Type 23 torpedo boat

Right elevation and plan of the Type 23
Class overview
Builders	Reichsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven
Operators	Reichsmarine  Kriegsmarine
Succeeded by	Type 24 torpedo boat
Built	1925–1928
In commission	1926–1944
Completed	6
Lost	6
General characteristics (as built)
Type	Torpedo boat
Displacement	798 or 923 long tons (811 or 938 t) (standard) 1,213 or 1,290 long tons (1,232 or 1,311 t) (deep load)
Length	87 or 87.7 m (285 ft 5 in or 287 ft 9 in) (o/a)
Beam	8.25 m (27 ft 1 in)
Draft	3.65 m (12 ft)
Installed power	3 × water-tube boilers 23,000 shp (17,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 × shafts 2 × geared steam turbine sets
Speed	32–34 knots (59–63 km/h; 37–39 mph)
Range	1,800 nmi (3,300 km; 2,100 mi) at 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Complement	127
Armament	3 × single 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns 2 × triple 500 mm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes 30 mines

The Type 23 torpedo boat (also known as the Raubvogel (bird of prey) or the Möwe class) was a group of six torpedo boats built for the Reichsmarine during the 1920s. As part of the renamed Kriegsmarine, the boats made multiple non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. During World War II, they played a minor role in the Norwegian Campaign of 1940, Albatros being lost when she ran aground. The Type 23s spent the next several months escorting minelayers as they laid minefields and escorting ships before the ships were transferred to France around September. Möwe was torpedoed during this time and did not return to service until 1942. They started laying minefields themselves in September and continued to do so for the rest of the war.

After refits in early 1941, the boats were transferred to the Skaggerak where they were assigned escort duties. Most of the surviving ships returned to France in 1942 and helped to escort the capital ships sailing from France to Germany through the English Channel in the Channel Dash. They helped to escort blockade runners, commerce raiders and submarines through the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay throughout 1942 and 1943. Seeadler was sunk escorting a commerce raider in early 1942. Greif, however, was refitting through all of 1942 and was then assigned to escort duty in Norwegian waters before joining her sister ships in France in mid-1943.

In 1944, the Type 23s were mostly occupied with laying mines. Greif was sunk by British aircraft and Kondor was badly damaged by a mine in May. The two surviving operational boats, Falke and Möwe, attacked Allied ships during the Invasion of Normandy in June with little success and they were sunk by British bombers later that month. Kondor, the last survivor, was wrecked by bombers at the end of July.