Amiral Murgescu (ship, 1939)

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Amiral Murgescu
The Amiral Murgescu
The Amiral Murgescu
Ship data
flag IndonesiaRomania (war flag) Romania Soviet Union
Soviet UnionSoviet Union (naval war flag) 
other ship names

Don

Ship type Mine-layer , escort ship
class Amiral Murgescu class
Shipyard Santieri Galati, Galați / Romania
Launch June 14, 1939
Whereabouts Broken down in the Soviet Union in 1989
Ship dimensions and crew
length
77.00 m ( Lüa )
width 9.10 m
Draft Max. 2.50 m
displacement 812 t
 
crew 79 men (peace
strength) 135 men (war strength)
Machine system
machine 2 Krupp diesel engines
Machine
performance 		2,100 hp (1,545 kW)
Top
speed 		16 kn (30 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament

The NMS Amiral Murgescu was a mine- layer and escort ship of the Romanian Navy built in 1939 from the Second World War . She laid numerous minefields on which several Soviet submarines sank, secured supplies and took part in the evacuation of Crimea. In 1944 the Soviet Union confiscated the ship and used it under the name Don as a training ship , depot ship, command ship , accommodation ship and workshop ship until it was scrapped in 1989. It was named after the Romanian admiral Ioan Murgescu (born March 27, 1846, † March 5, 1913).

Construction and technical data

After overcoming the global economic crisis in the 1930s, Romania again had the financial means to build new navies. The fleet's modernization program of 1937 also included four mine sweepers that were to be built in their own country. The Romanian government commissioned the Dutch Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw (IvS), a Dutch front organization of the German Imperial Navy, with the construction . This projected a mine sweeper based on the Dutch Jan van Brakel .

The ship was in Romania at the shipyard Santieri Galati in Galaţi on 1 August 1938 on down Kiel . The launch took place on June 14, 1939 under the name Amiral Murgescu , the completion and delivery to the Romanian Navy took place on May 15, 1941. The Amiral Murgescu was the largest warship built in Romania, but remained a single ship .

Its length was 77.00 meters, it was 9.10 meters wide and had a draft of 2.50 meters. The design displacement was 812 tons. The drive consisted of two Krupp diesel engines with an output of 2100 PSi . This acted on two screws , the ship reached a speed of 16.0 knots and had a range of 2100 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots . The peacekeeping strength of the crew was 79 men, during the war it consisted of 135 officers and men. The armament consisted of two 105 mm guns, two 37 mm flak , four 20 mm flak and 135 mines . There were also two depth charges for submarine hunting.

A second ship of the class, the Cetatea Albă , was laid down in 1939, launched in 1940, but was not completed. The name comes from the city of the same name, Cetatea Albă, today's Bilhorod-Dnistrowskyj on the Ukrainian Black Sea coast. Two more ships were planned, but construction has not started.

Romanian Amiral Murgescu

After being handed over to the navy in May 1941, the Amiral Murgescu formed the 4th (miners) group together with the mine ship Durostor . Even before the declaration of war on Romania's side of the Axis Powers in June 1941 the first use was made together with the mine ships Aurora and Regele Carol I of 16 to 19 June 1941. This laid the three ships defensive minefields along the coast between Cape Midia to the Turkish-Bulgarian border and Tuzla near the Soviet border to protect their own shipping from attacks. The effectiveness of these barriers soon became apparent: During the advance of Soviet cruisers and destroyers on Constana on June 26, the destroyer Moskva got into the minefield and sank, the cruiser Voroshilov was damaged. By the end of the year, six Soviet submarines sank in these mine locks.

The next deployment to throw a mine barrier followed in October 1941. Together with the two mine ships Dacia and Regele Carol I , the Amiral Murgescu laid barriers on the Bulgarian coast from October 7 to October 16. The three ships were escorted by the Romanian torpedo boats Sborul , Naluca , Smeul , the minesweepers Ghigulescu and Dumitrescu . At times, the Bulgarian torpedo boats Smeli , Derzky and Khabri were also used for security purposes, and Romanian destroyers were also used when marching in and out. By October 10, initially four bans and one partial ban were thrown. On October 10, shortly after leaving Varna with 150 mines on board , the rule Carol I hit a mine laid by the submarine L-4 and sank within 13 minutes.

In February 1942, the Amiral Murgescu put together with the Romania again defensive locks near Sulina at the mouth of the Danube. In May and June, the Amiral Murgescu took part in landing exercises and joint maneuvers with the mine ships Constanta and Dacia . Following these maneuvers, the German-Romanian naval forces prepared a mining operation in the Crimea: from June 24 to 27, 1942, the Amiral Murgescu and the Dacia placed flank barriers against Soviet submarines in the Odessa Bay. They were secured again by the destroyers Regele Ferdinand , Regina Maria and Marasestri , the minesweepers Ghigulescu , Stihi and Dumitrescu , the torpedo boat Smeul and German clearing boats of the Danube Flotilla. The Soviet submarines M-33 and M-60 sank in these locks in August and September .

Amiral Murgescu repeatedly secured escorts in the Black Sea between the mining companies - for example, when securing the escort with the two transporters Danubius and Durostor between Cape Tendra and Sfântu Gheorghe on February 1st and 2nd. November 1942 called. Then on November 5, she and the Dacia again put a submarine lock on the island of Serpilor off the Romanian-Ukrainian border.

Further deployments as a mine-layer followed in 1943: Together with the mine ship Romania , which has since been handed over to the Germans , she laid further flank barriers off Sulina and the Bay of Odessa on April 20, 1943 . In the course of the year, the mine barriers laid in front of Constancea in 1941 were renewed. These were cleared by swell and ice drift and were supplemented by three new partial barriers. The Amiral Murgescu , Romania and Dacia were also involved in this action, with operations off Sulina, the Bosporus and in the Eupatoria Bay. The ships went on these missions under Romanian leadership, but according to German plans. In supplying the Kuban bridgehead, the Amiral Murgescu again acted as a mine- layer . Secured by the mine clearance boats of the 3rd clearing boat flotilla, she was in action there in mid-September. In November 1943 she was in turn with the destroyer Mărăşeşti and the German clearing boats R 165 , R 197 and R 209 as escort for the transporter Santa Fé , which was sunk by a Soviet submarine on November 23.

In May 1944, all Romanian ships that were ready to sail took part in the evacuation of Romanian and German troops from the Crimea. In this “Operation 60,000” the Navy was involved in security and transport. The Dacia and Amiral Murgescu were part of the last convoy to leave Chersonese . A few months later, on August 5, 1944, the ship was damaged in a Soviet air raid on Constanta. When the coup d'état and the change of sides to the Allies took place in Romania on August 23, the crew of Amiral Murgescu in Constana is said to have remained pro -German and its commander took his own life when the Red Army marched in.

Soviet Don

After changing sides, the Soviet Union confiscated all ships of the Romanian Navy in August. Even after this point in time, the Amiral Murgescu escorted a convoy with five Soviet ships from Odessa to Constana on September 2. One of the ships was torpedoed and sank, which led the Soviet side to accuse sabotage and is said to have used it as a pretext to seize the Romanian ships.

On September 5, Soviet troops occupied the Amiral Murgescu and incorporated them into the Black Sea Fleet under the name of Don on September 14 . Unlike many other Romanian ships, the Soviet Union did not return the Don , but kept it. During the Cold War , the ship was lost in the Black Sea Fleet and for a long time it was assumed that the ship was scrapped in 1967.

The fleet used the ship for various purposes and names over the decades: At first the ship continued to operate as a mine-layer, on April 2, 1945, while retaining the name, it was converted into a training ship and on January 18, 1947, it was reclassified as a depot ship or tender. In 1948 (September 2) it was equipped as a lead ship, in 1956 (May 7) the armament was removed and carried under the designation PKZ-107 as a residential ship. The ship received its last identification PM-76 on January 4, 1958 and served in its last function as a workshop ship.

On May 27, 1988, it was finally removed from the fleet list and scrapped a year later in the Gulf of Inkerman in the Crimea.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ NMS is the abbreviation for "Nava Majestății Sale" and was the name prefix of Romanian ships 1881-1947. NMS means "His Majesty's Ship".
  2. ↑ cf. on Jan van Brakel Gardiner, p. 392
  3. ↑ Gardiner, p. 362, Craciunoiu, p. 147, p. 152, Klepsch, p. 145, http://navypedia.org/ships/romania/ro_ms_murgescu.htm
  4. ↑ Craciunoiu, p. 147, http://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/ww2/romanian-navy , http://navypedia.org/ships/romania/ro_ms_murgescu.htm
  5. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/41-06.htm , Bertke, Volume 4, p. 72
  6. ↑ Craciunoiu, p. 148, p. 151, http://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/ww2/romanian-navy , http://worldwar2.ro/arr/?article=253 , cf. Nimitz, p. 623ff., According to Monakov, Rohwer, p. 1988f. possibly even more - October 18, 1941: M-58 , October 28, 41: M-59 , October 30, 41: M-34 , November 12, 41: S-34 , November 16, 41: Shch-211 , 26 August 42: Shch-208 , September 26, 42: M-60 , December 15, 42: L-24 .
  7. ↑ Bertke, p. 323f., Craciunoiu, p. 153, http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/41-10.htm
  8. ↑ Craciunoiu, p. 154
  9. ↑ http://worldwar2.ro/arr/?article=354 , - ( Memento from January 27, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ Craciunoiu, p. 154, http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/42-06.htm , Bertke, Volume 6, p. 268
  11. ↑ http://www.ligamilitarilor.ro/arc-peste-timp/puitorul-de-nms-amiral-murgescu-al-doilea-razboi-mondial/
  12. ↑ Craciunoiu, p. 154
  13. ↑ Bertke, Volume 9, p. 203, http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/43-02.htm
  14. ↑ Kutzleben, p. 229
  15. ^ Schneider, p. 208
  16. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/43-11.htm
  17. ↑ Craciunoiu, p. 157, http://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/ww2/romanian-navy
  18. ↑ http://navypedia.org/ships/romania/ro_ms_murgescu.htm
  19. ^ Schneider, p. 270
  20. ↑ http://www.ligamilitarilor.ro/arc-peste-timp/puitorul-de-nms-amiral-murgescu-al-doilea-razboi-mondial/
  21. ↑ Conway, p. 360, Fock, p. 214f., Http://navypedia.org/ships/romania/ro_ms_murgescu.htm , http://navypedia.org/ships/russia/ru_ms_don.htm
  22. ↑ cf. Fock, pp. 214f., P. 323
  23. ↑ http://navypedia.org/ships/russia/ru_ms_don.htm , http://romaniaforum.info/board3-marina-romana-romanian-navy/board140-marina-militara-romana-pina-la-1945-romanian -royal-navy-before-1945 / board146-mine-layer-amiral-murgescu-1939-galati / 832-1939-minelayer-amiral-murgescu / ( Memento from January 4, 2017 in the web archive archive.today )
  24. ↑ http://romaniaforum.info/board3-marina-romana-romanian-navy/board140-marina-militara-romana-pina-la-1945-romanian-royal-navy-before-1945/board146-mine-layer-amiral -murgescu-1939-galati / 832-1939-minelayer-amiral-murgescu / ( Memento from January 4, 2017 in the web archive archive.today ) , http://www.ligamilitarilor.ro/arc-peste-timp/puitorul-de -nms-amiral-murgescu-al-doilea-razboi-mondial /

literature

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Web links