 Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp underway, about 1939
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Type 1936 destroyer |
| Builders | DeSchiMAG, Bremen |
| Operators | |
| Preceded by | Type 1934A destroyer |
| Succeeded by | Type 1936A destroyer |
| Built | 1936–1939 |
| In service | 1938–1958 |
| In commission | 1938–1954 |
| Planned | 6 |
| Completed | 6 |
| Lost | 5 |
| Scrapped | 1 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Destroyer |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 123.4 or 125.1 m (404 ft 10 in or 410 ft 5 in) o/a |
| Beam | 11.75 m (38 ft 7 in) |
| Draft | 4.5 m (14 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph) |
| Range | 2,050 nmi (3,800 km; 2,360 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Complement | 323 |
| Armament |
|
The Type 1936 destroyers, also known as the Z17 class, were a group of six destroyers built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during the late 1930s, shortly before the beginning of World War II. All six sister ships were named after German sailors who had been killed in World War I.[1] They were engaged in training for most of the period between their completion and the outbreak of war, although several did participate in the occupation of Memel in Lithuania, in early 1939.
When the war began in September 1939, the sisters helped to lay minefields in the German Bight and then helped to lay multiple minefields off the British coast in late 1939 and early 1940. All but one participated in Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway in April; they were all sunk or scuttled during the naval Battles of Narvik except Z20 Karl Galster which was refitting at the time. She was transferred to France in September where she engaged British ships several times. After a refit, the destroyer was transferred to Norway in preparation for Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, in June 1941. Z20 Karl Galster mostly spent the rest of the year escorting convoys. After another refit, the ship briefly returned to Norway in mid-1942 until she was badly damaged in July when she ran aground and had to return home for repairs. The destroyer returned to Norway in December and remained there until November 1943, participating in Operation Zitronella in September.
Plagued by engine problems, the ship was under repair from November to August 1944 and then spent the next six months on convoy escort duties in southern Norway and laying minefields. Z20 Karl Galster was transferred to the Baltic Sea in early 1945 where she escorted refugee convoys and also evacuated refugees herself from the advancing Soviet forces before the German surrender in May. The ship was allotted to the Soviets after the war and she was converted into a training ship in 1950 before she was scrapped in 1958.
- ^ Koop & Schmolke, pp. 98–102