until August, T32 was then assigned to the 6th Torpedo Boat Flotilla operating in the Baltic. The flotilla, consisting of T32 as the flotilla leader, and her sisters T22 and T30, was tasked to lay a minefield in Narva Bay on the night of 17/18 August. Reinforced by their sister T23 from the 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, the boats loaded 54 mines in Helsinki, Finland, and departed on the evening of the 17th. Shortly after midnight, they started to lay their mines, but had only just begun when T30 struck a pair of mines about 00:25 which knocked out her power and gave her a list to port. About a minute after that T32 also struck a pair of mines that blew her bow off and disabled her engines. At 00:30 T30 exploded and broke in half, probably after hitting another mine. T22 struck a pair of mines while maneuvering to go alongside T32 and blew up at around 01:14. The Germans thought that she had been torpedoed by the Soviet motor torpedo boats that they believed were present and T23s captain ordered his boat to leave the area without rescuing any of the survivors in the water or aboard T32. The ship was sunk by Soviet aircraft after dawn at with the loss of 137 crewmen after T23s departure. The Soviets never claimed to have torpedoed any of the boats that night and naval historian Michael J. Whitley believes that the most likely explanation is that they accidentally entered a nearby German minefield, either through their own errors in navigation or because the minefield was misplotted when laid. Notes Citations References External links T32 at german navy.de Type 39 torpedo boats 1943 ships Ships built by Schichau Ships built in Elbing Maritime incidents in August 1944