Hydra Kleinst-Motor-Torpedoboot
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I scratch models that are not (yet) available from Warlord or those that will never become available.
Among the later are the Hydra Kleinst-Torpedo- Motorboote. In 1943 the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine thought that a mini S-Boot would be good. Small enough to fit into a Gotha 242 glider it would be good for commando raids or use on lakes. But such an extreme mini boat would have been a very bad seaship.
So the navy went another way, the boat was to be big enough for operational use in North Sea. Three designs went into prototype stage: The 9 meter Kobra with a single 45cm TT aft, the 10 Meter Wal with two 45 cm TT aft and the 13 Meter Hydra with two 45 cm TT.
Wal I was a failure but the very different Wal II and II would have been good., reaching 38 kts. But just two got ordered. The two Kobras built came late for trial and proved to be no big success. Just reaching 29 kts.
But the Hydra prototype was liked by staff and crew. It reached 36 kts and proved to be a good seaship. With enough space for a 4 men crew handling was good. Only drawback was the lack of a reverse gear. The gear had just two settings, coupled out and ahead. That simple construction avoided many breakdowns.
Range was 180 sea miles at 36 kts or 370 at 25.
The pics in Internet and books show the prototype. The boats ordered in three series had some differences..They had serial numbers H ….. Series one just two H1 and 2, Series 2 for 50 boats and series three for 115 boats.
The torpedo tubes fired the airplane torpedo F 5 b, like in early British or in Soviet MTB the torpedo was started and then shot out backwards but in direction to front. The course was set in a way to avoid hitting the boat.The series 2 and 3 boats got a MG, the prototype and H1/2 had only a platform for it. There had been tests for use of a rocket launcher.
Yards all over Germany started production and 39 H-Boote got delivered to Kriegsmarine.
The boats went to Sonderkommando Hydra, later named 1. Hydra Flottille. Like Linsen and Neger, Marder and Biber mini submarines it belonged to the Kleinkampfmittelverbände
In spring 45 the Flottille was ready for battle. The only action was an aborted raid in Schelde area.
8.May 1945 the Flottile was given to British forces at Glücksburg in Flensburger Förde.For many Germans the many projects proved to be a lucky chance. Thousands of men worked that way away from front and survived. Men like Ingenieur Driesen that designed a vessel made from two Hydra hulls, driven by ME 262 engine to 60 knots. It never left the paper stage. Or the similar strange Manta submarine Schnellboot combination.With wheels.Tornado was a catamaran from AR 196 floats with a V 1 rocket engine. A prototype was started but was not completed.
The Kriegsmarine had started to use small Schnellboote early, like LS 2 Meteorit that I did for my Komet AMC. The main problems had been seaworthiness and engine reliability. In Hydra these had been solved. But radar and Allied air power made the torpedo Schnellboot an outmoded weapon. Navies used them for decades post WW II but there was hardly a chance to hit. But MTB could play a political role.
The famous July 1964 Tonkin incident between Vietnamese and USN was a hoax. No torpedo was fired. Some boats had been under radar view all the time on 2nd and no boats had been there on 4th. The “attack” on second day was used to do the Tonkin resolution that drew the USA into the war. President Johnson commented privately: “For all I know, our navy was shooting at whales out there. In 2005 the NSA admitted the fake.
Funny to have today a look on the maps in Potter/ Nimitz book: Sea Power, that show the “attack” in all details. Naturally something like that will never again ……Honi soit ……..
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