:German torpedo boat T2

{{Main articles|Type 35 torpedo boat}}

The Type 35 was an unsuccessful attempt by the Kriegsmarine to design a fast, ocean-going torpedo boat that did not exceed the {{cvt|600|LT|t|adj=on}} displacement limit of the London Naval Treaty for ships that counted against the national tonnage limit.Whitley 1991, pp. 47–49 The boats had an overall length of {{convert|84.3|m|ftin|sp=us}} and were {{convert|82.2|m|ftin|sp=us}} long at the waterline. After the bow was rebuilt in 1941 to improve seaworthiness, the overall length increased to {{convert|87.1|m|ftin|sp=us}}.Gröner, p. 193 The ships had a beam of {{convert|8.62|m|ftin|sp=us}} and a mean draft of {{convert|2.83|m|ftin|sp=us}} at deep load. They displaced {{convert|859|MT|LT|lk=on}} at standard load and {{convert|1108|MT|LT}} at deep load, exceeding the planned limit. Their crew numbered 119 officers and sailors.Sieche, p. 237 Their pair of geared steam turbine sets, each driving one propeller, were designed to produce {{convert|31000|shp|lk=on}}, using steam from four high-pressure water-tube boilers which would propel the boats at {{convert|35|kn|lk=on}}. They carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of {{convert|1200|nmi|lk=in}} at {{convert|19|kn}}.Whitley 1991, p. 202

As built, the Type 35 class mounted a single 10.5 cm SK C/32 naval gun gun on the stern. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a single 3.7 cm SK C/30 anti-aircraft gun superfiring over the 10.5 cm gun and a pair of 2 cm FlaK 30/38/Flakvierling guns on the bridge wings. They carried six above-water {{cvt|533|mm|in|0}} torpedo tubes in two triple mounts and could also carry 30 mines (or 60 if the weather was good).{{Clarification needed|reason=Why? Were the mines carried on-deck? Was there trouble with securing them in place?|date=June 2023}} Many boats exchanged the 3.7 cm gun for another 2 cm gun, depth charges and minesweeping paravanes before completion.Whitley 1991, pp. 49–51; Whitley 2000, p. 71 While the full extent of any modifications to T2 are unknown, photographic evidence shows the ship was fitted with a quadruple mount for 2 cm guns in lieu of the single 3.7 cm gun and an additional 2 cm weapon positioned on the bow before her loss in mid-1944. She is not known have been fitted with radar.Whitley n.d., p. 20

T2 was ordered on 16 November 1935 from Schichau, laid down at their Elbing, East Prussia, shipyard on 14 November 1936Whitley 1991, p. 209 as yard number 1381, launched on 7 April 1938, and commissioned on 2 December 1939. The boat was working up until June 1940, when she began convoy escort duties in German waters. Now assigned to the 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, T2, her sister ships {{ship|German torpedo boat|T7||2}} and {{ship|German torpedo boat|T8||2}}, and the torpedo boats {{ship|German torpedo boat|Kondor||2}}, {{ship|German torpedo boat|Falke||2}}, and {{ship|German torpedo boat|Jaguar||2}} 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 sisters {{ship|German torpedo boat|T1||2}} and {{ship|German torpedo boat|T3||2}}, T2 escorted a minelaying mission in the English Channel on 6–7 September. Five days later, T2, the torpedo boat {{ship|German torpedo boat|Seeadler||2}}, T1, and T3 were ordered to proceed to France. They were attacked enroute by a Bristol Blenheim light bomber that dropped a bomb {{convert|10|m|sp=us}} to one side of T2. Splinters from the bomb badly damaged the torpedo boat and wounded six men. She stopped in Vlissingen, Netherlands, for emergency repairs and then sailed to Wilhelmshaven, where she arrived on 25 September.Rohwer, pp. 35–36, 39; Whitley 1991, p. 109; Whitley n.d., pp. 7–8

File:T1 ONI-204-123.JPG 1942 Ship Recognition Manual]]

Permanent repairs at Schichau's shipyard in Elbing lasted until May 1941, and T2 was working up until July, when she began escorting convoys in the Skaggerak. Together with her sisters {{ship|German torpedo boat|T5||2}}, T8, and {{ship|German torpedo boat|T11||2}}, the boat supported 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 {{ship|German battleship|Tirpitz||2}}, 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. Afterwards, T2 became part of a decoy force used to distract the defenders. The ship was briefly refitted in November. On 2 December, T2 and her sister {{ship|German torpedo boat|T12||2}} rendezvoused with the commerce raider Thor in the Schillig Roads; they were joined by {{ship|German torpedo boat|T4||2}}, T7, and the torpedo boat {{ship|German torpedo boat|T14||2}} the following day, and then 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.Rohwer, pp. 99, 102, 108; Whitley 1991, pp. 117, 209

On the morning of 12 February 1942, the 2nd and 3rd Torpedo Boat Flotillas (with T2, T4, T5, T11, T12 and {{ship|German torpedo boat|T13||2}}, {{ship|German torpedo boat|T15||2}}, {{ship|German torpedo boat|T16||2}}, and {{ship|German torpedo boat|T17||2}} respectively) rendezvoused with the battleships {{ship|German battleship|Gneisenau||2}} and {{ship|German battleship|Scharnhorst||2}} and the heavy cruiser {{ship|German cruiser|Prinz Eugen||2}} to escort them through the Channel to Germany in the Channel Dash. T2{{'}}s gunners claimed to have shot down one British aircraft during the operation.Whitley n.d., p. 17 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 {{ship|German torpedo boat|T22||2}} and {{ship|German torpedo boat|T23||2}}, 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 {{ship|German torpedo boat|T18||2}} 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. In April 1944, the four oldest of the sisters, including T2, were assigned to a training unit as they lacked radar and a reinforced anti-aircraft armament. This arrangement did not last long as the German situation in the east deteriorated and they began convoy escort duties throughout the Baltic a few months later. 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 Elbing 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.Rohwer, pp. 143, 241, 249; Whitley 1991, pp. 118, 209; Whitley n.d., p. 21

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{Cite book |last=Gröner|first=Erich|title=German Warships 1815–1945|year=1990 |location=Annapolis, Maryland|volume=1: Major Surface Warships|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=0-87021-790-9|author-link=Erich Gröner}}
• {{cite book|last=Rohwer|first=Jürgen|title=Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two |publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=2005 |edition=Third Revised |isbn=1-59114-119-2|author-link=Jürgen Rohwer}}
• {{cite book|author1-last=Sieche|author1-first=Erwin|editor1-last=Chesneau|editor1-first=Roger |title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946|year=1980|publisher=Conway Maritime Press |location=London |isbn=0-85177-146-7|name-list-style=amp|chapter=Germany}}
• {{cite book|last=Whitley|first=M. J.|title=Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia |year=2000| publisher=Cassell & Co.|location=London|isbn=1-85409-521-8|author-link=Michael J. Whitley}}
• {{cite book|last=Whitley|first=M. J.|title=German Destroyers of World War Two|publisher=Naval Institute Press |date=1991|isbn=1-55750-302-8 |location=Annapolis, Maryland}}
• {{cite book |last1=Whitley |first1=M. J. |title=The "Type 35" Torpedoboats of the Kriegsmarine |date=n.d. |publisher=World Ship Society |location=Kendal, UK |isbn=0-905617-39-8}}

• [http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/torpedoboats/torpedoboot1935/index.html Type 35 on German Navy.de]

{{Type 35 torpedo boat}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:T2}}

Category:Type 35 torpedo boats

Category:1938 ships