The Z43 was a Type 1936B destroyer of the Kriegsmarine. The Type 1936B class was a subclass of the Type 1936 class, designed by the Kriegsmarine to solve the seaworthiness problems of the 1936A and the 1936A (Mob) classes caused by the excess weight of their 15 cm main armament by returning to the 12.7 cm main armament. A total of five ships of this subclass were built. She was laid down on 1 May 1942, launched on 22 September 1943, and commissioned on 31 May 1944. The ship spent the entire war in the Baltic Sea. Her first action was from 20 to 24 November, participating in the evacuation of the garrison on Sõrve on the island of Saaremaa, where, as part of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla, she evacuated the besieged army troops. She then bombarded the advancing Soviet troops in the area and finally returned to Gotenhafen (now Gdynia). She also supported the German counterattack on the Samland Peninsula (near Kaliningrad), together with the T23 and T28, to break the encirclement of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), after which she returned to Gotenhafen with more than 1,000 refugees.

On 9 April 1945, the Z43 was struck by a bomb that became lodged in the funnel as unexploded ordnance. During the same attack, the aircraft’s onboard weapons also destroyed the magnetic self-protection system. This led to the Z43 striking a mine on 10 April, sustaining severe damage that rendered the engine room unusable and left a large hole in the hull. By 13 April, the Z43 had been towed to Rostock, where it underwent makeshift repairs at the Neptun shipyard to make it usable for the defence of Rostock against the Red Army. However, this did not happen because the Red Army’s attack was faster than expected, which is why she briefly went to Kiel and then sailed to the Gettlinger Bucht to participate in Operation Rainbow, a large-scale mass scuttling of several German warships by their own crews around 5 May 1945. The Z43 itself was scuttled by her crew there on 3 May 1945.

The Z43 was introduced in Update 1.93 “Shark Attack”. Like most German destroyers, this ship possesses powerful and rapid-firing 12.8 cm main guns, enabling it to effectively engage its main adversaries, such as other destroyers. It is a fast and manoeuvrable destroyer. However, it also has weaknesses, including the lack of armour-piercing or semi-armour-piercing ammunition for its main guns. Its light armour makes it fragile in direct combat, and its anti-aircraft defences are only adequate against slower aircraft, making careful positioning and teamwork essential for survival.