Sister ship T35 in US service, August 1945
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History | |
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Nazi Germany | |
Name | T23 |
Ordered | 10 November 1939 |
Builder | Schichau, Elbing, East Prussia |
Yard number | 1482 |
Laid down | 1 August 1940 |
Launched | 14 June 1941 |
Completed | 14 June 1942 |
Fate | Transferred to Britain as war reparations, 1945; then to France, 4 February 1946 |
France | |
Name | L'Alsacien |
Namesake | The Alsatian |
Acquired | 4 February 1946 |
Recommissioned | December 1949 |
Out of service | 9 June 1954 |
Renamed | 4 February 1946 |
Stricken | 17 February 1954 |
Fate | Sold for scrap, after 9 June 1954 |
General characteristics (as built) | |
Class and type | Type 39 torpedo boat |
Displacement | |
Length | 102.5 m (336 ft 3 in) o/a |
Beam | 10 m (32 ft 10 in) |
Draft | 3.22 m (10 ft 7 in) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 33.5 knots (62.0 km/h; 38.6 mph) |
Range | 2,400 nmi (4,400 km; 2,800 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
Complement | 206 |
Sensors and processing systems | |
Armament |
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The German torpedo boat T23 was one of fifteen Type 39 torpedo boats built for the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) during World War II. Completed in mid-1942, the boat was stationed in France later that year where she escorted blockade runners and U-boats through the Bay of Biscay. T23 also laid minefields in the English Channel in mid-1943. She participated in the Battle of Sept-Îles and the Battle of the Bay of Biscay later that year, neither receiving nor inflicting any damage.
After returning to Germany in early 1944, the boat was assigned to support German operations in the Baltic Sea. She escorted convoys and larger warships bombarding Soviet troops as well as bombarding them herself. In May T23 helped to evacuate troops and refugees from advancing Soviet forces. The boat was allocated to Great Britain after the war, but she was transferred to France in 1946. The French Navy renamed her L'Alsacien and recommissioned her in 1949. After serving with different units of the Mediterranean Squadron, she was condemned in 1954 and subsequently sold for scrap.