SMS V45 was a 1913 Type large torpedo boat (Großes Torpedoboot) of the Imperial German Navy during World War I. V45 was built by AG Vulcan at their Stettin shipyard, being launched on 29 March 1915 and completed on 30 September that year.

V45 served with the German 6th Torpedo Boat Flotilla for the remainder of the war, taking part in the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

The torpedo boat carried out operations in the English Channel and in the Baltic Sea, and took part in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1917.

338 tonnes (333 long tons) of fuel oil was carried, giving a range of 2,050 nautical miles (3,800 km; 2,360 mi) at 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph).

[2] V45 was laid down at Vulcan's Stettin shipyard in Prussia (now Szczecin in Poland) as yard number 360,[3] was launched on 29 March 1915 and completed on 30 September 1915.

[6] V45 was assigned to the Sixth Torpedo Boat Flotilla, Twelfth Half-Flotilla, of the German High Seas Fleet.

[7] On 25 March 1916, the British seaplane carrier Vindex, escorted by the Harwich force, launched an air attack against a Zeppelin base believed to be at Hoyer on the coast of Schleswig.

Forces of the High Seas Fleet were ordered to sea in response to the attack, and on the evening of 25 March, 18 German torpedo boats of the 1st and 6th Torpedo Boat Flotillas, including V45 were deployed in a wide front with orders to search for Medusa to the North West of Horns Rev.

[10] The battleships of the High Seas Fleet were deployed in support, with the hope of destroying isolated elements of the British Forces if they tried to intercept.

[18] In January 1917, the 6th Flotilla was transferred to Flanders to reinforce the German torpedo boat forces based in the Belgian ports.

[21][22][23][24] On the night of 25/26 February, the Flanders-based torpedo boats launched a three-pronged attack against Allied shipping in the English Channel and the Dover Barrage.

Believing that British forces were closing in, the 6th Flotilla to turn back for Zeebrugge, with the drifters of the Dover Barrage unharmed.

[26][27][28] The force sent against The Downs briefly shelled the North Foreland and Margate before withdrawing, hitting a house and killing three civilians but doing little other damage, while the patrol off the Mass encountered no ships.