SMS G40

Career (German Empire)
Ordered: 1914 Peacetime order
Builder: Germaniawerft, Kiel, Germany
Launched: 27 February 1915
Commissioned: 16 September 1915
Fate: • Interned at Scapa Flow 22 November 1918
• Scuttled at Scapa Flow 21 June 1919
General characteristics
Displacement:1,051 tonnes
Length:79.5 meters
Beam:  8.33 m
Draft:  3.74 m (fwd); 3.45 meters (aft)
Speed:34.5 knots (63.9 km/h)
Range:1,100 nautical miles at 20 knots
  (2,040 km at 37 km/h)
Complement:83 officers and sailors
Armament:• 3 × 3.4 in (86 mm) guns
• 6 × 500 mm torpedo tubes
• 24 mines

SMS G40 was a Großes Torpedoboot 1913 class torpedo boat of the Deutschen Kaiserliche Marine during World War I, and the 16th ship of her class.

Construction

Built by Germaniawerft in Kiel, Germany, she was launched in February 1915.

Service

G40 was assigned to the First Torpedo Boat Flotilla of the High Seas Fleet of the Kaiserliche Marine. When she participated in the Battle of Jutland she was assigned to escort the battlecruiser SMS Lützow. In this action, Lützow was severely damaged such that she was unable to return to German waters. She assisted SMS G37, SMS G38 and SMS V45 in the evacuation of survivors. Naval gunfire from pursuing British vessels subsequently damaged G40's engines and she had to be towed back to German waters.

After the end of hostilities, G40 was interned at Scapa Flow and scuttled. She was salvaged for scrap by Ernest Cox in 1925.

References