z12 "erich giese" was a built for nazi germany's "kriegsmarine" in the late 1930s. at the beginning of world war ii, the ship was used in the german bight to lay minefields in german waters. in late 1939 the ship made one successful minelaying sortie off the english coast that claimed two merchant ships. while returning from that sortie, she torpedoed a british destroyer without being detected and continued on her way. during the early stages of the norwegian campaign, "erich giese" fought in both naval battles of narvik in mid-april 1940 and was sunk by british destroyers during the second battle of narvik.