The ''Taisto''-class motor torpedo boats or T class was a series of motor torpedo boats, which saw service with the

Finnish Navy The Finnish Navy ( fi, Merivoimat, sv, Marinen) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. The navy employs 2,300 people and about 4,300 conscripts are trained each year. Finnish Navy vessels are given the ship prefix "FNS", short for ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Following the war, the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947 prohibited the Finnish Navy from employing torpedo-carrying vessels of any kind and the ''Taisto'' class were converted into motor gunboats. By 1964, all vessels of the class had been removed from service.

Background and description

Following the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany in

, the war between Finland and the Soviet Union began again. The

, tasked with closing the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland ( fi, Suomenlahti; et, Soome laht; rus, Фи́нский зали́в, r=Finskiy zaliv, p=ˈfʲinskʲɪj zɐˈlʲif; sv, Finska viken) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and E ...

, sought more vessels. Based on an Italian design and built under license, eight ''Taisto'' vessels were manufactured at Turun Veneveistämö. All eight vessels were launched between 1943 and 1946. The vessels had a

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

of , and were long with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a draught of . They were powered by two Isotta Fraschini

petrol engine A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol blends (such as ''E ...

s creating and had a maximum speed of . They mounted two

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s and one Madsen gun.

Vessels in class

Service history

The Paris Peace Treaty of 1947 was signed following the end of World War II, and Finland was prohibited by the treaty from having torpedo-carrying vessels. The ''Taisto'' class were converted to motor gunboats with their torpedo armament and 20 mm gun being removed and the vessels receiving one gun and two guns. There is some debate amongst the sources over the fate of the ships. Westerlund & Chumbley state that by 1964 all eight vessels had been stricken from the Finnish Navy. However, Blackman states that only three had been discarded by 1964 and that four others were only removed from service in 1966.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * * {{WWII Finnish ships Torpedo boats of the Finnish Navy Torpedo boat classes