Generally
Schnellboot or
S-boot ("fast boat"), is the designation for
Motor Torpedo BoatMotor Torpedo Boat was the name given to fast torpedo boats by the Royal Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and the United States Navy.During World War II the US Navy boats were usually called by their hull classification symbol of "PT" and are covered under PT boat though the class type was still...
s of the
German NavyThe German Navy The German Navy The German Navy (Deutsche Marine is the navy of Germany and part of the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces).The German Navy traces its roots back to the Imperial Fleet (Reichsflotte) of the revolutionary era of 1848–1852 and more directly to the Prussian Navy, which...
since 1932. In particular it applies to that type of Boat that saw service during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The Schnellboot was then called an
E-boat by the Allies; it is commonly held that the "E" stood for "Enemy" , but it is possible that it stood for "Eilboot" ("hurry boat").
The S-boot was much larger than the American
PT boatPT Boats were a variety of motor torpedo boat , a small, fast vessel used by the United States Navy in World War II to attack larger surface ships...
and the British
Motor Torpedo BoatMotor Torpedo Boat was the name given to fast torpedo boats by the Royal Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and the United States Navy.During World War II the US Navy boats were usually called by their hull classification symbol of "PT" and are covered under PT boat though the class type was still...
(MTB). The S-boot was better suited to the open sea and had substantially longer range (approximately 700 nautical miles), which resulted in the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
developing many later versions of MTBs, using the
Fairmile 'D'The Fairmile D motor torpedo boat was a type of British Motor Torpedo Boat designed by Bill Holt and conceived by Fairmile Marine for the Royal Navy....
hull design.
Development
After the
Treaty of VersaillesThe Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
, most of Germany's military production was severely curtailed. Small patrol craft were not. The S-boote can trace their lineage back to a private motor
yachtA yacht is a high end recreational boat. It designates two rather different classes of watercraft, sailing and power boats. Yachts are different from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose. It was not until the rise of the steamboat and other types of powerboat that sailing vessels in...
— a 22-ton-displacement, 34-knot craft called
Oheka II, which had been built in 1927 for a wealthy financier and patron of the arts, Otto Kahn, by the German
shipbuildingShipbuilding is the construction of ships. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history....
company
LürssenLürssen is a German shipbuilding company based in Bremen-Vegesack.Lürssen designs and constructs yachts, naval ships and special vessels...
.
This design was chosen because the theatre of operations of such boats was expected to be the
North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
,
English ChannelThe English Channel is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest, to only in the Strait of Dover...
and the
Western ApproachesThe Western Approaches is a rectangular area of the Atlantic ocean lying on the western coast of Great Britain. The rectangle is higher than it is wide, the north and south boundaries defined by the north and south ends of the British Isles, the eastern boundary lying on the western coast, and the...
. The requirement for good performance in rough seas dictated the use of a round-bottomed displacement hull rather than the flat-bottomed planing hull that was more usual for small, high-speed boats. Lürssen overcame many of the disadvantages of such a hull and, with the Oheka II, produced a craft that was fast, strong and seaworthy. This attracted the interest of the German Navy, which in 1929 ordered a similar boat but fitted with two torpedo tubes. This became the S-1, and was the basis for all subsequent S-boote.
Operations with the Kriegsmarine
S-boote were often used to patrol the
Baltic SeaThe Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the...
and the English Channel in order to intercept shipping heading for the English ports in the south and east. As such, they were up against
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
and Commonwealth (particularly
Royal Canadian NavyThe Royal Canadian Navy was the navy of Canada from 1911 until 1968 when the three Canadian services were unified to form the Canadian Forces....
contingents leading up to
D-DayD-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
),
Motor Gun BoatMotor Gun Boat was a Royal Navy term for a small military vessel of the Second World War. They were physically similar to the Motor Torpedo Boats but equipped with a mix of guns instead of torpedoes. Their small size and high speed made them difficult targets for E-boats or torpedo bombers, but...
s (MGBs),
Motor Torpedo BoatMotor Torpedo Boat was the name given to fast torpedo boats by the Royal Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and the United States Navy.During World War II the US Navy boats were usually called by their hull classification symbol of "PT" and are covered under PT boat though the class type was still...
s (MTBs),
Motor LaunchA Motor Launch is a small military vessel in British navy service. They were designed for harbour defense and submarine chasing or for armed high speed Air Sea Rescue.The first Motor Launches entered service in the First World War...
es,
frigatesThe Captain class was 78 frigates of the Royal Navy, constructed in the United States, launched in 1942–1943 and delivered to the United Kingdom under the provisions of Lend-Lease. They served in World War II as convoy escorts, anti-submarine warfare vessels and coastal forces control frigates...
and
destroyerIn naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, short-range but powerful attackers .Before World War II, destroyers were light vessels without the endurance...
s. They were also transferred in small numbers to the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea by river and land transport. Some small S-Boote were built as longboats for auxiliary cruisers.
Crew members could earn an award particular to their work -
Das SchnellbootkriegsabzeichenE-Boat War Badge is a German military decoration awarded to Kriegsmarine members for service on fast attack crafts or torpedo boats...
- denoted by a badge depicting an S-boot passing through a wreath. The criteria were good conduct, distinction in action, participating in at least twelve enemy actions. It was also awarded for particularly successful missions, displays of leadership or being killed in action. It could be awarded under special circumstances, such as when another decoration was not suitable.
Schnellboots of the 9th flotilla were the first naval units to respond to the invasion fleet of
Operation OverlordOperation Overlord was the code name for the invasion of western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation began on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy Landings when an airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault...
. They left Cherbourg harbour at 5am on 6 June 1944. On finding themselves confronted by the entire invasion fleet, they fired their torpedoes at maximum range and returned to Cherbourg.
During their operational history in World War II, the
S-boote sank 101 merchant ships totalling 214,728 tons. In addition, they sank 12 destroyers, 11 minesweepers, eight landing ships, six enemy MTBs, a torpedo boat, a minelayer, one submarine and a number of small merchant craft. They also damaged two cruisers, five destroyers, three landing ships, a repair ship, a naval tug and numerous merchant vessels. Sea mines laid by the 'S-boote' were responsible for the loss of 37 merchant ships totalling 148,535 tons, a destroyer, two minesweepers and four landing ships.
In recognition of their service, the members of Schnellboot crews were awarded the
Knight's CrossKnight's Cross refers to a distinguishing grade or level of various orders that denotes bravery and leadership on the battlefield....
23 times, and the
German CrossThe German Cross was instituted by Adolf Hitler on 16 November 1941 as an award ranking higher than the Iron Cross First Class but below the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross....
in Gold 112 times.
Post-war service in the Royal Navy
At the end of the war, about 34 S boats were surrendered to the British. Three boats, S-130 (renamed P5230), S-208 (P5208) and S-212 (P5212) were retained for trials.
Between 1949 and 1956,
Operation JungleOperation Jungle was an early-Cold War MI6 program for the clandestine insertion of intelligence and resistance agents into the Baltic states between 1948 and 1955. The agents were mostly Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian emigrants who had been trained in the UK and Sweden and were to link up with...
, a joint operation of MI6, the CIA, and the Gehlen Organization, to infiltrate agents into the Baltic states and
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
by sea, was established. Royal Navy Commander
Anthony CourtneyCommander Anthony Tosswill Courtney, OBE, RN was a British Royal Navy officer and politician. While a Member of Parliament, he was a victim of a plot apparently instituted by the KGB to discredit him, which appeared to contribute to the loss of his seat...
was struck by the potential capabilities of former E-boat hulls, and
John Harvey-JonesSir John Harvey-Jones MBE was chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries from 1982 to 1987. He may have been best-known for his BBC television show, Troubleshooter, in which he advised struggling businesses....
of the
Naval Intelligence DivisionThe Naval Intelligence Division was the intelligence arm of the British Admiralty before the establishment of a unified Defence Staff in 1965. It dealt with matters concerning British naval plans, with the collection of naval intelligence...
was put in charge of the project. He discovered that the Royal Navy still had two E-boats, P5230 and P5208, and had them sent to Portsmouth, where one of them, P5230 (S130), was modified to reduce its weight and increase its power with the installation of three Napier Deltic engines of 3000hp. To preserve
deniabilityPlausible deniability refers to the denial of blame in loose and informal chains of command where upper rungs quarantine the blame to the lower rungs. In the case that illegal or otherwise disreputable and unpopular activities become public, high-ranking officials may deny any awareness of such act...
, a former German E-boat captain, Helmut Klose, and a German crew were recruited to man the E-boat. They operated under the cover of the British Control Commission's Fishery Protection Service, which was responsible for preventing Soviet navy vessels from interfering with German fishing boats and for destroying stray mines.
Survivor
The only surviving S-boat is the S-130. For some time, this vessel was privately owned by John Wheeler, who also owned S-97, but in the care of the British Military Powerboat Trust in Southampton, England. Due to the financial burden, S-97 was scrapped and the BMPT made at least one unsuccessful attempt to sell S-130 on eBay.
It has been announced on the BBC
News website that the S-130 shell has been bought for £1 by Kevin Wheatcroft who is planning to spend £3,000,000 on restoration at the Southdown yard in Cornwall, England. see http://www.rovcom.co.uk/s130_ww2_schnellboot.htm].
S-130 was commissioned on October 21, 1943 and took an active part in the war, participating in the
Exercise TigerExercise Tiger was the code name for two military exercises held in the United Kingdom during the Second World War:*The first, conducted in 1942, was an Army-level exercise by Commonwealth forces and the largest ever held in the UK up to then....
attack and attacks on the
D-dayD-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
invasion fleet.
Variants
The Schnellboot design evolved over time. The first had a pair of torpedo tubes on the fore deck. Wartime types were:-
S-26 class: Entered service in 1940. 40 m hull. Torpedo tubes covered by forward deck.
S-30 class
S-38 class
S-38b class: Improved 38 class with armoured bridge. Various armament including 40mm Bofors or 20mm Flak aft, MG34 'Zwillingsockel' midships
S-100 class: From 1943. 2 x 20 mm gun
amidshipsThis is a glossary of nautical terms; some remain current, many date from the 17th-19th century. See also Wiktionary's nautical terms and :Category:Nautical terms.- A :* Above board – On or above the deck, in plain view, not hiding anything....
and 37 mm gun
aftAft, in naval terminology, is an adjective or adverb meaning, towards the stern of the ship, when the frame of reference is within the ship. Example: "Able Seaman Smith; lay aft!". Or; "What's happening aft?"...
.
S-151 class
Type 700: late war design proposal with stern torpedo tubes and 30 mm gun turret forward. 8 boats built, but completed to S-100 design specification
Specification
- Length: 34.9 m = 114 feet 6 inches
- Weight: up to 120 t
A tonne or metric ton , also referred to as a metric tonne, is a measurement of mass equal to , or approximately the mass of one cubic metre of water. It is not an SI unit but is accepted for use with the SI...
- Speed: 43.8 kts
The knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, which is equal to exactly 1.852 km/h and approximately 1.151 mph. The abbreviation kn is preferred by American and Canadian maritime authorities, and by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; however, the...
- Engines: Three 20-cylinder 2000 hp Daimler Benz MB501 diesels
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber during the final stage of compression...
driving three shafts.
- Armament:
- 2 x 53.3 cm (21 inches) torpedo tubes, with room for 2 more torpedos (for reloading).
- 1 x 20 mm gun, (20 mm single on early boats, Zwilling and special bow version on later classes)
- 1 x 40 mm gun (40 mm Bofors) on some S38 class boats
Other AA armament carried on different models included 2 or more pintle-mounted MG-34s, 3,7 cm Flak 42 (S-100) and 8,6cm Raketen Abschussgeraet RaG M42 (S-100) or, rarely, a quad 2 cm
Flakvierling mount.
See also
- Steam Gun Boat
The Steam Gun Boat was a Royal Navy term for a class of small naval vessels used during the Second World War. The class consisted of nine gun boats, powered by steam, and built from 1940 to 1942 for the Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy....
- Fairmile D motor torpedo boat
The Fairmile D motor torpedo boat was a type of British Motor Torpedo Boat designed by Bill Holt and conceived by Fairmile Marine for the Royal Navy....
- R boat
The R boats or Räumboote in German were a group of small Minesweepers but used in General purpose. A total of 424 boats were built for the Kriegsmarine before and during World War II. The German Navy used them in every theatre including the Baltic, Mediterranean and the Black Sea. These boats were...
- List of Knight's Cross recipients of the Schnellboot service
External links