Zmaj (ship, 1929)
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The Zmaj ( Serbian - Cyrillic Змај , German dragon ) was a submarine escort - and seaplane mother ship of the Yugoslav Navy . The ship was captured during the German invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 and then used in the Navy under the name of Drache .
Yugoslav tender Zmaj
The ship was built in 1928/29 at the Deutsche Werft in Hamburg for the Yugoslav Navy. It ran on 22 June 1929 by the stack and was put into service the 1,930th At 76.5 m long, 13.7 m wide and 3.60 m draft , it displaced 1,870 tons. The drive consisted of two diesel engines with a total of 3260 hp ; the maximum speed was 15 knots . The ship was armed with two Czechoslovakian 8.35 cm guns in single mount and two 4 cm in double mount for anti-aircraft defense . It had a crane with a lifting capacity of 6.5 tons. A seaplane could either be dismantled in the hangar or carried on deck. In 1936 the aircraft assigned to the ship was dismissed and the Zmaj was converted into a mine- layer in 1937.
The ship was one of the largest units of the Yugoslav Navy and was in the submarine - Flotilla in Sibenik stationed. In addition to being an escort and aircraft mother ship, the ship was also used for other tasks.
Air Force and Navy Ship Dragon
The Zmaj fell into German hands on April 17, 1941 in Split and was first used by the Air Force under the new name Drache as an auxiliary aircraft rescue ship and then as a troop transport. After a conversion in 1942, the dragon was armed with two 8.8 cm, five 3.7 cm and thirteen 2.0 cm guns and was used by the Navy as a mine ship for the 21st U. - Fighter flotilla deployed in Piraeus in occupied Greece . From November 1942 to February 1943 the Drache was equipped with a Flettner Fl 282 helicopter for testing purposes in the front . this is considered to be the first war deployment of on- board helicopters for naval aviation .
On September 22, 1944, the dragon was hit by aerial bombs in an Allied air raid in the port of Vathy on the island of Samos (Greece) . The ship sank two hours later after a severe explosion. Eleven crew members lost their lives, including the ship's commander, Korvettenkapitän dR Joachim Wünning .
Individual evidence
- ^ Zvonimir Freivogel: Kriegsmarine in der Adria 1941-1945. Ex-Yugoslav warships flying the German flag - a piece of largely unknown naval and naval war history (= Navy Arsenal. Vol. 40). Podzun-Pallas, Wölfersheim-Berstadt 1998, ISBN 3-7909-0640-9 , p. 21.