speed of , but they proved top-heavy in service and 30% of the fuel had to be retained as ballast low in the ship; the effective range proved to be only at 19 knots. The crew of the Type 34 class ships numbered 10 officers and 315 enlisted men, plus an additional four officers and 19 enlisted men if serving as a flotilla flagship. The Type 34s carried five SK C/34 guns in single mounts with gun shields, two each superimposed, fore and aft. The fifth gun was carried on top of the aft superstructure. The guns were numbered from one to five from front to rear. Their anti-aircraft armament consisted of four SK C/30 guns in a pair of twin mounts abreast the rear funnel and six C/30 guns in single mounts. The ships carried eight torpedo tubes in two power-operated mounts. A pair of reload torpedoes was provided for each mount. Georg Thiele had four depth charge throwers mounted on the sides of her rear deckhouse, which were supplemented by six racks for individual depth charges on the sides of the stern, with either 32 or 64 charges carried. Mine rails could be fitted on the rear deck, with a maximum capacity of 60 mines. A system of passive hydrophones designated as 'GHG' (Gruppenhorchgerät) was fitted to detect submarines. Construction and career Z2 Georg Thiele was ordered on 7 July 1934 and laid down at Deutsche Werke, Kiel, on 25 October 1934 as yard number K243. She was launched on 18 August 1935, and completed and commissioned on 27 February 1937. She was assigned to the 1st Destroyer Division on 1 December 1937 and made a port visit to Ulvik, Norway, in April 1938, together with her sisters Z3 Max Schultz and Z4 Richard Beitzen. She was then handed back to her builders, Deutsche Werke, to have her bow rebuilt to fix the damage caused by the large amount of water that came over it in head seas. This increased her length by . She then participated in the 22 August Fleet Review for Adolf Hitler and Miklós Horthy, Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, and the following fleet exercise. In December, Georg Thiele, together with her sisters Z1 Leberecht Maass, Max Schultz, and Richard Beitzen, sailed to the area of Iceland to evaluate their seaworthiness in a North Atlantic winter with their new bows. On 23–24 March