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

370 Pages·2008·17.86 MB·English
by  Frank
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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

Description:
A detailed narrative of S-boat, or schnellboot, actions during World War II in all the theatres where they were deployed. The author, describes, with the help of a multitude of maps and photographs, all the incidents that these 45-knot fast attack craft were involved in. The German motor torpedo boa
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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.