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History | |
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Name | T13 |
Ordered | 18 September 1937 |
Builder | Schichau, Elbing, East Prussia |
Yard number | 1401 |
Laid down | 26 September 1938 |
Launched | 15 June 1939 |
Completed | 31 May 1941 |
Fate | Sunk by aircraft, 10 April 1945 |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Class and type | Type 37 torpedo boat |
Displacement | |
Length | 85.2 m (279 ft 6 in) o/a |
Beam | 8.87 m (29 ft 1 in) |
Draft | 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) |
Range | 1,600 nmi (3,000 km; 1,800 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
Complement | 119 |
Armament |
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The German torpedo boat T13 was the lead ship of her class of nine torpedo boats built for the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) during the late 1930s. Completed in mid-1941, the boat was assigned convoy escort work in the Baltic Sea before she was transferred to Occupied France in early 1942. T13 helped to escort a pair of battleships and a heavy cruiser through the English Channel back to Germany in February in the Channel Dash and then returned to France in July after receiving a refit. There the boat laid minefields and escorted Axis blockade runners through the Bay of Biscay into the Atlantic Ocean. In mid-1943, she was assigned to the Torpedo School where she remained until mid-1944. T13 returned to the Baltic where she screened German ships as they bombarded Soviet positions for the rest of the year. The boat was then assigned convoy escort duties in the Skagerrak around the beginning of 1945. During one such mission in April, T13 was sunk by Royal Air Force (RAF) bombers.