Romania (ship, 1905)

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The Romania (Romanian: România ) was a Romanian combined ship with a 40-year and unusual career under changing flags, u. a. as a Russian, Soviet, Ukrainian and German aircraft mothership and as a German speedboat escort and mine ship . The ship was sunk in the Black Sea in May 1944 .

Construction and technical data

The ship (one chimney, two masts with loading booms ) was built for the Romanian state shipping company Serviciul Maritim Român (SMR) in 1904/05 at the shipyard of the Société Anonyme des Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire in Saint-Nazaire , France. It was 108.26 m long and 12.77 m wide and had a maximum draft of 5.75 m . It was measured with 3152 GRT and had a 1067 tdw load capacity . The double expansion steam engine delivered 7200 hp and allowed a speed of 18 knots . 69 passengers could be carried in the first, 41 in the second, 62 in the third class and 87 on deck. The crew consisted of 75 men.

career

Pre-war period

The Romania was launched in February 1905 from the pile and came to her on April 1, 1905 Port of Constanta on. She was then used on the lines Constanța - Constantinople - Mytilini ( Lesbos ) - Smirna and Constanța - Constantinople - Piraeus , newly established by the shipping company .

First World War

The Romania as a Russian aircraft mother ship in 1917; in the background a ship of the Imperatriza Marija class

The outbreak of World War I made it impossible to operate the lines through the Bosporus and Dardanelles , and the Romania and the other SMR mail ships spent the next two years as trailers on the Danube . When Romania entered the war on August 27, 1916, on the side of the Entente , a new use was found for the ships. On September 27, 1916, the Russian government leased five of the larger Romanian station wagons to convert them into auxiliary warships and use them in the Black Sea : the Carol I , the Împăratul Traian , the Dacia , the Principesa Maria and the Romania . While the Principesa Maria was being converted into a net layer , the Russian Navy converted the Romania into an auxiliary cruiser and auxiliary aircraft mother ship and the other three into auxiliary cruisers. The Romania was in Sevastopol , a simple setting and working deck on the stern with seating for four to seven Grigorovich M-9 - flying boats , special derricks at the rear masts to waters and recording the flying boats as well as one high-performance headlamps at the front and rear mast. As armament, it received four 15.2 cm guns and two 7.5 cm anti-aircraft guns. Fully equipped, she now displaced around 4500 tons and her draft was now 8.4 m. On November 16, Jul. / November 29,  1916 greg. the converted ship, now with the Russian name Rumynija (Румыния), was put into service in the Black Sea Fleet .

In the aftermath of the October Revolution , the Bolsheviks also took over the majority of the ships in the Black Sea Fleet, and in February 1918 they were given new names to reflect the changed political reality: the Rumynija became the Respublika Rumynija (Республика Румыния). In April 1918 the ship in Sevastopol came into the possession of the briefly independent Ukrainian People's Republic , but on May 1, 1918, when Sevastopol was captured by German troops, it fell into German hands. It was renamed Romania again and put into service under the German flag, but was no longer used.

Interwar period

At the end of the war in November 1918, the ship was taken over by Great Britain in Sevastopol , but then returned to its original Romanian owner, the state shipping company SMR, in 1919 . The military installations and superstructures were removed and the Romania resumed its passenger and freight service in the Black Sea and Mediterranean.

Second World War

During the Second World War , the ship was used again for military purposes. The German Navy took it over in March 1942, with a mixed German and Romanian crew, initially as a transport ship for the wounded , but in this function it did not operate. After the first six speedboats of the 1st Schnellbootflotilla arrived in May 1942 over the Elbe and Danube in the Black Sea, the Romania was used as an auxiliary speedboat escort in October 1942. H. Housing ship of the flotilla and depot for their fuel and ammunition, stationed in the now conquered Sevastopol. From November 1943 the ship was equipped and used as a mine ship , from January 1944 it was subordinated to the newly formed 10th Security Division , which was disbanded in June 1944. In addition, it was able to transport 80 mines . Their armament was limited to just four 20 mm anti-aircraft anti-aircraft guns .

The Romanian destroyer Regele Ferdinand

When the German and Romanian troops trapped in and around Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula were to be evacuated by sea in May 1944, the Romania was also called in . She was part of the convoy "Ovidiu", which sailed from Constanța to Chersonese on May 9, and took on board troops to be withdrawn there. The convoy also included the two war transporters KT 26 and KT 38 and the two naval ferries F 316 and F 446, as well as escort protection, the two submarine fighters UJ 301 and UJ 305 and the Romanian destroyer Regele Ferdinand . On the morning of May 11, the running convoy of 12 was Ilyushin Il-2 attack planes of the Soviet Black Sea naval aviation ( "VVS-ChF") attacked. The Romania caught fire after being hit by a bomb and an ammunition explosion and was abandoned by her crew, but they managed to hide all the people on board. (In contrast to this, between 8,000 and 10,000 German and Romanian soldiers were killed the day before during the sinking of the two transport ships Teja and Totila, also caused by Soviet aerial bombs off Chersonesus .) The heavily damaged ship, drifting west of Cape Fiolent, was killed shortly before midnight discovered the two Soviet motor torpedo boats TK-301 and TK-353 . After a torpedo hit by TK-301 , it caught fire again and finally sank at dawn. The wreck lies about 5.5 nautical miles west of Cape fiolent at about 44 ° 30 '  N , 33 ° 21'  O coordinates: 44 ° 30 '0 "  N , 33 ° 21' 0"  O in about 96 m depth.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Sister ships were the Împăratul Traian (1906) and Dacia (1907) built at the same shipyard .
  2. ↑ http://www.marinarii.ro/eveniment-Infiintarea_Serviciului_Maritim_Roman/31
  3. ↑ Built in 1898 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. , Glasgow .
  4. ↑ 1906, Chantiers et Ateliers de la Loire, Saint-Nazaire.
  5. ↑ 1907, Chantiers et Ateliers de la Loire, Saint-Nazaire.
  6. ↑ Ex Ignazio Florio , 1895/96, Fratelli Orlando , Livorno .
  7. ↑ World Aircraft Carriers List: Russia & The Soviet Union
  8. ↑ The Principesa Maria was now called Dezrobirea , the Împăratul Traian became Sotsialnaja Revolyutsija , the Dacia became the 1907 god and the Carol I rule was renamed Ioann Roate ( http://www.marinarii.ro/eveniment-Infiintarea_Serviciului_Maritim_Roman/31 ) .
  9. ↑ The same thing happened to the Almas , the Respublikanets (ex Imperator Aleksandr I ) and their sister ship Aviator (ex Imperator Nikolay I ).
  10. ↑ S 26 , S 27 , S 28 , S 40 , S 72 and S 102 ( 1st Schnellbootflotille, in Chronicle of the Naval War 1939-1945 )
  11. ↑ With superstructures, engines and weapons previously removed, the boats were from Hamburg on the Elbe to Dresden dragged from there to Culemeyer - road scooters for around 300 km Reichsautobahn to Ingolstadt transported, then on the Danube to Linz dragged and assembled there again to finally to drive on to Constanța on the Black Sea on your own.
  12. ↑ 10th Security Division, in Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945
  13. ^ German-Romanian convoys in the Black Sea in May 1944, in Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945
  14. ↑ VVS = Voyenno Vozdushnye Sily = Air Force; ChF = Chernomorskiy Flot = Black Sea Fleet.
  15. ↑ TK = Torpedny Kater = torpedo cutter
  16. ^ Victories of Soviet motor torpedo boats in WWII

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