Z1 against the Normandy screen

The lead ship was completed by Germany as Z1 and spent much of her career on trials in the Baltic or operating from western France. She retained much of the intended gun battery but received German 37 mm anti-aircraft weapons and torpedo equipment, along with depth-charge throwers and mine capacity. In 1944 she joined German efforts to interfere with the forces protecting Operation Overlord. That brought her into a close fight with the Tribal-class destroyers Ashanti and Tartar, precisely the larger type used in the earlier design comparison. Z1 was torpedoed and then scuttled with 33 men lost. Facing two larger Tribal-class destroyers exposed the limits of the Dutch design's advantage over ordinary destroyers.