E-boats (German “Schnellboot”), a British designation using the letter E for Enemy, were primarily used to patrol the Baltic Sea and the English Channel in order to intercept shipping heading for the English ports in the south and east. As such, they were up against Royal Navy and Commonwealth (particularly Royal Canadian Navy contingents leading up to D-Day)Motor Gun Boats (MGBs), Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs), Motor Launches, frigates and destroyers. They were also transferred in small numbers to the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea by river and land transport. Some small E-boats were built as boats for carrying by auxiliary cruisers.
Crew members could earn an award particular to their work—Das Schnellbootkriegsabzeichen—denoted by a badge depicting an E-boat passing through a wreath. The criteria were good conduct, distinction in action, and participating in at least twelve enemy actions. It was also awarded for particularly successful missions, displays of leadership or being killed in action. It could be awarded under special circumstances, such as when another decoration was not suitable.
Schnellboote of the 9th flotilla were the first naval units to respond to the invasion fleet of Operation Overlord. They left Cherbourg harbour at 5 a.m. on 6 June 1944. On finding themselves confronted by the entire invasion fleet, they fired their torpedoes at maximum range and returned to Cherbourg.
During World War II, E-boats sank 101 merchant ships totalling 214,728 tons. In addition, they sank 12 destroyers, 11 minesweepers, eight landing ships, six MTBs, a torpedo boat, a minelayer, one submarine and a number of small merchant craft. They also damaged two cruisers, five destroyers, three landing ships, a repair ship, a naval tug and numerous merchant vessels. Sea mines laid by the E-boats were responsible for the loss of 37 merchant ships totalling 148,535 tons, a destroyer, two minesweepers and four landing ships.
In recognition of their service, the members of Schnellboot crews were awarded 23 Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and 112 German Cross in Gold.
(Quelle: Wikipedia)
SCHNELLBOOT (E-BOAT) S-100 – a giant in scale 1/35
The German Schnellboot (E-Boat) S-100 is a real giant and one of the biggest plastic kits on the market. The finished kit by Italeri gets a length of 99,9cm and has a huge level of details with the included photo etched parts. Nevertheless, the level of details could still become increased with some add-on parts and some scratch built elements… The huge sizes gives place for lot of details!
THE ADD-ON PARTS
The supplier of several additional detail kits and parts from England, company Master casters provides several interesting upgrade parts for this kit. We will use a replacement part fort he scull cap wheelhouse made of resin. It provides better details, correct nuts and further improvements compared with the kit-part. A small German dinghy made of resin and photo etched parts and some photo etched canvas railing covers for the aft railings.
The well known manufacturer of photo etched parts from Czech Rep., company Eduard provides two separate sets for the S-100. One set for the ship itself, one for the guns. Both sets are available also in one “Big-Ed” set which will be used here.
The gun barrels will be replaces with brass parts from Master, the propellers with metal ones from G-Factor which I really, really love.
A set of 4 mines will be added on the aft of the ship. There are several products on the market, most of these are expensive resin kits. In this case I use a plastic kit from AFV-Club which is very high detailed, lot of separate parts for each mine, including some photo etched parts as well. As it seems, each mine will become a kit itself.
Finally, the Czech company CMK provides the crew. There are three sets on the market, each consisting of 2 figures. One set is for the wheelhouse, one guy with binoculars. The next set consist of 2 sailors at rest, the last one includes 2 sailors who are carrying boxes with food and other stuff.
With all these upgrade parts and some furthe scratch built elements (I already have several ideas and plans for that) I will start my next bigger project as soon as the SMS Falke is finished. The S-100 will be painted with colors of Tamiya and Lifecolor in “Schnellbootweiß” (light grey) with some blue camouflage. The weathering will be made with oil colors and other stuff…. The finished ship will be presented on a wooden base with brass sockets.
I hope that this will become an interesting project for you and you won’t be bored with these big ships which need lot of time always ….
Cheers
Michael
