Bulgaria (ship, 1894)
 The Bulgaria between 1911 and 1920
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The Bulgaria was a Bulgarian cargo steamer built in Great Britain in 1894. The Bulgaria and the Boris were the first ships of the new shipping company Societé Commerciale Bulgare de Navigation à Vapeur and mark the beginning of modern Bulgarian sea trade. In the Second World War , the Navy used the ship from 1942 as a mine-layer, transporter and for security tasks . In October 1943 the Bulgaria was sunk by a British submarine.
Construction and technical data
The Bulgaria was laid down in 1894 as a cargo ship at Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson in Newcastle upon Tyne under the hull number 303. The launch took place on July 3, 1894, the completion on August 16 of that year. Her length was 77.80 meters, she was 10.21 meters wide, had a draft of 5.77 meters and was measured with 1108 GRT and 753 NRT. The drive consisted of a 3-cylinder triple expansion machine with two coal-fired boilers, which achieved 1200 hp and acted on one screw. With that she reached a top speed of 12 knots.
Use as a cargo steamer
Immediately after completion, the ship was delivered to the ordering shipping company, Societé Commerciale Bulgare de Navigation à Vapeur , based in Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. In August / September 1894, the Bulgaria arrived in her new home port of Varna and for most of the 35 years or so she sailed mainly between Bulgarian ports and the eastern Mediterranean. Before and during the First World War , the Bulgaria was drafted into the navy several times: in 1912 she served temporarily in the Bulgarian navy as a staff ship and was returned to the shipping company in 1913. In 1915 it was drafted again as a transport and confiscated by French units in 1919. It was not until 1920 that she returned to the shipping company and was underway.
Over the decades, the Bulgaria remained with this shipping company. After Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Axis Powers in March 1941, the Bulgaria - like other Bulgarian ships - had to be handed over to the Germans, who officially bought it.
Service as a mine ship
The Navy took over the cargo ship - the exact time is unclear. Even before the official commissioning as a mine ship in 1942, Friedrich Vollheim was named as the commander for the period from July 1941 to December 1941. On Salamis , where the Skaramanga naval shipyard with naval equipment and repair operations was located, the Navy had the Bulgaria converted into a mine ship. After the renovation, it had a capacity for 120 mines; On the other hand, no information is available about the armament. The Navy kept its old name and put it into service for the 21st U-Fighter Flotilla on March 16, 1942. Other authors give May 1942 as the date.
In 1942 she laid mine barriers in front of the Dardanelles , in Saloniki Bay and in front of Piraeus. In 1943 she was in use in the Aegean Sea, off Crete and off the Bulgarian coast. From May to September 1943 she participated in the laying of Italian defensive mine barriers. First on the Greek west coast together with the Italian mine ships Barletta and Morosini as well as the Drache , in the Aegean also alone, from July 19 again together with the Drache in the Aegean.
As a result of the British attempts to conquer the Dodecanese Islands in September and October 1943, Bulgaria was involved in the German reconquest of the island of Kos, the company Eisbär. From October 1, she served as a transporter and to secure the invasion fleet. During a supply transport from Piraeus to Kos, she was sunk on October 8 south of Amorgos by the British submarine Unruly .
literature
- Donald A. Bertke, Gordon Smith, Don Kindell / Naval-history.net: World War II Sea War . Volume 9: Wolfpacks Muzzled . Bertke Publications, Dayton OH 2012, ISBN 978-1-937470-16-6 .
- Robert Gardiner, Roger Chesneau: Conway's All the world's fighting ships 1922-1946 . Conway Maritime Press, London 1980, ISBN 0-8317-0303-2 .
- Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . Volume 3: Submarines, auxiliary cruisers, mine ships, net layers and barrier breakers . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1985, ISBN 3-7637-4802-4 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Volume 9: Historical overview, collective chapter landing craft, mine ships, minesweepers, speedboats, training ships, special ships, tenders and escort ships, torpedo boats, supply ships . Mundus Verlag 1999, OCLC 247353137 .
- Karl von Kutzleben, Wilhelm Schroeder, Jochen Brennecke: Mine ships 1939-1945. The mysterious missions of the “midnight squadron” . Köhler, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-7822-0844-7 .
- Peter Schenk: Battle for the Aegean. The navy in Greek waters 1941–1945 . Verlag Mittler, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-8132-0699-8 .
- Reinhart Schmelzkopf: Foreign ships in German hands , Strandgut Verlag, Cuxhaven 2004.
Web links
- tynebuiltships.co.uk , accessed July 18, 2016
- wlb-stuttgart.de , accessed on July 18, 2016
- wlb-stuttgart.de , accessed on July 18, 2016
- navypedia.org , accessed July 18, 2016
- navbul.com Website of the Bulgarian successor shipping company Navibulgar; accessed on January 1, 2017
Footnotes
- ^ Melting Head, p. 41, tynebuiltships.co.uk
- ↑ Gröner, p. 189, Schmelzkopf, p. 41, tynebuiltships.co.uk
- ↑ navbul.com
- ↑ melt head, p. 41.
- ↑ Schmelzkopf, p. 41, Gardiner, p. 362 and navbul.com
- ↑ axishistory.com (topic 196386) quoted from W. Lohmann, HH Hildebrand: Die Deutsche Kriegsmarine 1939–1945 . Podzun-Verlag, Bad Nauheim, Volume 3.
- ↑ Schenk, p. 41.
- ↑ Gröner p. 189, Hildebrand p. 30, von Kutzleben p. 229; An armament can definitely be seen in pictures.
- ↑ Gröner p. 189, Schenk p. 41.
- ↑ Hildebrand p. 30, von Kutzleben, p. 229.
- ↑ Hildebrand p. 30f
- ↑ Hildebrand p. 30f, Bertke, p. 318, von Kutzleben p. 229, wlb-stuttgart.de , wlb-stuttgart.de
- ↑ Schenk p. 65f.
- ↑ Hildebrand p. 31, Gröner p. 189.