German ocean-going torpedo boats and destroyers of World War I

Of these, 55 were lost during the war, 50 were interned on 23 November 1918 under the terms of the Armistice, and subsequently scuttled at Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919.

Of the survivors, 32 were included in the post-war Germany navy (some surviving to see service as auxiliaries in the Second World War), 36 were surrendered to Allied powers in 1920, and the remainder were scrapped in 1921.

These were, primarily, vessels under construction for foreign navies and taken over at the outbreak of the First World War.

The first German Naval Law of 1898 legislated the construction of an ocean-going battle fleet by Imperial Germany.

To accompany the squadrons of battleships and cruisers, the law called for the construction of flotillas of considerably larger, better armed and more seaworthy than the previous torpedo boats built by Germany.

The German Navy's strength during the years prior to the outbreak of the First World War was mandated by a series of acts of the Reichstag, which prescribed the numbers of ships constituting the fleet, as well as age at which these ships should be replaced.

Admiral Tirpitz, the originator of this law, called for these vessels to be large enough to cope with rough seas, but small enough to be commanded by a single officer (due to the man-power constraints of the German Navy at that time).

The 1900 Naval Law, which provided for a major expansion of the German Navy (in reaction to the growing antipathy towards Great Britain provoked by the outbreak of the Boer War) expanded the torpedo-boat force to 144 vessels, half in commission, half in reserve with 60% nucleus crews.

Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, 48 new vessels of the latest design were quickly ordered.

This was augmented in the following weeks by seizures of vessels and machinery under manufacture in Germany for foreign powers, resulting in the addition of 4 small and 12 extra-large torpedo boats (the later group officially being designated destroyers).

More orders were placed in 1916 and later years, although the deteriorating war situation of Germany meant that only a portion of these vessels were ever completed.

German torpedo-boats were not given names, but were numbered in a sequential series[a], with an initial letter to denote the builder: Germany's main naval adversary of this period was Great Britain.

Germany favored a well-deck forward of the bridge, mounting torpedo tubes, with a short fo'c'sle mounting a single gun; the freeboard was kept small in order to reduce the silhouette (so that the vessel would be more difficult for an adversary to spot); these features made fighting in rough weather difficult, and in later designs the well-deck was deleted and the fo'c'sle extended.

On completion, most of these vessels joined the IX Torpedo Boat Flotilla of the High Seas Fleet.

On completion, most of these vessels joined the VI Torpedo Boat Flotilla of the High Seas Fleet, (replacing V 151-V 161).

As an indication of the employment of the Imperial German Navy's large torpedo boats, the following provide skeleton orders of battle for these vessels at various dates during the First World War.

): T 98, T 96 Other areas Baltic: 19. hf: S 120, G 134, S 124, S 127, T 97; 20. hf: G 133, G 132, G 135, G 136 Coastal Defense: Jade/Weser Division : T 91, T 93, T 94, T 95, T 107; Elbe Division: S 114 East Asia: S 90 The following list of front line torpedo boats reflects the situation immediately prior to the Battle of Jutland.