LS 3 served with the commerce raider Kormoran as a mine-laying boat and was scuttled when Kormoran was lost in November 1941. LS 4 accompanied Michel with 457 mm (18-inch) torpedoes and attacked the merchant ship George Clymer. The torpedo calibre resembles a British dimension, although the reason for that choice remains uncertain. A small boat could launch torpedoes forward because the vessel can add forward momentum and aim before the weapon enters the boat's disturbed wake. A stern launch would send the torpedo directly through that wake, where even a slight deflection could become a major miss at long range. The nine-person crew, aircraft-style cupola, and aviation-derived machinery show how tightly the craft was packaged. These boats were stealthy ambush weapons that expanded a raider's local reach, but they had virtually no protection if a destroyer or sloop caught them.
Notable Point · 31:14-34:46
LS 3 and LS 4 extended commerce-raider striking reach
The workable LS boats gave German commerce raiders a tiny mine-laying or torpedo craft, but their attack geometry and extreme vulnerability sharply limited the idea.