As part of the renamed Kriegsmarine, the boats made multiple non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s.

After being transferred to France late in the year, the Type 24s started laying their own minefields in the English Channel.

The last surviving boat, Jaguar, spent the next several years laying minefields, escorting blockade runners and U-boats through the Bay of Biscay and convoys in Norwegian waters.

[5] The Type 24s had two sets of turbines, each driving a single three-bladed 2.35-meter (7 ft 9 in) propeller, using steam provided by three water-tube boilers that operated at a pressure of 18.5 kg/cm2 (1,814 kPa; 263 psi).

[5] As built, the Type 24s mounted three 52-caliber 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK C/28[Note 1] guns, one forward and two aft of the superstructure, numbered one through three from bow to stern.

On 13, 18 and 19 November, the 6th Flotilla and one or two light cruisers met destroyers returning from minelaying missions of the English coast.

Two days later the flotilla patrolled the Skagerrak to inspect neutral shipping for contraband goods before returning to port on the 25th.

From 14 to 16 December, Jaguar and the torpedo boat Seeadler made contraband patrols in the Skaggerak, impounding six ships.

Leopard and Wolf were assigned to support the attack on Bergen while Luchs, was tasked to help capture Kristiansand.

As the heavy cruiser Lützow was proceeding to Germany without an escort two days later, she too was crippled by a British submarine off the Danish coast and all five boats responded to render assistance.

The flotilla escorted minelaying missions in the North Sea in August and September before transferring to the English Channel in October.

[18] Iltis and Jaguar were now the only surviving boats of the class and they continued lay minefields and escorted two battleships through the Bay of Biscay on 22 March after their North Atlantic raid.

The sisters began refits the next month and were then transferred to the Skagerrak where they were on convoy escort duties until October.

Both boats helped to screen a commerce raider through the Channel in March, but Iltis was sunk on 13 May when trying to escort another one.

This left Jaguar as the sole surviving boat and she remained in France for the rest of the year, helping to escort German blockade runners sailing from ports in the Bay of Biscay en route to Japan.