German torpedo boat T2

The Type 35 was an unsuccessful attempt by the Kriegsmarine to design a fast, ocean-going torpedo boat that did not exceed the 600-long-ton (610 t) displacement limit of the London Naval Treaty for ships that counted against the national tonnage limit.[1] The boats had an overall length of 84.3 meters (276 ft 7 in) and were 82.2 meters (269 ft 8 in) long at the waterline. After the bow was rebuilt in 1941 to improve seaworthiness, the overall length increased to 87.1 meters (285 ft 9 in).[2] The ships had a beam of 8.62 meters (28 ft 3 in), and a mean draft of 2.83 meters (9 ft 3 in) at deep load and displaced 859 metric tons (845 long tons) at standard load and 1,108 metric tons (1,091 long tons) at deep load.[3] Their crew numbered 119 officers and sailors.[4] Their pair of geared steam turbine sets, each driving one propeller, were designed to produce 31,000 shaft horsepower (23,000 kW) using steam from four high-pressure water-tube boilers[2] which would propel the boats at 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph). They carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 1,200 nautical miles (2,200 km; 1,400 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).[3]

As built, the Type 35 class mounted a single 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK C/32 gun on the stern. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a single 3.7 cm (1.5 in) SK C/30 anti-aircraft gun superfiring over the 10.5 cm gun and a pair of 2 cm (0.8 in) C/30 guns on the bridge wings. They carried six above-water 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes in two triple mounts and could also carry 30 mines (or 60 if the weather was good). Many boats exchanged the 3.7 cm gun for another 2 cm gun, depth charges and minesweeping paravanes before completion. Late-war additions were limited to the installation of radar, radar detectors and additional AA guns, often at the expense of the aft torpedo tube mount.[5]

T2 was ordered on 16 November 1935 from Schichau, laid down at their Elbing, East Prussia, shipyard on 14 November 1936[6] as yard number 1381,[2] launched on 7 April 1938 and commissioned on 2 December 1939. The boat was working up until June when she began convoy escort duties in German waters.[6] Now assigned to the 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, T2, her sister ships T7 and T8 and the torpedo boats Kondor, Falke, and Jaguar, escorted minelayers as they laid a minefield in the southwestern North Sea on 7–8 August and again on 14–15 August. Newly assigned to the 1st Torpedo Boat Flotilla with Kondor and her sister ships T1 and T3, T2 escorted a minelaying mission in the English Channel on 6–7 September. The boat was damaged by a bomb splinters from a Bristol Blenheim bomber on the 12th and went to Vlissingen, Netherlands, for repairs before returning to German waters to escort convoys.[7]

T2 began a refit in February 1941 and was then working up until July when she began escorting convoys in the Skaggerak. Together with her sisters T5, T8 and T11, the boat supported German forces invading the Estonian islands of Ösel, Dagö and Muhu (Operation Beowulf) in mid-September. T2, T5, T7, T8 and T11 were among the escorts for the Baltic Fleet, a temporary formation built around the battleship Tirpitz, as it sortied into the Sea of Åland on 23–29 September to forestall any attempt by the Soviet Red Banner Baltic Fleet to breakout from the Gulf of Finland. Dagö was captured on 12–13 October after T2 is part of a decoy force used to distract the defenders. The ship was briefly refitted in November. On 2 December T2 and her sister T12 rendezvoused with the commerce raider Thor in the Schillig Roads; after they were joined by T4, T7 and the torpedo boat T14 the following day, they began to escort Thor through the Channel. Delayed by heavy fog, the ships did not reach Brest, France, until the 15th, while Thor continued onwards into the Atlantic.[8]

On the morning of 12 February 1942, the 2nd and 3rd Torpedo Boat Flotillas (with T2, T4, T5, T11, T12 and T13, T15, T16, and T17 respectively) rendezvoused with the battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen to escort them through the Channel to Germany in the Channel Dash. Upon her arrival in Germany, T2 was reduced to reserve until she was ordered to France in March 1943. Although escorted by T2, T5, Kondor and the torpedo boats T22 and T23, the Italian blockade runner Himalaya failed in her attempt to break through the Bay of Biscay when she was spotted by British aircraft and forced to return by heavy aerial attacks on 9–11 April. On 5–8 May, the 2nd Torpedo Boat Flotilla with T2, T5 and the torpedo boats T18 and T22 laid three minefields in the Channel. T2 transferred to the Baltic and served as flagship of the 25th U-boat Flotilla from 10 July to September. The next month she was assigned to the Torpedo School. On 29 July 1944, the boat was sunk by American bombers attacking Bremen. T2 was refloated on 4 September and was towed to Swinemünde on 9 December and then to Schichau's Elbing shipyard for repairs on 31 January 1945. Advancing Soviet forces forced her to be towed back west, unrepaired, the following month. The hulk was reported at Brunsbüttel in May and was broken up at Cuxhaven in 1946.[9]

• Gardiner, Robert & Chesneau, Roger, eds. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Volume 1: Major Surface Warships. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-790-9.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
• Whitley, M. J. (2000). Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. London: Cassell & Co. ISBN 1-85409-521-8.
• Whitley, M. J. (1991). German Destroyers of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-302-8.

• Type 35 on German Navy.de