E-boat

Schnellboot

An E-boat flying the white flag, after surrender at the coastal forces base HMS Beehive, Felixstowe, May 1945
Class overview
Name	S-100
General characteristics
Type	motor torpedo boat
Displacement	list error: <br /> list (help) 100 tons (max) 78.9 tons (standard)
Length	32.76 m
Beam	5.06 m
Draught	1.47 m
Propulsion	3: Daimler Benz twenty-cylinder diesel engines MB 501; 3,960 hp
Speed	43.8 knots
Range	800 nm at 30 knots
Complement	24–30
Armament	list error: <br /> list (help) 2 × 533 mm torpedo tubes (4 torpedoes) 1 × twin 20 mm C/30 cannon, 1 × single 20 mm cannon 1 × 37 mm Flak 42 cannon

Schnellboot or S-Boot ("fast craft") is the designation for Motor Torpedo Boats of the German Navy since 1932. In particular it applies to that type of Boat that saw service during World War II. The schnellboot was then called an E-boat by the Allies; it is commonly held that the E stood for Enemy.^[1][2]

The S-boot was better suited to the open sea and had substantially longer range (approximately 700 nautical miles) than the American PT boat and the British Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB). As a result the Royal Navy later developed better matched versions of MTBs using the Fairmile 'D' hull design.

As a result of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany's military production was severely curtailed. Small patrol craft, however, were not subject to any strictures. The S-boote can trace their lineage back to a private motor yacht—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 shipbuilding company Lürssen.

This design was chosen because the theatre of operations of such boats was expected to be the North Sea, English Channel and the Western Approaches. 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.

After experimenting with the S-1 the Germans made several improvements to the design. Small rudders added on either side of the main rudder could be angled outboard to 30 degrees, creating at high speed what's known as the Lürssen Effect.^[3] This drew in an "air pocket slightly behind the three propellers, increasing their efficiency, reducing the stern wave and keeping the boat at a nearly horizontal attitude".^[4] This was an important innovation as the horizontal attitude lifted the stern somewhat, allowing even greater speed, and the reduced stern wave made S-boote harder to see, especially at night.

S-boote were often used to patrol the Baltic Sea 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 Navy and Commonwealth (particularly Royal Canadian Navy contingents leading up to D-Day), Motor Gun Boats (MGBs), Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs), Motor Launches, frigates and destroyers. 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 boats for carrying by auxiliary cruisers.

Crew members could earn an award particular to their work—Das Schnellbootkriegsabzeichen—denoted by a badge depicting an S-boot passing through a wreath. The criteria were good conduct, distinction in action, and 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.

Schnellboote of the 9th flotilla were the first naval units to respond to the invasion fleet of Operation Overlord.^[5] They left Cherbourg harbour at 5am on 6 June 1944.^[5] On finding themselves confronted by the entire invasion fleet, they fired their torpedoes at maximum range and returned to Cherbourg.^[5]

During World War II the S-boote sank 101 merchant ships totalling 214,728 tons.^[6] In addition, they sank 12 destroyers, 11 minesweepers, eight landing ships, six 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.^[6]

In recognition of their service, the members of Schnellboot crews were awarded the Knight's Cross on 23 occasions, and the German Cross in Gold on 112 occasions.^[6]

The poor seaworthiness of the MAS boats led the Italian Navy to build its own version of the S-boot. The prototype was designed on the pattern of six German-built E-boats captured from the Yugoslav Navy in 1941. Notably, two of them sank the largest warship (the British cruiser HMS Manchester) that was sunk by this kind of boat in World War II.^[7] Thirty six of these vessels were completed by 1943.^[8]

At the end of the war about 34 S-boote 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 Jungle, a joint operation was established between MI6, the CIA, and the Gehlen Organization to insert agents into the Baltic states and Poland by sea. Royal Navy Commander Anthony Courtney was struck by the potential capabilities of former E-boat hulls, and John Harvey-Jones of the Naval Intelligence Division 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 (ex-S130), was modified to reduce its weight and increase its power with the installation of two Napier Deltic engines of 3000 hp apiece. In the interests of deniability, 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.^[9]

The Kriegsmarine supplied the Spanish Navy with six S-boote during the Spanish civil war, and six more during the Second World War. Another six were built in Spain with some assistance from Lürssen. The German-built boats were discarded in the 1960s, while some of the Spanish-built ones served until the early 1970s.^[10]

There appear to be two surviving S-boots, both identified as the S-130, one on display in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, and the other undergoing restoration in Southdown in Cornwall, England.

Built as hull No.1030 at the Schlichting boatyard in Travemünde, S-130 was commissioned on 21 October 1943 and took an active part in the war, participating in the Exercise Tiger attack and attacks on the D-day invasion fleet.

According to Dutch military historian Maurice Laarman:

In 1945, S-130 was taken as a British war prize ( FPB 5030) and put to use in covert operations. Under the guise of the "British Baltic Fishery Protection Service", the British Secret Intelligence Service MI 6 ferried spies and agents into Eastern Europe. Beginning in May 1949, MI 6 used S-208, (Kommandant Hans-Helmut Klose) to insert agents into Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Poland. The operations were very successful and continued under a more permanent organisation based in Hamburg. In 1952, S-130 joined the operation and the mission was enlarged to include signal intelligence (SIGINT) equipment. In 1954/55, S-130 and S-208 were replaced by a new generation of German S-boote.

S-130 was returned to the newly formed Bundesmarine in March 1957, and operated under the number UW 10. Serving initially in the Unterwasserwaffenschule training sailors in underwater weaponry such as mines and torpedoes, she later became a test boat under the name EF 3.^[11]

Today this S-130 is on display in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Photos by Laarman are here:[1]

The second "S-130" is undergoing thorough restoration in Southdown in Cornwall, England.^[12] Multiple galleries of photos of the process are here:[2]

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 S-38 class with armoured bridge. Various armament including 40mm Bofors or 20mm Flak aft, MG34 Zwillingsockel midships

S-100 class

From 1943. 1 x 20 mm in the bow, 2 × 20 mm gun amidships and 37 mm gun aft.

S-151 class

Type 700

late war design proposal with stern torpedo tubes and 30 mm gun turret forward. Eight boats built, but completed to S-100 design specification

• Length: 34.9 m (114 feet 6 inches)
• Weight: up to 120 t
• Speed: 43.8 kts
• Engines: Three 20-cylinder 2000 hp Daimler Benz MB501 diesels driving three shafts.
• Armament:
  • 2 × 53.3 cm (21 inches) torpedo tubes, with room for 2 more torpedoes (for reloading).
  • 1 × 20 mm gun, (20 mm single on early boats, twin and special bow version on later classes)
  • 1 × 40 mm gun (40 mm Bofors) on some S-38 class boats

Other AA armament carried on different models included two or more pintle-mounted MG-34s, 3.7 cm Flak 42 (S-100) and 8.6 cm RaG M42 (S-100) or, rarely, a quad 2 cm flak mount.

• Steam Gun Boat
• Fairmile D motor torpedo boat
• R boat
• List of Knight's Cross recipients of the Schnellboot service

• Dallies-Labourdette, Jean Philippe (2003). German S-boote at War, 1939-1945. Histoire and Collections. ISBN 2-913903-49-5. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Krakow, David (2003). Schnellboot in Action (Warships). Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-89747-457-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Williamson, Gordon (September 18, 2002). German E-boats 1939-45. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-445-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Macpherson, Ken. Ships Of Canada's Naval Forces (Warships). Collins Publications, Inc. ISBN 10: 0002168561.

• S130 Owners site
• S130 Restoration
• Prinz Eugen S-boat site
• John Drain's model S-boat site
• Five part video podcast documentary about S130 on www.pod3.tv
• "British Military Powerboat Trust".