German destroyer Z12 Erich Giese

Z12 Erich Giese was a Type 1934A-class destroyer built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine in the late 1930s. At the beginning of World War II, the ship was used in the German Bight to lay minefields in German waters. In late 1939 the ship made one successful minelaying sortie off the English coast that claimed two merchant ships. While returning from that sortie, she torpedoed a British destroyer without being detected and continued on her way. During the early stages of the Norwegian Campaign, Erich Giese fought in both naval Battles of Narvik in mid-April 1940 and was sunk by British destroyers during the Second Battle of Narvik.

Erich Giese had an overall length of 119 meters and was 114 meters long at the waterline. The ship had a beam of 11.30 meters , and a maximum draft of 4.23 meters . She displaced 2,171 metric tons at standard and 3,190 metric tons at deep load. The Wagner geared steam turbines were designed to produce 70,000 metric horsepower which would propel the ship at 36 knots . Steam was provided to the turbines by six high-pressure Benson boilers with superheaters. Erich Giese carried a maximum of 752 metric tons of fuel oil which was intended to give a range of 4,400 nautical miles at 19 knots , but the ship proved top-heavy in service and 30% of the fuel had to be retained as ballast low in the ship. The effective range proved to be only 1,530 nmi at 19 knots .

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