The Type 24 torpedo boat (also known as the (german: Raubtier (
Carnivore
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...
) class) was a group of six
torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...
s built for the ''
Reichsmarine
The ''Reichsmarine'' ( en, Realm Navy) was the name of the German Navy during the Weimar Republic and first two years of Nazi Germany. It was the naval branch of the ''Reichswehr'', existing from 1919 to 1935. In 1935, it became known as the ''K ...
'' during the 1920s. As part of the renamed ''
Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...
'', the boats made multiple
non-intervention patrols during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
in the late 1930s. One was sunk in an accidental collision shortly before the start of World War II in September 1939 and the others escorted ships and searched for
contraband
Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") refers to any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It is used for goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes o ...
for several months of the war. They played a minor role in the
Norwegian Campaign of April 1940 and resumed their escort duties. After being transferred to France late in the year, the Type 24s started laying their own
minefield
A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...
s in the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
.
The surviving boats were refitted in early 1941 and were then transferred to the
Skaggerak
The Skagerrak (, , ) is a strait running between the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, the southeast coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area through the Danish Straits to the Baltic Sea.
The ...
for escort duties. By the beginning of 1942 there were only two survivors and they were transferred back to France to participate in the
Channel Dash
The Channel Dash (german: Unternehmen Zerberus, Operation Cerberus) was a German naval operation during the Second World War. (Cerberus), a three-headed dog of Greek mythology who guards the gate to Hades. A (German Navy) squadron comprising ...
. Another boat was lost a few months later trying to escort a
commerce raider
Commerce raiding (french: guerre de course, "war of the chase"; german: Handelskrieg, "trade war") is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than enga ...
through the Channel in May. The last surviving boat, , spent the next several years laying minefields, escorting
blockade runner
A blockade runner is a merchant vessel used for evading a naval blockade of a port or strait. It is usually light and fast, using stealth and speed rather than confronting the blockaders in order to break the blockade. Blockade runners usuall ...
s and
U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...
s through the
Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...
and convoys in Norwegian waters. Shortly after the Allied
invasion of Normandy
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...
in June 1944, she was sunk by British bombers.
Design and description
The Type 24 torpedo boat was slightly larger than the preceding
Type 23 and had some incremental improvements based on experience with the Type 23s. The boats had a lot of
weather helm Weather helm is the tendency of sailing vessels to turn towards the source of wind, creating an unbalanced helm that requires pulling the tiller to windward (i.e. 'to weather') in order to counteract the effect.
Weather helm is the opposite of le ...
so that they were "almost impossible to hold on course in wind and at low speed".
[Gröner, p. 191] The design has been criticized for being equipped with too many torpedoes for the role that they were actually used during World War II.
The boats had an
overall length
The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...
of and were
long at the waterline.
They had a
beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
*Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
**Laser beam
*Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of , a mean
draft
Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vessel ...
of and displaced at
standard load
The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into wei ...
and at
deep load
The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into wei ...
. Their
hull was divided into 13
watertight compartment
A compartment is a portion of the space within a ship defined vertically between decks and horizontally between bulkheads. It is analogous to a room within a building, and may provide watertight subdivision of the ship's hull important in retain ...
s and it was fitted with a
double bottom
A double hull is a ship Hull (watercraft), hull design and construction method where the bottom and sides of the ship have two complete layers of watertight hull surface: one outer layer forming the normal hull of the ship, and a second inner hull ...
that covered 96% of their length. Their crew numbered 129 officers and sailors.
[
The Type 24s had two sets of turbines, each driving a single three-bladed ]propeller
A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
, using steam provided by three water-tube boiler
A high pressure watertube boiler (also spelled water-tube and water tube) is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-gene ...
s that operated at a pressure of .[ The turbines were designed to produce for a speed of . The ships carried a maximum of of ]fuel oil
Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...
which was intended to give a range of at .[ The effective range proved to be only at that speed.][Whitley 1991, p. 202]
Armament and sensors
As built, the Type 24s mounted three 52-caliber
In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...
SK C/28 guns, one forward and two aft of the superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
, numbered one through three from bow to stern.[ The mounts had a range of elevation from -10° to +30° and the guns fired projectiles at a ]muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet, pellet, slug, ball/shots or shell) with respect to the muzzle at the moment it leaves the end of a gun's barrel (i.e. the muzzle). Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately to i ...
of . They had a range of at maximum elevation. Some of these guns were altered to use the ammunition of the SK C/32 gun which weighed and increased the muzzle velocity to . The new ammunition had a maximum range of at an elevation of 44.4°. The last surviving boat, , retained her original gun until her loss in 1944. Each gun was provided with 100 shells.[ In 1932 and had their guns bored out to serve as prototypes of the SK C/34 guns prior to their use on the s.][
Vessels of this class carried six above-water 50 cm (19.7 in) ]torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes.
There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...
s in two triple mounts[Sieche, p. 237] and could also carry up to 30 mines. After 1931, the torpedo tubes were replaced by tubes[ which probably used the ]G7a torpedo
The G7a(TI) was the standard issue ''Kriegsmarine'' torpedo introduced to service in 1934. It was a steam-powered design, using a wet heater engine burning decaline, with a range of at speed. In 1936, the Kriegsmarine's first electrical powered ...
. This torpedo had a warhead
A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb.
Classification
Types of warheads include:
* Explosiv ...
and three speed/range settings: at ; at and at .
A pair of C/30 anti-aircraft gun
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
s were also added after 1931.[ The gun had an effective rate of fire of about 120 rounds per minute. Its projectiles were fired at a muzzle velocity of which gave it a ceiling of and a maximum horizontal range of . Each boat carried 2,000 rounds per gun.][ Wartime additions were an extra pair of 2 cm guns in single mounts just forward of No. 2 gun. In late 1942 they were replaced by a quadruple 2 cm mount. Other guns that were added included three 2 cm guns positioned around the aft ]funnel
A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening.
Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construct ...
, another pair mounted on the bridge wing
file:Bridge of the RV Sikuliaq.jpg, The interior of the bridge of the Research Vessel ''RV Sikuliaq, Sikuliaq'', docked in Ketchikan, Alaska
file:Wheelhouse of Leao Dos Mares.jpg, Wheelhouse on a tugboat, topped with a flying bridge
The bridg ...
s, and a gun added in front of the bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
, all in single mounts. Around 1944 a FuMB 4 ''Sumatra'' radar detector
A radar detector is an electronic device used by motorists to detect if their speed is being monitored by police or law enforcement using a radar gun. Most radar detectors are used so the driver can reduce the car's speed before being ticketed ...
was installed, as was radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
.
Ships
Service
Most of the boats were initially assigned to the 3rd Torpedo Boat Half Flotilla. By the end of 1936, the ''Kriegsmarine'' had reorganized its torpedo boats into flotilla
A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' (fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet.
Composition
A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same class ...
s with ''Leopard'' and ''Luchs'' in the 2nd Torpedo Boat Flotilla and ''Wolf'', ''Iltis'', ''Jaguar'' and ''Tiger'' were assigned to the 3rd Torpedo Boat Flotilla. Both flotillas made several deployments to Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Around June 1938, the flotillas were again reorganized with ''Leopard'' and ''Luchs'' transferred to the 4th Torpedo Boat Flotilla. The other boats were either refitting or in reserve. On 1 July the 3rd Flotilla was renumbered as the 6th. Shortly before the German declaration of war on Poland on 1 September 1939, ''Tiger'' was sunk by a German destroyer which accidentally rammed her during night training.
World War II
At the beginning the 4th Flotilla was disbanded and boats were transferred to the 5th and 6th Torpedo Boat Flotillas. All of the Type 24s supported the North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
mining operations that began on 3 September 1939, except ''Jaguar''. On 13, 18 and 19 November, the 6th Flotilla and one or two light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...
s met destroyers returning from minelaying
A minelayer is any warship, submarine or military aircraft deploying explosive mines. Since World War I the term "minelayer" refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines. "Mine planting" was the term for installing controll ...
missions of the English coast. Two days later the flotilla patrolled the Skagerrak to inspect neutral shipping for contraband goods before returning to port on the 25th. From 14 to 16 December, ''Jaguar'' and the torpedo boat made contraband patrols in the Skaggerak, impounding six ships.
''Iltis'' was refitting, but all the other Type 24s played a minor role in the invasion of Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
in April 1940. ''Leopard'' and ''Wolf'' were assigned to support the attack on Bergen
Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...
while ''Luchs'', was tasked to help capture Kristiansand. ''Jaguar'' ferried reinforcements to Kristiansand. As the heavy cruiser was proceeding to Germany without an escort two days later, she too was crippled by a British submarine off the Danish coast and all five boats responded to render assistance. While escorting a group of minelayers returning from laying a minefield
A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...
in the Skaggerak on 30 April with ''Wolf'', ''Leopard'' was sunk when she was accidentally rammed by one of the minelayers.[
The 6th Flotilla was disbanded in April and all the torpedo boats were consolidated in the 5th Flotilla which continued to escort minelayers and damaged ships between Norway and Germany for the next several months. During one of these missions, ''Luchs'' was sunk by either a submarine or a floating mine on 26 July. The flotilla escorted minelaying missions in the North Sea in August and September before transferring to the English Channel in October. The first ]sortie
A sortie (from the French word meaning ''exit'' or from Latin root ''surgere'' meaning to "rise up") is a deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft, ship, or troops, from a strongpoint. The term originated in siege warfare. ...
in search of Allied shipping was unsuccessful, but another on 11–12 October sank four small ships. The flotilla's boats now started laying minefields themselves over the rest of the year and into early 1941. ''Wolf'' was sunk on one such mission on 8 January when she struck a mine herself.
''Iltis'' and ''Jaguar'' were now the only surviving boats of the class and they continued lay minefields and escorted two battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
s through the Bay of Biscay on 22 March after their North Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...
raid. The sisters began refits the next month and were then transferred to the Skagerrak where they were on convoy escort duties until October. They were transferred to France in January 1942, rejoining the 5th Flotilla and were some of the escorts through the Channel for two battleships and a heavy cruiser during the Channel Dash in February. Both boats helped to screen a commerce raider through the Channel in March, but ''Iltis'' was sunk on 13 May when trying to escort another one. This left ''Jaguar'' as the sole surviving boat and she remained in France for the rest of the year, helping to escort German blockade runners sailing from ports in the Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...
en route to Japan.
She was transferred to Norwegian waters for escort work in early 1943, but returned to France midway through the year to help escort U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...
s through the Bay of Biscay and continued to do so into early August. The boat helped to lay a minefield in the Channel in March 1944. As the Allies began landing in Normandy on 6 June, the 5th Flotilla sortied several times from Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...
over the next week in attempts to sink Allied shipping. They were generally unsuccessful, only sinking a single destroyer on 6 June. ''Jaguar'' was sunk during an air raid by the Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
on the night of 14/15 June.[Rohwer, pp. 233, 236, 247, 249, 256, 312, 324, 331–332, 335; Whitley 1991, pp. 158, 165]
Notes
Citations
References
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{{WWII German ships
World War II torpedo boats of Germany
Torpedo boats of the Kriegsmarine
Ships of the Reichsmarine