation "Westwind" against the west side of the island, in which two speedboat flotillas and other smaller vehicles also took part . At the same time, two other diversions from sea took place. The Finnish coastal armored ship Ilmarinen sank with 271 men due to a drifting mine explosion. 132 shipwrecked people were rescued.
From September 21, T 5 with T 2 , T 7 , T 8 and T 11 belonged to a combat group with the destroyers Z 25 , Z 26 and Z 27 at the exit of the Gulf of Finland , which caused the Soviet Baltic Fleet to leave the Baltic Sea should prevent. For the dressing 23 from thrusting into the Aalandsee Swinoujscie leaked northern group of "Baltic Fleet" under Vice Admiral Ciliax with the battleship Tirpitz , the heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer and the light cruisers Nuremberg and Cologne , as well as some speedboats. After air raids on the Red Fleet off Leningrad , which were deemed successful , the Tirpitz and the Admiral Scheer were recalled with two T-boats on the 24th. The remaining units joined the southern group of the "Baltic Fleet" with the light cruisers Leipzig and Emden . All heavier ships ran back to Gotenhafen on September 29th .
When the island of Dagö, today Hiiumaa , was captured from October 12, 1941, the T 5 with T 2 , T 7 and T 8 were again used to secure the light cruiser Cologne off the Baltic islands.
Again in the west and to Norway
From January 10 to 12, 1942, T 5 with T 11 and T 12 moved through the English Channel to St. Nazaire ; the boats then left on 25/26. with T 2 and T 4 , which had already led the auxiliary cruiser Thor through the canal at the beginning of December 1941 , to Brest and secured the heavy units during test drives. T 5 secured test drives of the Scharnhorst with other boats on January 27 and February 3, and a machine and protection test of the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen on February 4 . From February 5 to 7, the rear torpedo tube set of the boats was replaced by a 2-cm anti-aircraft quadruple , and on February 8 the five torpedo boats marched to Le Havre. On 12./13. In February 1943 the two German battleships and the Prinz Eugen ( Enterprise Cerberus ) broke through the canal , secured by six destroyers and fourteen torpedo boats. The 2nd T-Flotilla under Kkpt Heinrich Erdmann came with its five boats at the level of the Seine estuary , then there was the 5th T-Flotilla with five boats and from Dunkirk the 3rd T-Flotilla with four boats. There were also a large number of M and S boats and other boats.
Following the repatriation of the three heavy units to German ports, the T 5 moved from February 15 to 20, 1942 with the sister boats T 4 and T 12 to Trondheim , where the battleship Tirpitz had been since January 17, 1942 and where others were going heavy units should follow after necessary repairs. From February 20, the Prinz Eugen and the Admiral Scheer moved with five destroyers from Brunsbüttel along the Danish west coast to Norway. In the early morning of February 33, the Prinz Eugen was hit by a torpedo from the British submarine Trident , which severely damaged the stern and destroyed the rudder. T 5 and T 12 ran towards the formation and ensured that the heavily damaged cruiser was brought into the Lofjord .
On March 6, the battleship Tirpitz went to sea with Vice Admiral Ciliax with the destroyers Paul Jacobi , Friedrich Ihn , Hermann Schoemann and Z 25 from Trondheim to attack convoys in the North Sea . By deciphering the German radio messages (see Ultra ) and reports from a submarine standing in front of Norway, the British side was informed about the expiring association at an early stage. T 5 and T 12 were used for security along the Norwegian coast and were released on March 10 with the Paul Jacobi when the unit ran out into the North Sea towards Bear Island . When the association returned to the northern Norwegian coast after the unsuccessful search for QP 8 , the two torpedo boats rejoined the association on March 12, which arrived in Trondheim on March 13.
From May 9 to 10, 1942, the T 5 and its sister boat T 7, which had remained in France for some time, accompanied the heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer , the fleet tanker Dithmarschen and the destroyers Z 28 and Z 30 from Trondheim to Narvik . Then T 5 secured the mine ship Cobra when laying some mine barriers in northern Norwegian fjords , which were supposed to secure the future berth of German units near the North Cape .
Again use in France
When the Italian blockade breaker Himalaya tried to sail from the Gironde to Japan on March 28 and April 10, 1943, the T 5 was one of the boats that were supposed to secure the voyage through the Bay of Biscay . Both attempts failed and had to be broken off, as the British recognized these intentions early on through their radio reconnaissance and attacked the blockade breaker from the air. At the beginning of May 1943, the T 5 was involved in three mining operations of the 2nd T flotilla under Erdmann in the English Channel together with the T 2 , T 18 and the T 22 and T 23 fleet torpedo boats . From mid-July, the T 5 was repeatedly used to secure returning submarines in the Bay of Biscay.
Use in the Baltic Sea
In the summer of 1943 the 2nd T-Flotilla was relocated home and assigned to the torpedo school for training purposes. From the summer of 1944 until the end of the war, the boats took on escort and security duties in the Baltic Sea, first in the Gulf of Finland , and later in the eastern and central Baltic Sea. When the Navy with its remaining heavy units and their artillery intervened in the land battles, the torpedo boats of the types 1935 and 1937 secured the cruisers used against attacks from the sea and possibly also from the air, as they were only equipped with a 10.5 cm Cannons were hardly suitable for artillery support. T 5 secured the Admiral Scheer off the Sworbe peninsula from 22 to 24 November with the 2nd T flotilla under Kkpt Friedrich-Karl Paul with T 3 , T 12 , T 9 , T 13 and T 16 . Soviet air strikes on the support group were successfully repulsed. Sworbe's German defenders were evacuated to Courland on the last night of the mission .
The end of M 5
In the spring of 1945 the boats of the 2nd T-Flotilla were primarily used to secure the transporters from the eastern regions to the west or from Norway to the "Reich" and suffered losses in the process. On March 14, 1945, at around 6.45 p.m. near Hela , T 5 sank to 54 ° 34 ′ N , 18 ° 56 ′ E. after being hit by a mine. 24 men of the crew and many of the embarked refugees were killed. Shortly before, T 3 had already sunk at almost the same point with almost 300 fatalities. The boats must have run into a mine lock laid by the Soviet submarine L-21 on March 8th.
Commanders
| January 23, 1940 to December 1942 | Kltn Rudolf Koppenhagen | later |
| i. V. March to May 1940 | i. V. Kltn Heinrich Hoffmann | KzS of the German Navy |
| December 1942 to September 1943 | Kltn Hans Dehnert | KzS of the German Navy |
| September 1943 to February 1944 | OLzS Freiherr von Luttitz | |
| February 1944 to January 1945 | Kltn Güttner | |
| February 1945 to March 1945 | OLzS Wätjen |
Individual evidence
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 25-27 July 1940, Norway
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 1st – 2nd September 1940, canal
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 5th-6th September 1940 / 8th – 9th September 1940, North Sea / Canal; 15.-16. September 1940, canal
- ↑ Gröner: The German warships 1815-1945. Vol II; P. 67
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 6-7 November 1940, North Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 26.-30. January 1941, Norway
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. September 13 - October 5, 1941, Baltic Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 23-29 September 1941, Baltic Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 12-21 October 1941, Baltic Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. February 12, 1942, Kanal
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 1st - 13th March 1942, Northern Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 3rd - 10th May 1942, Northern Sea
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 28–31 March 1943, North Atlantic / Biscay
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 1. – 11. April 1943, Biscay
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 5th-8th May 1943, canal
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 12.-30. June 1943, Biscay
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 18.-30. November 1944, Baltic Sea / Baltic Islands
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War. 5. – 31. March 1945, Baltic Sea, Soviet mine submarines
Remarks
- ↑ No reasons found for this
- ↑ The 2nd torpedo boat flotilla was set up in Bremen on October 8, 1939, the day the first boat of the class ( T 8 ) was put into service : T 8 (October 1939 in service), T 7 (December 1939 i. D. ), T 5 (Jan. 1940 i. D.), T 6 (April 1940 i. D., sunk in the North Sea July 7, 1940), T 11 (May 1940 i. D.), T 12 (July 1940 i. D.). In August 1941 the boats of the disbanded 1st torpedo boat flotilla were added.
- ↑ The brake was damaged during the invasion of Norway in Bergen .
- ↑ Second war loss of type 1935 after T 3 on September 18, 1940 in the port of Le Havre by air raid (lifted again and ready for use again at the end of 1943); Of the nine casualties of the class, two more were lost in service in 1945, two were self-sunk at the end of the war, and four were lost in air raids on shipyards
- ↑ as hedging were Z 29 (with FdZ), Richard Beitzen (Chef / 5. Z-Fl.), Paul Jacobi , Friedrich him , Hermann Schoeman and Z 25 ; T 2 , T 4 , T 5 , T 11 , T 12 (2nd T-Fl); White-tailed eagle , falcon , condor , polecat and jaguar (5th bottle); T 13 , T 15 , T 16 , T 17 (3rd T- bottle) inserted
- ^ Only the Soviet straggler Izora could be sunk by Friedrich Ihn
- ^ Rohwer: "37 crew members and about 250 refugees".
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 978-3763762156 .
- 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: Destroyers 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 978-3881896375 .
- 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 VerlagsGmbH, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-0097 .
- Mike J. Whitley: Destroyers in World War II: Technique - Class - Types. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 978-3613014268 .
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)
- "1935" type torpedo boats (1939–1940) (English, accessed January 2, 2016)
- Torpedo boat 1935 (English, accessed January 2, 2016)