The Sleipner-class vessels were so small that German service classified captured examples as foreign torpedo boats rather than destroyers. Their three 100 mm guns and two torpedo tubes offered little deterrent against contemporary destroyers. A nominal speed of 32 knots depended on favorable weather, a serious limitation for ships operating around Norway in the North Sea and North Atlantic. Coastal-defense ships needed a mobile screen capable of forcing enemy destroyers to divide their attention. These boats instead left the larger ships without a credible protective layer.
Notable Point · 2:10:49-2:20:02
Norway's destroyers could not shield its coastal-defense ships
Norway paired slow coastal-defense ships with tiny vessels that lacked the speed, seaworthiness, guns, and torpedoes to distract a modern enemy destroyer force.