German torpedo boat T23

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Sister ship T35 in US service, August 1945
History
Nazi Germany
NameT23
Ordered10 November 1939
Builder
Elbing, East Prussia
Yard number1482
Laid down1 August 1940
Launched14 June 1941
Completed14 June 1942
FateTransferred to Britain as war reparations, 1945; then to France, 4 February 1946
France
NameL'Alsacien
Namesake
The Alsatian
Acquired4 February 1946
RecommissionedDecember 1949
Out of service9 June 1954
Renamed4 February 1946
Stricken17 February 1954
FateSold for scrap, after 9 June 1954
General characteristics (as built)
Class and typeType 39 torpedo boat
Displacement
  • 1,294 t (1,274 long tons) (standard)
  • 1,754 t (1,726 long tons) (
    deep load
    )
Length102.5 m (336 ft 3 in) o/a
Beam10 m (32 ft 10 in)
Draft3.22 m (10 ft 7 in)
Installed power
  • 4 ×
    water-tube boilers
  • 32,000 shp (24,000 kW)
Propulsion
Speed33.5 knots (62.0 km/h; 38.6 mph)
Range2,400 nmi (4,400 km; 2,800 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Complement206
Sensors and
processing systems
Armament

The German torpedo boat T23 was one of fifteen

minefields in the English Channel in mid-1943. She participated in the Battle of Sept-Îles and the Battle of the Bay of Biscay
later that year, neither receiving nor inflicting any damage.

After returning to Germany in early 1944, the boat was assigned to support German operations in the

Mediterranean Squadron, she was condemned in 1954 and subsequently sold for scrap
.

Design and description

The Type 39 torpedo boat was conceived as a general-purpose design, much larger than preceding German torpedo boats.

kW) which was intended give the ships a maximum speed of 33.5 knots (62.0 km/h; 38.6 mph). They carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 2,400 nautical miles (4,400 km; 2,800 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).[4]

As built, the Type 39 ships mounted four

4 cm (1.6 in) Bofors guns.[5]

Construction and career

Originally ordered as a

working up, the boat was transferred to France in November. T23, her sister T22, and the torpedo boats Falke and Kondor escorted the Italian blockade runner SS Cortellazzo from Bordeaux through the Bay of Biscay on 29–30 November. Another Italian blockade runner, Himalaya, failed in her attempt to break through the Bay of Biscay on 30 March 1943 when she turned back after being spotted by British reconnaissance aircraft, despite a heavy escort of T23, Falke, and the torpedo boats T2, T12, and T18. Himalaya made another attempt on 9–11 April, escorted by T23, T2, T22, Kondor and the torpedo boat T5, but was forced to return by heavy aerial attacks. On 5–8 May, the 2nd Torpedo Boat Flotilla with T23, T2, T5, T18 and T22 laid three minefields in the Channel.[6]

Now assigned to the 4th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, T23 returned to the Bay of Biscay to help escort U-boats through the Bay in July. While providing distant cover for a small convoy during the night of 3/4 October, the 4th Flotilla spotted a force of five British destroyers off the Sept-Îles near the coast of Brittany in the Channel and attacked with complete surprise. The first volley of five torpedoes all missed, but the British did not see them and continued on their course. Only when T23 turned on her radar to determine the range for a second volley did they react when one of the British destroyers detected the radar; they altered course just in time for the second volley of torpedoes to miss. Two of the British ships were able to pursue the retreating Germans at high speed, but both were damaged by German gunfire and forced to disengage.[7]

Battle of Sept-Îles

Main article: Battle of Sept-Îles

On 22 October, the 4th Flotilla, now consisting of T23, T24, and their sisters

captain realized that he was in command.[8]

Battle of the Bay of Biscay

Alsterufer burning after an RAF attack
Main article: Battle of the Bay of Biscay

On 24–26 December T23 was one of the escorts for the 6,951 

No. 311 Squadron RAF sank Alsterufer later that afternoon.[9]

Map of the battle of the Bay of Biscay

The German ships were unaware of the sinking until the following afternoon and continued onward to the rendezvous point. They had been spotted by an American Liberator bomber on the morning of the 28th and the British light cruisers

Hans Erdmenger, commander of the 8th Flotilla, decided to split his forces and ordered the destroyers Z23, Z27, and T22, T25 and T26 to reverse course to the north at 14:18. The cruisers pursued the northern group and sank Z27, T25 and T26. All of the ships in the southern group, including T23, were able to successfully disengage.[11]

Subsequent activities

In early February 1944, T23 and T22 returned to Germany via the English Channel and T23 began a refit at Bremen that lasted until June. The boat was then assigned to the 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla operating in the Baltic. She was attached to the 6th Torpedo Boat Flotilla to help them lay a minefield in Narva Bay, off the Estonian coast, on the night of 17/18 August. The boats, T23, T22 and their sisters T30 and T32 each loaded 54 mines in Helsinki, Finland, and departed on the evening of the 17th. Shortly after midnight, they started to lay their mines, but had only just begun when T30 struck a pair of mines about 00:25 which knocked out all electrical power. About a minute after that, T32 also struck a pair of mines that blew her bow off and disabled her engines. At this T22's crew began making her mines safe and jettisoning them to clear the quarterdeck for towing. At 00:30 T30 exploded and broke in half, probably after hitting another mine. T22's crew finished jettisoning her mines at 00:40 and signaled T32 to see if she was ready to be towed. T32 replied that she was not able to be towed forward, which meant that she would have to be towed stern-first. Around 00:50 T22 began to approach T32 despite being warned that mines were present and struck two of them and blew up at around 01:14. Four minutes later, look-outs reported a motor torpedo boat moving fast aft of the ship and the hydrophones picked up engine noises. Korvettenleutnant Weinlig, thinking that the explosions that sank T22 were torpedoes rather than mines, decided that T23 needed to withdraw lest she be sunk as well, despite the presence of survivors in the water and the crippled T32.[Note 3] He radioed for shallow-draft boats to rescue the survivors at 01:20 and headed west with multiple reports of other ships nearby for the next several hours. At 01:50, T23 encountered the submarine U-679 and Weinlig was preparing to attack before she was recognized as a German submarine. The Soviets never claimed to have sunk any of the torpedo boats that night and the 01:18 spot report was undoubtedly a pinnace from T30 that was pulling survivors from the water.[13]

On 20–21 August, T23 and her sister

Sworbe, on the Estonian island of Saaremaa, breaking up a Soviet attack. A month later, they provided support during a Soviet attack on 19 November, but the Germans were forced to evacuate several days later. In mid-December, the 6th Destroyer Flotilla (Z35, Z36 and Z43), reinforced by T23 and T28, was tasked to lay a new minefield between the Estonian coast and an existing minefield slightly further out to sea. T23 was to escort the other ships and the destroyers were laden with 68 mines each. The flotilla sailed on the morning of the 11th and the weather gradually worsened over the course of the day, and the spray and rain made navigation difficult. Slightly off course to the north, Z35 and Z36 blundered into the Nashorn (Rhinoceros) minefield that was only 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 km; 2.9 mi) north of the intended position of the new minefield. They both struck mines and sank around 02:00; so close to the minefield, no effort was made to rescue any survivors in the darkness.[14]

Prinz Eugen, two destroyers, T23 and T28 supported a German counterattack against advancing Soviet forces near

Danzig on 27 March. The boat screened evacuation convoys from Hela, East Prussia, to friendly territory in early April. On 5 May, T23 helped ferry 45,000 refugees from East Prussia to Copenhagen, Denmark, and returned to help transport 20,000 more to Glücksburg, Germany, on the 9th.[15]

Postwar activities

After the war, the boat was allocated to the British when the Allies divided the surviving ships of the Kriegsmarine amongst themselves in late 1945. After protests by France, the

4 cm Bofors guns. The boat was recommissioned in December 1949 and assigned to the Aircraft Carrier Group of the Mediterranean Squadron at Toulon. L'Alsacien was later assigned to the Anti-submarine Group before she was condemned on 9 July 1954 and subsequently sold for scrap.[18]

Notes

  1. ^ Funkmess-Ortung (Radio-direction finder, active ranging)
  2. ^ Funkmess-Beobachtung (passive radar detector).
  3. ^ T32 was sunk by Soviet aircraft the following morning.[12]

Citations

  1. ^ Whitley 1991, p. 52
  2. ^ Gröner, p. 195
  3. ^ Sieche, p. 239
  4. ^ Whitley 1991, pp. 54, 203
  5. ^ Friedman, p. 205; Whitley 1991, pp. 52–55; Whitley 2000, p. 73
  6. ^ Rohwer, pp. 215, 241, 249; Whitley, pp. 144, 211–212
  7. ^ Rohwer, p. 279; Whitley, pp. 145, 147
  8. ^ Rohwer, p. 282; Whitley, pp. 147–148
  9. ^ Rohwer, pp. 294–295; Whitley, p. 149
  10. ^ Hervieux, p. 98
  11. ^ Hervieux, p. 98; Rohwer, p. 295; Whitley 1991, pp. 149–153
  12. ^ Whitley 1991, p. 179
  13. ^ Gröner, p. 195; Hervieux, p. 101; Rohwer, p. 338; Whitley 1991, pp. 156, 175–179, 211
  14. ^ Rohwer, pp. 351, 359, 361, 373, 377; Whitley 1991, pp. 180–186, 212
  15. ^ Hervieux, pp. 101–102; Rohwer, pp. 387, 398, 414; Whitley 1991, pp. 187, 189, 191
  16. ^ Whitley, pp. 199, 212
  17. ^ Roche, p. 33
  18. ^ Jordan & Moulin, p. 284

References

Further reading

External links
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