Lake Zuai

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Lake Zuai p1
Ship data
flag ItalyKingdom of Italy (trade flag) Italy (1940–1940) Italy (1940–1943) German Empire (1943–1945) Italy (1945–1960) Greece (1960–1985)
ItalyItaly (naval war flag) 
German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge) 
ItalyItaly (trade flag) 
GreeceGreece 
other ship names

D23 (1940–1943)
UJ 2220 (1943–1945)
Valfredda (1955–1960)
Maria Bourboulis (1960–1965)
Maria M. (1965–1969)
Irene P. (1969–1985)

Ship type Cargo ship , auxiliary cruiser
Shipyard Cantiere Navale del Taranto (Franco Tosi) , Taranto
Launch January 7, 1940
Whereabouts Sold for demolition in 1985
Ship dimensions and crew
length
64.77 m ( Lüa )
width 9.78 m
Draft Max. 4.42 m
displacement approx. 1,700
measurement 783 GRT , 456 NRT
Machine system
machine 2 × Tosi six-cylinder four-stroke diesel engine
Machine
performance 		1,600 hp
Top
speed 		15.0 kn (28 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament
  • 2 × 100mm L / 47
  • 4 × 20mm L / 65
  • 2 depth charges

The Lago Zuai was an Italian cargo ship that the Regia Marina used after completion in 1940 as an auxiliary cruiser D 23 and the Navy in 1943 as the UJ 2220 submarine hunter . After the Second World War it sailed as a cargo ship with different names under the Italian and Greek flags until it was scrapped in 1985.

Construction and technical data

The ship was in 1939 to order the shipping company S.A. Navigazione Eritrea from Rome together with a sister ship at the shipyard Cantiere Naval del Taranto (Franco Tosi) in Taranto under the hull number 81 laid down on . When it was launched on January 7, 1940, the ship was named Lago Zuai after the lake Zway in Ethiopia . The ship was 64.77 meters long, 9.78 meters wide and had a draft of 4.42 meters. The Lago Zuai was measured with 783 GRT or 456 NRT, the displacement was approx. 1,700 tons. Two Tosi six-cylinder four-stroke diesel engines with 1,600 hp enabled a speed of 15.0 knots with two screws . The shipyard delivered the Lago Zuai to the shipping company on March 30, 1940.

history

The Lago Zuai and the sister ship Lago Tana were to take over passenger services on the coast of Eritrea , which Italy had invaded and occupied in the Abyssinian War in 1935 , according to plans by the shipping company SA Navigazione Eritrea . This did not happen any more, both ships were no longer sent to the Red Sea .

Auxiliary cruiser D 23 of the Regia Marina

Shortly after the Italian entry into the war on June 10, 1940, the Regia Marina requisitioned the ship on July 10, 1940 and converted it into an auxiliary cruiser. The task of the Italian auxiliary cruisers was to protect the convoy, at the same time they were used as fast transporters due to the required speed of at least 15 knots. For the new tasks, the ship was armed with two 100 / L / 47 mm guns and four 20 / L65 mm anti-aircraft guns, as well as two depth charges . In addition to its name, the Lago Zuai was also given the code D 23 . As an auxiliary cruiser, securing convoys remained the main task of the ship. On October 21, 1940, the Lago Zuai was assigned to the Einsatzverband Maritrafalba in Brindisi , which was formed in preparation for the planned attack on Greece and carried out and secured the transport of troops and supplies from Bari and Brindisi to Albania . Just four days later, on October 25, the entire association was incorporated into the Forza Navale Speciale (FNS), to which other ships were assigned and which was to carry out the planned (but canceled) landing on Corfu .

After the Battle of Cape Matapan on March 28, 1941, the Lago Zuai was sent out together with the destroyers Libeccio and Maestrale ( Maestrale class ) as well as the torpedo boat Schiaffino ( Pilo class ) to salvage the damaged destroyer Alfredo Oriani , which she eventually brought into Augusta . On September 25, 1941, British planes attacked the auxiliary cruiser off Capo Colonna when it was securing a North Africa escort with the freighters Audace , Eridano and Delfino . On November 25, 1942, the Lago Zuai Trapani left Trapani as security for the auxiliary cruiser Narenta, which was used as a transport, in the direction of Bizerte . On the way, the small convoy was attacked by a submarine, but without any losses. At the time of the Italian surrender on September 9, 1943, the Lago Zuai was in La Spezia .

U-boat hunter UJ 2220 of the Kriegsmarine

With the fall of the axis , the Wehrmacht immediately occupied the ship on September 9th. A few days later the chief of staff gave Genoa the order to make the Lago Zuai ready for action . On the ship, the aft 100 mm gun was removed and additional light anti-aircraft weapons installed. It was assigned to the 22nd U-Jagd-Flotilla , which put it into service on September 19 with the registration number UJ 2220 . In the Kriegsmarine, the main task of UJ 2220 was to provide escort security, but also to actively search for and hunt allied submarines and speedboats.

UJ 2220 drove its first mission on October 8, 1943 and ran to Livorno, followed by numerous escorts, particularly between Genoa and Toulon and Marseille . From a convoy secured by UJ 2220 , R 215 and SG 15 , the French submarine Casabianca (Q 183) sank the steamer Chisone near Cap Camarat on December 28, 1943 ; on January 21, 1944, UJ 2220 fought the British submarine HMS Upstart (P65) . On the night of 18./19. April 1944 UJ 2220 rammed the Italian submarine hunter and training ship Equa of the Marina Nazionale Repubblicana , which sank as a result.

Since the Kriegsmarine did not have enough personnel to man their ships, they decommissioned UJ 2220 on October 25, 1944 and laid the ship up . At the end of the war, German forces sank the ship in Genoa on April 23, 1945 to block the port.

Cargo ship under the Italian and Greek flags

When the port of Genoa was cleared at the end of the war, the ship also had to be lifted in December 1945. Repaired and back in service, it was used by several shipping companies. There are only a few general information about the civilian time of the ship: In 1949 the Italian shipping company Libera Marittima from Rome bought the ship and put it back into service under its old name Lago Zuai . In 1955 it was sold to Lloyd Mediterraneo - also from Rome - who renamed it Valfredda .

In 1960 she sold the ship to P. Bourboulis from Piraeus , who named the ship Maria Bourboulis and initially used the ship in the eastern Aegean as a cargo and passenger ship , later only as a cargo ship. As early as 1965 the ship was transferred to D. Bourboulis as Maria M. and caught fire on July 17th on a slipway in Perama . The Maria M. was condensed , sold for demolition, but once again repaired. When IMO numbers were introduced , she was given the ship number IMO 5222495. The ship, now called Irene P. , remained with the last owner, P. Papaikonomou from Piraeus, until it was demolished in 1985.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Gröner, p. 398
  2. ↑ a b c d Schmelzkopf, p. 130
  3. ↑ Brescia
  4. ^ Achille Rastelli: Use of Merchant Ships at regiamarina.net
  5. ↑ Faggioni, p. 127
  6. ↑ Chronicle of the Naval War: October 21, 1940 Mediterranean Sea
  7. ↑ Forum post on the battle of Cape Matapan at bravenet.com ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pub10.bravenet.com
  8. ^ Giulio Grilletta: KR 40-43. Cronache du guerra , Pellegrini, Cosenza, 2003, ISBN 88-8101-177-8 ( limited preview in Google book search )
  9. ^ Historical naval archive: Allied submarine attacks
  10. ↑ on the operations cf. Krellenberg, pp. 130, pp. 170-188
  11. ↑ Krellenberg, p. 100
  12. ↑ Krellenberg, p. 174
  13. ↑ Krellenberg, p. 115, p. 179
  14. ↑ melt head, p. 216
  15. ↑ Forum post at nautilia.gr