Operators Kriegsmarine Completed 9 Type Torpedo boat | Preceded by Type 35 torpedo boat Lost 3 | |
Succeeded by Elbing-class torpedo boat | ||
The German Type 37 Torpedo Boat (German: Flottentorpedoboot "Fleet Torpedo Boat") were a class of warships built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine between 1939 and 1942. They were a development of the Type 35 torpedo boat.
Contents
Like the Type 35, they were not considered very successful, their weak gun armament was disliked and the machinery was unreliable and difficult to repair. They also had relatively poor sea-keeping and a weak bridge structure.
These ships served in the North Sea, English Channel, and Baltic Sea.
General characteristics
The Type 37 torpedo boats followed on from the Type 35 torpedo boats, but were similarly unsuccessful. The 1937s incorporated some modifications, including lower pressure turbines, but with little real improvement. They displayed the same limitations as their predecessors, with engines that were unreliable and difficult to repair and maintain in the restricted space of the hull. The low displacement made them unseaworthy. As designed, they also focused on torpedo armament, with a single 10.5 centimetre gun and minimal anti-aircraft protection. The anti-aircraft protection was increased later in the war.
Nine ships were built, all at Schichau-Werke, Elbing. Three were sunk, and one scuttled, by the end of the war. Of the survivors, four were transferred abroad as war reparations and the last was scrapped in Germany.
Ships
All these ships were built by Schichau in Elbing