Aurora (ship, 1902)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aurora
The Aurora 1940 in the port of Constanta
The Aurora 1940 in the port of Constanta
Ship data
flag Austria-HungaryAustria-Hungary (war flag) Austria-Hungary France Romania
FranceFrance (national flag of the sea) 
IndonesiaRomania (war flag) 
other ship names

Basilisk (1902–1920)
Aurore (1920–1922)

Ship type Mine layers
Shipyard MU Martinolich, Lussinpiccolo (today Mali Lošinj ), Croatia
Launch November 28, 1902
Whereabouts Sunk by the Soviet Air Force on July 15, 1941
Ship dimensions and crew
length
46.0 m ( Lüa )
width 7.90 m
Draft Max. 1.50 m
measurement 314 t
 
crew 40 men
Machine system
machine Triple expansion machine
Machine
performance 		550 PS (405 kW)
Top
speed 		11.0 kn (20 km / h)
propeller 1
Armament

First World War:

Second World War:

  • 2 × 13.2 mm machine guns
  • 40 mines

The Aurora was a mine - layer built in 1903 , which initially served as an Austro-Hungarian basilisk during World War I, was named Aurore as a reparation in France after the war and was sold to Romania in 1922. There she was first used as Aurora in the Navy, then as a civilian cargo ship and again as a mine-layer during World War II . In July 1941, Soviet bombers sank the ship.

Construction and technical data

The ship was on July 1, 1901, then-Lussinpiccolo, today Mali Lošinj in Croatia , at the shipyard MU Martinolich for the Austrian Navy to put Kiel . The launch took place on 28 November 1902 under the name SMS Basilisk place, with completion on 27 December 1902, so that the delivery to the kuk -Kriegsmarine.

It was 46.0 meters long, 7.9 meters wide and had a draft of 1.5 meters. It was measured at 314 tons, the drive consisted of a triple expansion machine with an output of 550 hp . This acted on a screw , the ship reached a speed of 11.0 knots . The crew consisted of 40 men. As armament, it carried two 47-mm guns and two 8-mm machine guns and up to 145 mines during the First World War . During the Second World War, the armament consisted only of two 13.2 mm machine guns and 40 mines.

history

Austro-Hungarian basilisk

In the Austrian Navy, the Basilisk was put into service on February 21, 1903 and used as a mine tender. During the First World War, the navy used the ship as a mine-layer. She attracted attention right at the beginning of the war when she laid minefields off the Brion Islands on August 12, 1914 , and on that day the passenger ship Baron Gautsch steamed into its own mine barriers. The basilisk gave a warning signal to the Baron Gautsch , but they were not noticed or understood. The Baron Gautsch sank on the mine barrier. In the course of the First World War, the basilisk took part in other missions in the Adriatic and laid mine fields near Kotor and Otranto , among other things .

French Aurore

After the end of the First World War, the ships of the Austrian fleet were divided among the allied victorious powers as spoils of war. In 1920 the basilisk was awarded to France, which was supposed to dismantle the mine-layer. However, that did not happen. The ship was named Aurore and was sold to Romania in 1922.

Romanian aurora

The ship's buyer in Romania was the Royal Navy, who renamed the ship Aurora . For the next five years until 1927 the ship served as a mine-layer again. A year later the Navy sold the Aurora to the shipping company Societatea Romana Dunareana (SRD), which used it as a cargo ship on the Danube. In 1937 the ship was rebuilt again in Galați .

In view of the Soviet claims to Bessarabia, Romania declared partial mobilization in March 1939 and mobilized the Aurora again. She was again equipped to be a mine-layer and was able to hold 40 mines. There was also an armament of two 13.2 mm machine guns. The ship was placed under the command of the Stan Baicu Reserve. After the Soviet ultimatum of June 26, 1940 to Romania to cede Bessarabia , northern Bukovina and the Herza region , the Romanian navy decided to lay mine barriers in the mouth of the Danube and thus keep the Soviet navy away. The first mine barrier was placed near Sulina from June 30 to July 3, 1940 . In addition to the Aurora , the Durostor were also involved . Another mine lock at Sulina followed in January 1941, when the minesweeper Remus Lepri ran into its own mines and sank.

Even before Romania entered the war on the Axis side in June 1941, another mission followed together with the mine- layer Amiral Murgescu and the mine ship Regele Carol I from June 16 to 19, 1941. The three ships laid between Cape Midia on the Turkish-Bulgarian Border and Tuzla near the Soviet border Defensive mine barriers along the coast to protect 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 on these mine barriers. In the meantime, Captain Titus Horodinca had taken command of the Aurora . On the night of June 27-28 , 1941, the ship took part in the next action to block the mouth of the Sulina Canal . The next day, the ship was attacked by Soviet bombers in the port of Sulina and badly damaged. The Aurora was brought to the shipyard in Ceamurlia and there on July 15, 1941, three bombs were attacked by eleven SB bombers and finally destroyed.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ http://www.worldwar2.ro/arr/?language=ro&article=255 , http://www.navypedia.org/ships/austrohungary/ah_ms_basilisk.htm , http://www.navypedia.org/ships/ romania / ro_ms_aurora.htm , http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=3438 , http://www.forum-marinearchiv.de/smf/index.php?topic=302.45
  2. ↑ http://www.forum-marinearchiv.de/smf/index.php?topic=302.45
  3. ↑ https://www.inistrien.de/aktuelles/baron-gautsch-ausstellung-pula-eroeffnet-12-august/
  4. ↑ http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=3438
  5. ↑ Fock, p. 59, http://www.navypedia.org/ships/romania/ro_ms_aurora.htm , http://www.worldwar2.ro/arr/?language=ro&article=255
  6. ↑ http://www.navypedia.org/ships/romania/ro_ms_aurora.htm , http://www.worldwar2.ro/arr/?language=ro&article=255 , http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/ index.php? showtopic = 3438
  7. ↑ http://www.navypedia.org/ships/romania/ro_ms_aurora.htm , http://www.worldwar2.ro/arr/?language=ro&article=255
  8. ↑ Sobansik, p. 44, http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=3438 , http://www.worldwar2.ro/arr/?language=ro&article=255
  9. ↑ Craciunoiu, p. 148, http://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/ww2/romanian-navy , http://worldwar2.ro/arr/?article=253 , cf. Nimitz, p. 623ff.
  10. ↑ Craciunoiu, p. 153, Sobanski, p. 46, http://www.worldwar2.ro/arr/?language=ro&article=255 , http://www.navypedia.org/ships/romania/ro_ms_aurora.htm , http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=3438

literature

  • Elmar B. Potter, Chester W. Nimitz , Jürgen Rohwer: Seemacht. From antiquity to the present , Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching 1982, ISBN 3-88199-082-8 .
  • Pierre Hervieux: The Royal Romanian Navy at War, 1941–1944 , in: Warship 2001–2002, Conway Maritime Press, London.
  • Cristian Craciunoiu, Mark Axworthy: Romanian Minelaying Operations in the Second World War , in: Robert Gardiner (Ed.): Warship 1991, Conway Maritime Press, London, ISBN 0-85177-582-9 , pp. 146-159.
  • Maciej S. Sobanski: Rumunskie operacje minowe w latach 1941–1944 , in: Okrety Wojenne No. 53, pp. 43–50.
  • Nicolae Koslinski, Raymond Stanescu: Marina Română în Al Doilea Razboi Mondial: 1939–1945 , Editura Făt-Frumos, Bucharest 1997, ISBN 973-552-033-8 .
  • Harald Fock: Fleet Chronicle. The active warships involved in both world wars and their whereabouts , Koehler's publishing company, revised and expanded version Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-7822-0788-2 .

Web links