SMS V45

History
German Empire
Ordered:	1914 Peacetime order
Builder:	AG Vulcan Stettin, Germany
Launched:	29 March 1915
Commissioned:	30 September 1915
Fate:	Interned at Scapa Flow 22 November 1918 Scuttled at Scapa Flow 21 January 1919
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,051 tonnes (1,034 long tons)
Length:	79.50 m (260 ft 10 in)
Beam:	8.33 m (27 ft 4 in)
Draft:	3.74 m (12 ft 3 in) (fwd); 3.45 m (11 ft 4 in) (aft)
Speed:	34.5 knots (63.9 km/h; 39.7 mph)
Range:	1,100 nmi (2,000 km; 1,300 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement:	83 officers and sailors
Armament:	3 × 3.4 in (86 mm) guns 6 × 500 mm torpedo tubes 24 mines

SMS V45 was a Großes Torpedoboot 1913 class torpedo boat of the Imperial German Navy during World War I, and the 21st ship of her class.

Construction

Built by AG Vulcan Stettin shipyard, Germany, she was launched in December 1914. The "V" in V45 denotes at which shipyard she was built.

Service

V45 was assigned to the Sixth Torpedo Boat Flotilla, Twelfth Half-Flotilla, of the High Seas Fleet of the Imperial German Navy. 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, G38 and G40 in the evacuation of survivors.

After the end of hostilities, V45 was interned at Scapa Flow and scuttled. She was salvaged for scrap by Ernest Cox in 1924.

References

• Technical specs of the Großes Torpedoboot 1913 class

• Germany's High Seas Fleet in the World War, Chapter 10c, published by Admiral Reinhard Scheer in 1920