First World War On commissioning,
G8 joined the 10th Half-flotilla of the 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla and was still part of that assignment, with the German
High Seas Fleet, on the outbreak of war. On 28 August 1914, the British
Harwich Force, supported by light cruisers and battlecruisers of the
Grand Fleet, carried out a
raid towards
Heligoland with the intention of destroying patrolling German torpedo boats. The German defensive patrols around Heligoland consisted of one flotilla (I Torpedo Flotilla) of 12 modern torpedo boats forming an outer patrol line about North and West of Heligoland, with an inner line of older torpedo boats of the 3rd Minesweeping Division at about . The 5th Torpedo boat flotilla, including
G8, together with four German light cruisers waited near Heligoland. The 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, including
G8, were sent out from
Heligoland to investigate sightings of British submarines, and ran into several British destroyers. The Flotilla then turned away to try and escape the trap, but the torpedo boat , which along with could not make full speed and lagged behind the rest of the flotilla, was hit by British shells before the arrival of the German cruiser allowed the 5th Flotilla to escape. The torpedo boat of the outer screen did not manage to evade the British force and was sunk. The intervention of the supporting British forces resulted in the sinking of the German cruisers , and . The British light cruiser and destroyers , and were badly damaged but safely returned to base.
G8 was undamaged. On 23 January 1915, a German force of Battlecruisers and light cruisers, escorted by torpedo boats, and commanded by Admiral
Franz von Hipper, made a sortie to attack British fishing boats on the
Dogger Bank.
G8, part of the 10th Half-Flotilla, formed part of the escort for Hipper's force. British Naval Intelligence was warned of the raid by radio messages decoded by
Room 40, and sent out the Battlecruiser Force from
Rosyth, commanded by Admiral
Beatty aboard and the
Harwich Force of light cruisers and destroyers, to intercept the German force. The British and German Forces met on the morning of 24 January in the
Battle of Dogger Bank. On sighting the British, Hipper ordered his ships to head south-east to escape the British, who set off in pursuit. The armoured cruiser was disabled by British shells and was sunk, but the rest of the German force escaped, with the German battlecruiser and the British battlecruiser badly damaged. The 10th Half-flotilla sailed in support of the German
High Seas Fleet, at the
Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916.
G8 picked up two survivors of the British battlecruiser after the British ship exploded. From about 20:15
CET (19:15
GMT), the German torpedo boat flotillas launched a series of torpedo attacks against the British battle line in order to cover the German fleet's turn away from the British. First to attack were the 6th and 9th Flotillas, followed by the 3rd Flotilla. At 20:38, V Flotilla started an attack run, but it was unable to find the British battle line due to poor visibility caused by fog and smoke, and the attack was aborted. During the night action, the 5th Flotilla was ordered to search for and attack the British fleet, but failed to encounter the British battleships.
G8 was undamaged. By late April 1917, the torpedo boats of the 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla had been fitted for minesweeping and their crews trained in that task, and became increasingly dedicated to minesweeping.
G8 remained part of the 10th Half-Flotilla of the 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla at the end of the War in November 1918.
Postwar operations G8 survived the war, and was one of the twelve destroyers that the
Reichsmarine was allowed to retain under the
Treaty of Versailles. She (along with and ) recommissioned into the
Reichsmarine on 22 March 1921 after refitting and rearming at Wilhelmshaven. In early 1923
G8 was serving in the
Baltic Sea. She was modernised in the late 1920s, and was retained in active service after the entry into service of the new
Type 23 and
Type 24 torpedo boats allowed many of the older boats to be retired or moved to subsidiary duties. In 1932, she was part of the 1st Half-flotilla of the 1st Torpedo Boat Flotilla.
G8 remained in the active torpedo boat flotillas in 1935. She became a
training ship in 1936, and was employed as a tender in a torpedo school. On 23 April 1939, the ship was renamed
T108, to free up the name
G8 for a planned class of escort ships. On 3 May,
T108, along with and the transports
Sachsenwald and
Westerstrom took part in one of the final evacuations from
Hela to the West, with the two torpedo boats taking 150 refugees each and the transports 8550 between them. Following the end of the war, the surviving ships of the
Kriegsmarine were divided between the Allies, with
T108 being allocated to Great Britain on 6 January 1946 and scrapped. ==Notes==