Being based on the Grosses Torpedoboot 1913, these boats were slightly improved version of them. Their higher freeboard gave those boats a better seagoing capability, keeping the good maneuverability.

Unlike their predecessors, they were equipped with 10,5 cm guns from the beginning, improving their offensive artillery capability.

As most of the boats entered fleet service late in the war, most of them survived the war. Several were used in the French navy until the mid 1930s, most of the others were scuttled at Scapa Flow, raised and scrapped there. At the end of the war, a high number of these boats were still incomplete on German shipyards, they were all scrapped in 1921.