After the unsuccessful Torpedoboot 1935 and Torpedoboot 1937 a radical change in German torpedo boat design took place. Unlike their predecessors which were focused on Torpedo attacks, the new class of Fleet torpedo boats were multi purpose ships, usable for torpedo attacks, anti aircraft defense and escort duty.

Those ships were more a light destroyer than the classical torpedo boat and the last torpedo boats build in Germany. Since they got the engines of already ordered but later canceled ships of the Torpedoboot 1937 class, they were about 1,5 kn slower than those ships, but they were the best seagoing ships of their kind in the Kriegsmarine.

Since many of those ships only got operational in 1943 or later, they were mainly used in the Baltic Sea only, but some of the earlier ships saw intensive operations in France at the time of the allied invasion.

Several ships survived World War 2 and served in the French or Russian navy until the 1950s.