Warship profile 031 - German Schnellboote (E-boats)

The German Schnellboot or S-Boat was known to the British as the E-Boat. Although initially their hunting ground was the English Channel and the North Sea as the War progressed the S- Boat flotillas were sent to the Baltic, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, and this Profile touches on all the operational theatres. The S-Boat proved a very tough opponent in battle, and its main adversaries, British MTBs (see Profile No 7) could not claim to match it for firepower until late in the war. With its diesel engines it was less liable to catch fire than the petrol-engined boats used by the Americans and British, and its size made for weatherliness. One mystery remains : the origin of the common British term for these craft, 'E-Boats'. The traditional interpretation is 'Enemy War Motorboat', but on examination this phrase has an amateurish, journalistic ring to it. Furthermore it is unlikely that such a description ever originated in the British Admiralty, which normally copied German designations such as U-Boat, R-Boat and F-Lighter. From British sources we have compiled a technical appendix to the main text which gives a far more likely explanation of the term.


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