German S-Boats: in Action in the Second World War

370 Pages·2008·17.86 MB·English

by  Frank

in the Second World War
Hans Frank
TRANSLATED BY
GEOFFREY BROOKS
Copyright © Verlag E. S. Mittler & Sohn GmbH 2006
Translation Copyright © Seaforth Publishing 2007
First published in Great Britain in 2007 by
Seaforth Publishing,
Pen & Sword Books Ltd,
47 Church Street,
BarnsleyS70 2AS
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 84415 716 7
First published in 2006 as
Die deutschen Schnellboote im Einsatz
by Verlag E. S. Mittler & Sohn GmbH
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and
retrieval system, without prior permission in writing of both the
copyright owner and the above publisher.
Translated Geoffrey Brooks
Designed and typeset by Sally Geeve
Printed in China through Printworks Int. Ltd.
Contents
Foreword
1 Development and First Operations
2 Weserübung
3 Blitzkrieg in the Channel
4 Intermezzo
5 To the Baltic for Barbarossa
6 Back to the Channel
7 Norway
8 North Africa and Southern Mediterranean
9 The Northern Mediterranean, Adriatic and Aegean
10 The Black Sea
11 The Invasion
12 From the Ardennes to the End in the West
13 Last Station – the Baltic
14 The Technological War
15 Training and Working Up
16 The S-Boat and Its Armament
17 The Commodore
Epilogue
Appendix I – The S-Boat Flotillas
Appendix II – Flotilla Insignia
Appendix III – Naval Square Chart
Appendix IV – Torpedoes and Mines
Appendix V – S-Boat Awards and Badges
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Foreword
Before the First World War, fast motor launches were an extravagance available
only to the wealthy few. When steam reciprocating machinery was still a novelty
in ships, there were already international competitions for speedboats. When war
came, they were found employment from early on as weapons carriers. The most
impressive demonstration of what they could achieve was the sinking of the
Austro-Hungarian battleship Szent Istvàn by an Italian motor torpedo boat in
1918.
A volunteer Motor Boat Corps was formed in Germany, but despite the
Kaiser’s patronage, was never integrated into the naval organisation. Designated
LM-boats, the craft were equipped with powerful airship engines and used to
remove antisubmarine nets laid by the Royal Navy across the channels used by
U-boats leaving their Belgian bases.
On the eve of the Second World War, the S-boats of the Kriegsmarine
(designated for uncertain reasons ‘E-boats’ by the British) were already an
obsolescent breed, being the produce of early clandestine moves by individual
officers and shipyards to circumvent the Versailles Treaty. Their strategic and
tactical role was considered to be that of naval auxiliaries. The new arm of the
service, poorly prepared, now took its place in the great confrontation. As with
all German units, from the outset too much was expected from too few boats. In
the long run, despite outstanding technical improvements and the wiles of their
experienced crews, the S-boat Arm was unable to hold its own against Allied
defences, whose sheer advantage in numbers, superior electronics and continual
aerial bombardment demanded of it too high a levy.
In this fascinating historical account, the author describes the missions,
operations and finally the collapse of the German S-boat Arm. The impressive
story of human achievement in all theatres is a chronicle of success and failure.
The vain hopes of a political leadership vested in the S-boat Arm to the very end
could not be, and were not, met.
Professor Peter Tamm
Wissenschaftliches Institut für
Schiffahrts-und
Marinegeschichte, Hamburg
1
Development and First Operations
From the Beginnings to March 1940
Three basic factors made the creation of the S-boat Arm possible. First was the
torpedo as a self-contained weapon of devastating effect; second, the operational
advantage, already recognised by the Torpedo Boat Arm, of high speeds; and
third, new engines, allowing the construction of smaller boats.
Germany had played a major role in the development of small, fast boats
before World War I, the leader being Lürssen with his round-frame racer
Donnerwetter (1905–9) and the Lürssen-Daimler boat with which he won the
1911 ‘Championship of the Seas’ at Monaco. The real developments in the
fighting role, in which the craft was equipped with torpedoes, were made
principally by Italy and Great Britain. Both used small motor torpedo boats
successfully in operations. The Italian MAS-boats (Motobarca Armata Svano)
achieved a string of successes in the Adriatic against the Austro-Hungarian navy,
an example being the sinking of the battleship Szent István by MAS-boats on 10
June 1918. British MTBs were often in action in the Channel against German
units. Their successes were few, however, for they had to discharge the torpedo
over the stern tail-first. This required high speed to prevent the torpedo ‘catching
up’. A surprise approach and a sure aim were therefore difficult. In July 1919,
however, they proved their effectiveness by sinking the Russian cruiser Oleg at
Kronstadt.1
The German development followed a different path. Not until the summer of
1916 were small, fast motor launches required, when their task was to clear
British antisubmarine nets at Zeebrugge and Ostend and so allow U-boats safe
access and departure at these ports. A mix of boats was needed, some to work at
the nets, the others to keep the lurking British destroyers and torpedo boats at a
safe distance. These guard boats therefore had torpedo armament. In the autumn
of 1916 the C-in-C Baltic requested small torpedo carriers for use against
Russian naval forces in the Baltic Islands region.
Two net boats and a guard boat (right).
The first six boats were built in 1917 at the Lürssen, Naglo and Oertz yards.
They displaced around seven tonnes, were sixteen metres long and with their
three Zeppelin airship engines could make thirty knots. Designated LM 1 to LM
6 (LM standing for Luftschiff-Motor), the first four boats were equipped with net
cutters; the other two each had a torpedo tube.
After inclusion in the Motor Launch Division, the boats were attached to
Naval Corps Flanders. Several skirmishes off the coast of Flanders resulted in
only a single success. Later in the Baltic, on 24 August 1917, the 1,200-gross-
ton Russian minelayer Penelope was sunk by them in the Irben Strait off the
Baltic Islands.2
Experiments were run with LM-boats off the Belgian coast using remote
control, but these craft were never used operationally. Another fourteen LM-
boats were built in 1918 as torpedo carriers; others ordered remained incomplete
at the war’s end.3