German destroyer Z3 Max Schultz

Z3 Max Schultz in port
History
Nazi Germany
Name	Max Schultz
Namesake	Max Schultz [de]
Ordered	7 July 1934
Builder	Deutsche Werke, Kiel
Yard number	K244
Laid down	2 January 1935
Launched	30 November 1935
Commissioned	8 April 1937
Fate	Sunk, 22 February 1940. All hands lost.
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	Type 1934 destroyer
Displacement	2,223 long tons (2,259 t) (standard) 3,156 long tons (3,207 t) (deep load)
Length	119 m (390 ft 5 in) o/a 114 m (374 ft 0 in) w/l
Beam	11.30 m (37 ft 1 in)
Draft	4.23 m (13 ft 11 in)
Installed power	70,000 PS (51,000 kW; 69,000 shp) 6 × water-tube boilers
Propulsion	2 shafts, 2 × geared steam turbines
Speed	36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range	1,530 nmi (2,830 km; 1,760 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Complement	325
Armament	5 × single 12.7 cm (5 in) guns 2 × twin 3.7 cm (1.5 in) AA guns 6 × single 2 cm (0.79 in) AA guns 2 × quadruple 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes 60 mines 32–64 depth charges, 4 throwers and 6 individual racks

Z3 Max Schultz was one of four Type 1934 destroyers built for the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) during the mid-1930s. Completed in 1937, two years before the start of World War II, the ship spent most of her time training although she did participate in the occupation of Memel in early 1939. Shortly before the beginning of World War II, the ship accidentally rammed and sank a German torpedo boat. Z3 Max Schultz spent the following month under repair. In mid-February 1940, while proceeding into the North Sea to search for British fishing trawlers, one of her sisters, Z1 Leberecht Maass, was bombed and sunk by a patrolling German bomber, with loss of 280 of her crew. While trying to rescue survivors, Z3 Max Schultz was either bombed by a patrolling German bomber, or struck a British mine and sunk, with the loss of all 308 of her crew. A contemporary German court of inquiry stated that Z3 Max Schultz was damaged by the German bomber, however postwar research revealed that Z3 Max Schultz may have hit a mine instead.