Originally built by the Deutsche Werft for the Yugoslav Navy as the seaplane tender Zmaj (dragon) in 1928, the Zmaj was rarely used in its original role by the Yugoslav Navy until it was converted into a minelayer in 1937. Before the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941, Zmaj was tasked with deploying mines along the Dalmatian coast; however, the minefield inadvertently ended up sinking two Yugoslav passenger ships. Eleven days later, Zmaj was captured by the Italians who handed the ship over to the Germans. She was renamed Drache in reference to her original name.

After being refitted with German weaponry and commissioned for the Kriegsmarine on 20 August 1942, Drache was at first used in her original role as a seaplane tender, though later she was converted back into a minelayer. She was subsequently modified to serve as a troop transport and submarine chaser in addition to her minelaying duties a month later, and also renamed with the generic name Schiff 50 (ship no. 50). After being used as a testbed for the Flettner Fl 282 helicopter, Schiff 50 was frequently used to transport German and Italian troops around the Mediterranean and for minelaying operations. In October 1943, her minefield laid around the Dodecanese managed to sink two destroyers and one submarine. In 1944, Schiff 50's anti-air armament was improved with the addition of two quadruple 20 mm flak autocannons at the cost of swapping two 105 mm cannons for 88 mm flak cannons to compensate for increased top weight. Despite this, however, Schiff 50 was sunk by a Bristol Beaufighter of No. 252 Squadron of the Royal Air Force while anchored in Vathy harbour on 22 September 1944, and was scrapped there after the war.

Introduced in Update "Sons of Attila", the Drache (or more specifically the 1944 refit after being renamed as Schiff 50) sticks out like a sore thumb among the German coastal fleet due to her disproportionately large size. Being designed as an ocean-going vessel rather than a coastal ship, she has considerably larger displacement than many bluewater destroyers, while also having a huge crew count of 300. This, along with her empty hull space, allowed the Drache to take an absurd amount of punishment with minimal damage. Even destroyer-calibre guns will take some time to sink the ship. However, the reason that she is pitted against PT boats rather than bluewater destroyers is due to her poor mobility and the lack of firepower that, while sufficient to take care of smaller coastal vessels, is woefully inadequate to deal with ships with detailed damage models. Therefore, the Drache is best used as a "bullet sponge", drawing the enemy fire while letting your allies cover your flanks as you harass any smaller PT boats before they can use their torpedoes against you.