S-Boats in the Kriegsmarine 1935 - 1945

The War-Zones of the S-Boats

Russia Campaign 1941 (Unternehmen Barbarossa)

The four flotillas planned for Operation Barbarossa (Russlandfeldzug) on 20.06.1941 were composed as follows:

1. Schnellbootflottille

Commander: Kptltl.Heinz  Birnbacher

FloIng: Kptlt. (Ing) Hermann Glebsattel

2. Schnellbootflottille

Commander: Korv.Kapt. Rudolf Petersen

FloIng: Kptlt. (Ing) Wilhelm Gördes

3. Schnellbootflottille

Commander: Kptlt. Friedrich Kemnade

FloIng: Kptlt. (Ing) Johannes Martin Döpner

5. Schnellbootflottille

Commander: Kptlt. Bernd Klug

FloIng: Kptlt. (Ing) Otto Sander

For Unternehmen Barbarossa minebarriers had to be laid to prevent Soviet units to break out from the Baltic. The S-boats from 1., 2. and 3. SFltl were to protect the minelaying vessels. With three boats of the 1. and two boats of the 2. SFltl the 5. SFltl was formed under command of the commanding officer "S 28" (Kptlt. Klug).

Only immediate before the commencement of the attack on 22.06.1941 the flotillas took up their starting positions:

The 1. SFltl (Kptlt. Birnbacher) with six boats and tender „Carl Peters“ in the Porkala-Cliffs off Helsinki with the mining-ship-group „Kobra“ and half of the 5. Räumbootsflotilla (5. RFltl).

The 2. SFltl (KKpt Petersen)with eight boats and tender „Tsingtau“ in the Abo-skerries off Turku with the mining-ship-group "Nord" and the other half of the 5. RFltl.  

"Tsingtau" and Boats of 2. SFltl in the Abo-Skerries (Picture from: Bürger - Schnellboote vor)

The 3. SFltl (Kptlt Kemnade) with 10 boats in Pillau with 3 mining-ships and the 15. Minesweeperflotilla (15. MSFltl). Tender „Adolf Lüderitz“ stayed at Swinemünde because of the air threat.  

S-Boats with Camouflage Painting at Saßnitz - Picture: Archives H. Haag  

The 5. SFltl (Kptlt. Klug) with 5 boats in Gotenhafen (Gdingen) with the 5. MSFltl.

The 6. SFltl (Kptlt Obermaier) still under training was together with the battleships „Schlesien“ and „Schleswig-Holstein“ in Korsør to secure Sound and Belt against Sovjet attempts to break through.  

"S 54" in Camouflage-Painting -  Picture: Archives Förderverein 

The CinC of the Torpedoboats (Führer der Torpedoboote (F.d.T.), Kpt.z.S. Bütow) was to command the operations of the boats in the Gulf of Finland from Helsinki.

Between the 18. and the 21.06.1941 already the first 1.500 mines and 1.800 explosive buoys had been laid between Memel and Øland. 

On 22.06.1941 the 6. SFltl in setting up since 01.03.1941 under Kptlt. Albrecht Obermeier transferred with boats "S 30" (Oblt.z.S. Gerhard Meyering), "S 33 (Lt.z.S. Walter Bosse), "S 36" (ObStrm. d.Res. August Licht), and "S 56" (Lt.z.S. Heinz Nolte) and tender "Tanga" to Helsingør/Denmark.   

Tender "Tanga" at Helsingør June 1941 - Picture: Archives Förderverein

On 22.06.1941 further barriers were laid. The groups "Kobra" and "Nord" laid two barriers under escort by the 1. and 2. SFltl respectively in the estuary of the Golf of Finland. The other units mined the Moonsound and the Soelosound.  The 3. SFltl mined the harbour-entrances of Libau, the 5. SFltl the Irbenstraits. On their way back the Letuvian steamship "Gaisma" (3077 BRT) was sunk by torpedoes of "S 59" and "S 60". The Soviet trawler „Šuka“ (316 BRT) was sunk by explosives. The Estoian steamer „Estonia“ (1181 BRT) was brought up by the 5. SFltl and Lt.z.S. Wrampe was sat over as leader of the boardding team (later she was rebuilt and used as tender). Furthermore the Estoian freighter "Liisa" (782 BRT) was sunk by "S 106", the soviet picket "M-238" was sunk by two torpedoes of "S 44" (Oblt.z.S. Opdenhoff). 

"S 103" on 22.06.1941 in Finnland - Picture: Archives Karl Friedrich Künzel

During the same night a Soviet unit (one cruiser and three destroyers) sailed into the barrier „Apolda“ in front of the Golf of Finland. Destroyer „Gnevnyj“ sank,  destroyer „Gordyj“ was heavily damaged, the foreship of the cruiser  „Maksim Gorkij“ was torn off. The third destroyer only suffered light damages and was able to escort the cruiser into harbour. 

On 23.06.1941 the 3. SFltl sailed from Pillau to Memel in order to refuel. In the afternoon "S 59", and"S 31" with "S 45" ( 2. Sfltl) each loaded with six TMB left harbour in order to lay them in the Irbenstraits. The other seven boats performed recconnaissance off the Kurland coast. After one hour "S 58" turned around because of engine failure. The pack "S60" (Oblt.z.S. Wuppermann) and "S 35" (Lt.z.S. Weber) run after an encounter with a Soviet submarine and some torpedo-firings that missed into another Soviet submarine and a Soviet torpedoboat which they fought with their last torpedoes, however, without success. They closed the submarine and fired at it with 20mm-guns dropped depth charges and trew handgranades at it. The submarine offered bitter resistence to them but finally with a further depth charge and a hit of a handgranade on its tower it was made unfit for fighting and was brought to sink. 20 survivors were rescued. On "S 35" there were four wounded men. 

On 24.06.1941 13 S-boats of the 2. and the 5. SFltl under command of "S 28" (Kptlt. Klug) closed a gap in the minebarrier off  Takhona. 

In the following night the 3. SFltl operated against a reported unit between Libau and Windau. But the unit did not come in sight. A sighted freighter was attacked with torpedoes, "S 54" and "S 34" each fired one torpedo, "S 45" and "S 61" each fired two. Four detonations were observed. The Letuvian freighter "Lidazza" was hit. Under violent firing of coastal batteries the boats disappeared.

In the night 26./27.06.1941 the 2. SFltl operated as covering force for the minelaying action "D 2"  by minelayer "Brummer" north of Moonsund. On the march back the boats "S 43"/"S 106" were lost in a Soviet minefield north of Dagø. Killed in action on "S 43" were: Strm. (ROA) Herbert Schreiber (Seem. Nr. 1), FkMt. Heinz Slanski, MaschObGefr. Thoms, MatrGefr. Alfred Gonschorowski, MatrGefr. Willi Ringel, MatrGefr. Heinrich Saib, FkGefr. Kurt Amberg, FkGefr. Hans Stanisch, MechGefr. Peter Hasselbrock, MaschGefr. Anton Holland, and MaschGefr. Hans Kraft. Killed in action on "S 106" were: ObMasch. Richard Witte (L.M.), MatrGefr. Werner Reutlinger, MechGefr. Willi Turnike, MaschGefr. Franz Pirker, MaschGefr. Friedrich Schwarze, MaschGefr. Alfred Töpfer, MaschGefr. Jakob Vornfell, and MaschGefr. Ludwig Wagner. Among the five wounded on the two boats was also the commanding officer of "S 43" (Oblt.z.S. Feld).

Boat with Camouflage-Paintig at High Speed in the Baltic Sea - Picture: Archives M. Scheer

On 30.06.1941 Libau was taken, so that the 3. SFltl with tender „Adolf Lüderitz“ was able to move to Libau on 04.07.1941. Since there were no mines to their disposal the boats undertook assault operations against Soviet shipping.  On 10.07.1941 during an attack of the 1. SFltl on a Soviet convoy three misfirings happend, during another attack on a second convoy 13 misfirings occurred. The ships could take avoiding courses due to the lightnes. The same happened on 14.07.1941.  

In the time to follow the S-boats took over the escorting of own reinforcement trafic. In so doing the Soviet boat „TKA 71“ was shot on fire, The ex-Lethuanian Icebreaker „Lacplesis“ and the Soviet destroyer „Smelyj“ were sunk.  

Four S-Boats an Supply-Ship at Riga - Picture: Archives H. Frank

On 08.08.1941 the mining operations were reassumed. The boats took again the escort role. On 15.08.1941 the 1. SFltl sank the Soviet minesweeper „No. 41“. In the minefileds sank the Soviet transport ship „Vodnik“, der Lithuanian freighter „Utena“, and the Soviet minesweeper „T-202 Buj“. On 18.06.1941 " S 58" sank the Soviet minesweeper „No. 80“. On 24.08.1941 the Soviet destroyer "Engels", the minesweepers „T-209 Knecht“ and „T-214 Bugel“, the Estonian steamship „Eestirand“ (4444 BRT), and the Soviet navy tanker „No. 11“ (16.809 BRT), sank in a minefiled. The latter took 600 soldiers from the Reval garrison which had been on their way to Kronstadt with her to the ground of the sea.  

S-Boat at HighSpeed in the Baltic - Picture from: Bürger - Schnellboote vor

On 27.08.1941 Kptlt. Birnbacher gave over command of the 1. SFltl to the commanding officer of "S 60", Oblt.z.S. Wuppermann, in order to prepare the ordered transfer of the flotilla to the Black Sea at Swinemünde.

During the night 27./ 28.08.1941 the Soviets evacuated Reval. The ships run into the minefileds and suffered harsh losses. Also contributed the Luftwaffe to the decimation of the ships. Five destroyers, to patrol-boats, two submarines, three minesweepers, some tugs and smaller vessels sank and also the training vessel  „Leningradsovet“, the maintenace ship „ Serp i Molot“ as well as 24 transport ships (44.093 BRT). Heavily damaged were flotillacommandship „Minsk“ as well as two destroyers.

The 3. SFltl took part in the capturing of the Baltic islands. The 2. and the 3. SFltl carried out escort operations for the so called „Baltenflotte“, which was gathered to prevent the Soviet Baltic Fleet from breaking through from Kronstadt to Sweden.  

S-boat alongside "Carl Peters" at Turku - Picture: Archives Ola Erlandsson

S-Boats at Turku - Picture: Archives Karl Friedrich Künzel

On 24.09.1941 the 3. SFltl received orders to return to Swinemünde, were it arrived on 26.09.1941, to prepare for the transfer to the Mediterranean. The  2. SFltl was dismissed on 01.10.1941 in order to transfer back to the western front after a short overhaul period.

Pre-Action Briefing of the 1. SFltl in a Finnish Fjord - Picture from: Bürger - Schnellboote vor

Tender "Adolf Lüderitz" and four boats of the 3. SFltl in Finnland 1941 - Picture: Archives E. Skjold