Delfinul (submarine, 1930)

**Dolphinul**
	NMS Delfinul
Ship data
Ship type	Submarine
Shipyard	Cantiere Navale di Quarnaro, Fiume
Ship dimensions and crew
length	68.00 m ( Lüa )
width	5.90 m
Draft	Max. 3.60 m
displacement	above water: 650 ts; under water: 900 ts
crew	40
Machine system
machine	2 × Sulzer diesel engines; 2 × Monza electric motors (800 PS)
Machine ; performance	1,840 hp (1,353 kW)
propeller	2
Mission data submarine
Radius of action	2000 sm
Duration of use	15 days
Immersion depth, max.	80 m
Top ; speed ; submerged	9.0 kn (17 km / h)
Top ; speed ; surfaced	14.0 kn (26 km / h)
Armament
	1 × deck gun 10.2 cm Schneider-Armstrong M1914-15; 8 × torpedo tube ⌀ 53.3 cm (4 each at the bow and stern);

The NMS Delfinul (Delfin) was a submarine of the Romanian Navy launched in Italy in 1930 . It was the first - and until 1944 only - submarine in the country and was used in the Black Sea during World War II . In 1944 the Soviet Union confiscated it, renamed it TS-3, and returned it to Romania in 1945, where it was still used as a school submarine and was scrapped in 1957.

Construction and technical data

The enlargement of the Romanian national territory with the expansion of the coastal waters after the First World War required larger naval forces than before the war. In the naval construction program of 1927, the Romanian government ordered two destroyers ( Regele Ferdinand and Regina Maria ), a submarine support ship ( Constanța ) and a submarine, the later Delfinul, from Italian shipyards . The ship was in Italy at the shipyard "Cantiere Navale di Quarnaro" in Fiume, now Rijeka , in June 1927 on laid keel , the launch took place under the name on June 22, 1930 Delfinul instead. In 1931 the boat was completed at the shipyard and ready for acceptance, but the Romanian Navy did not accept the boat because it did not see the contractual requirements met. The submarine escort ship Constanța brought the crew to Fiume several times , but legal proceedings and improvements lasted until 1936 before Romania took over the Delfinul . In the meantime, the shipyard had offered the boat to several countries - including the Soviet Union - but did not manage to sell the boat. In 1936 the Constanța returned to Fiume for the last time: On May 9th, the Romanian authorized representative, frigate captain Victor Schmidt, took over the submarine and hoisted the Romanian flag for the first time.

Her length was 68.00 meters, she was 5.90 meters wide and had a draft of 3.60 meters. The displacement was 650 ts above water and 900 ts below water. It was a submarine with a classic combined drive of diesel and electric motors. The two diesel engines from the Swiss manufacturer Sulzer together delivered an output of 1,840 hp (3,484 kW). The two Monza electric motors together delivered an output of 800 hp (809 kW). The boat had two shafts that drove two screws . It reached a speed of 14.0 knots over water , 9 knots under water and had a range of 2,000 nautical miles at 10 knots cruising speed. The hull was built as a 2-hull construction and had a diving depth of 80 meters. The crew consisted of 40 officers and men.

For the surfaced mission, the armament consisted of a 102 mm deck gun of the Schneider-Armstrong M1914-15 type. An additional 13 mm machine gun is sometimes also mentioned in the literature. The boat had eight torpedo tubes (four in the bow, four in the stern). The information on torpedo armament is not clear in the literature - six torpedo tubes (four in the bow, two in the stern) are mentioned just as often. The construction of the boat had a number of disadvantages: it only had a short sea endurance of 15 days. Then there was the low reliability of the systems and weak diesel engines. In addition, there was no way to recharge the batteries while driving or to recharge replacement torpedoes. Ordering a second submarine of this type was waived in 1928.

Romanian dolphinul

The first submarine of the Romanian Navy reached the naval base of Constana - the new home port - on June 27, 1936. After the ship entered the ship, the Delfinul went on a training voyage in the same year: Accompanied by the Constanța , training voyages led in December 1936 and June 1937 to Istanbul .

Since June 1940 the Delfinul was assigned to the “U- Boot- und Schnellboot-Gruppe” of the Romanian Navy - this consisted of the only submarine of the Romanian Navy, the three speedboats Viscolul , Vijelia and Viforul as well as the Constanța as a joint escort ship. This was also the status when Romania entered the war on the side of the Axis Powers at the beginning of the German-Soviet War in June 1941. During the Second World War, the Delfinul undertook nine patrols in the Black Sea from its base in Constana .

First patrol

The first trip took place from June 22 to June 27, 1941 and was a reconnaissance trip. Around 60 nautical miles east of Constana , the Delfinul spotted a Soviet naval unit on June 26th, which was approaching the port to bombard them. The early reporting of the Delfinul enabled the Romanian Navy as well as the German and Romanian coastal batteries to prepare. In the course of the battle, the Soviet destroyer Moskva got into a Romanian minefield that had just been laid and sank, the cruiser Voroshilov was damaged.

Second patrol

For the next voyage, the boat left on July 10th to conduct a patrol in the area southeast of the Crimea in the area of the port and naval base of Novorossiysk. The boat reached Cape Idokopas on July 13th and Feodosia on the 15th . There it sighted an unidentified enemy ship, but it disappeared again. The following night, the Delfinul was surprised by a Soviet patrol boat, had to submerge and escaped the attack. On July 16, she had to drive home because of a defective gyroscope . On the 19th she discovered a small Soviet submarine and attacked it with the on-board gun. Due to the swell and two unidentified aircraft, she broke off the attack. One day later she reached Constana.

On July 30, the boat again left its base for another voyage, but the engine malfunctioned and the Delfinul had to return after just three hours.

Third patrol

On the third patrol from August 12th to 20th, there were only two sightings - once on the night of 13/14. August and August 19th, but both times the Delfinul could not keep contact. Already on the way back she was attacked on August 20 - the Soviet submarine M-33 had fired a torpedo, but it did not hit and passed behind the stern. The Soviet boat, on the other hand, dived when it was machine-gun shot at by the Delfinul .

Fourth patrol

On the fourth patrol from September 3 to September 19, the Delfinul advanced into Soviet waters and on September 9 sighted a Russian cruiser that was identified as the Comintern . However, the Delfinul lost contact. The next day the boat was able to approach a convoy within firing range, but was pushed aside by a speedboat. Another opportunity arose on September 16 when she sighted a single oil tanker accompanied by a speedboat as security. Here, too, she was pushed aside, but remained in contact with the convoy. When another attack attempt was made, another torpedo boat had meanwhile arrived as a safety measure - the Delfinul gave up further attempts to attack and set out on her way back on September 17.

Fifth patrol

Between November 2 and 7, 1941, the fifth patrol was the only one in which the boat came under a torpedo attack. The company's aim was to disrupt Soviet supplies to Sevastopol. On the morning of November 5, the Delfinul sighted a large transport ship near and in the direction of Yalta, fired a torpedo from a distance of 800 meters and then heard the sound of an explosion. An hour later, Soviet ships attacked the submarine until late in the evening, and the Delfinul escaped on a course on the Turkish coast. Romanian historians have identified the ship as the Uralets (also spelled Uralles , 1,975 GRT). However, Soviet sources state that the Uralles was sunk by the German Air Force on October 29, 1941 near Evpatoria . The ship hit by the Delfinul has not yet been identified. The auxiliary miner Ostrowski is said to have been near the attack area, but later reached Sevastopol. The more recent literature now names the freighter Kremlin (7,661 GRT), which is said to have been damaged in this attack.

Sixth patrol

On November 30, 1941, the Delfinul left the port to disrupt the route between Batumi and Istanbul . Due to the bad weather, she had to turn back and came back on December 3rd.

Seventh patrol

On December 6th, she repeated this attempt, which lasted until December 13th. In all that time she did not see any enemy convoy. On the way back to her base she discovered two Soviet submarines near Constana.

Eighth patrol

The first patrol in 1942 lasted from May 18 to May 30. The Delfinul's job was to patrol north of the Turkish coast. During this voyage, too, she saw no ships. On May 27, she was attacked by Soviet planes but suffered no damage.

Ninth patrol

The last voyage took the Delfinul from June 25th to July 3rd, 1942 and went to the area east of Yalta, where she arrived on June 27th. Since it was spotted by Soviet planes, it stayed under water. During the day she was repeatedly attacked and an oil tank was damaged. The next day she was caught by a plane on the surface of the water and damaged again. On July 1 - the last day of the evacuation of the Crimea - the boat was discovered again by planes and attacked all day long into the evening. After returning home, the boat had to go to the shipyard in Galați for a long time to be repaired.

Soviet TS-3 and Romanian school submarine

When the coup d'état took place in Romania on August 23, 1944 and the country then continued fighting on the side of the Allies , the Delfinul was still in the process of being repaired.

A few days later, on August 27, 1944, Soviet troops occupied the boat. On September 12th it appears to have been officially confiscated and was subsequently - it is unclear whether on September 14th or October 20th - it was added to the Black Sea Fleet as the TS-3 . The boat was still under repair at the time and was towed to Balaklava in October . A year later, on October 12, 1945, she was removed from the fleet list, towed back to Galați and returned to the Romanian Navy. The Romanians used the submarine under its old name for training purposes until 1954. The Delfinul was finally removed from the fleet list in 1957 and then scrapped.

Varia

Following their first submarine, the Romanian Navy named a 1985 is schafftes submarine of the Soviet Kilo-Class also Delfinul .

literature

Robert Gardiner / Roger Chesneau: Conway's All the world's fighting ships 1922-1946 , Conway Maritime Press, London 1980, ISBN 0-8317-0303-2 .
Erminio Bagnasco: Submarines in World War II - Technology - Class - Types. A comprehensive encyclopedia , Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01252-9 .
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 .
Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronik des Seekrieges 1939-1945 , edited by the working group for military research and by the library for contemporary history , Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching o. J. [1968], ISBN 3-88199-0097 , extended online version under : http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/chronik.htm .
Donald A. Bertke, Gordon Smith, Don Kindell / Naval-history.net: World War II Sea War - Volume 4: Germany Sends Russia to the Allies , Bertke Publications, Dayton / Ohio 2012, ISBN 978-1-937470-03- 6 .
Mikhail Monakov, Jürgen Rohwer: Stalin's Ocean-going Fleet: Soviet Naval Strategy and Shipbuilding Programs, 1935–1953 , Taylor & Francis, London 2001, ISBN 978-0714644486 .
Nicolae Koslinski, Raymond Stănescu: Marina Română în Al Doilea Razboi Mondial: 1939–1945 , Volumul II, Editura Făt-Frumos, București 1997. ISBN 973-552-033-8 .
Pierre Hervieux: The Royal Romanian Navy at War, 1941–1944 , in: Warship 2001–2002, Conway Maritime Press, London.

Web links

NMS Delfinul , WorldWar2.ro
Information about the submarine , Navypedia
Information about the submarine , Navypedia
Side elevation

Footnotes

↑ NMS is the abbreviation for "Nava Majestǎţii Sale" and was the name prefix of Romanian ships from 1881 to 1947. NMS means "His Majesty's Ship".

↑ ^a ^b ^c Gardiner, p. 361

↑ Istoric Nava Şcoală de suport pentru Logistic Fregate "Constanta" , Forţele Navale Române.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Delfinul submarine (1936) , navypedia

↑ Klepsch, p. 145
Bagnasco, p. 289

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j NMS Delfinul , WorldWar2.ro.

↑ ^a ^b NMS Constanta , WorldWar2.

↑ File de istorie - NMS "Constanta" ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2 archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Neodacii.com.