From hand to hand. The fate of the Romanian Marasti-class destroyers. Part two

2024 Author: Matthew Elmers | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-11 04:35

Dear Readers! This is the second part of an article dedicated to the fate of the Romanian destroyers of the Mărăşti class. The first part of the article is HERE.

And if in the first part I tried to describe step by step and in as much detail as possible everything related to technical aspects, then in the second part I lay out everything that I could find in Romanian, Italian, Spanish and English sources about the combat path of each ship and some forgotten ones, but interesting and even funny events that happened to them during the first half of the last century.

From hand to hand. The fate of the Romanian Marasti-class destroyers. Part two

Aquila.

Name. Aquila (lat. Aquila - "eagle") is a large bird of the hawk family. Another meaning: the sign of the legion in the ancient Roman army in the form of an eagle, made of silver or gold and placed on a pole. Aquila, the symbol of the eagle, was surrounded by religious awe, for the eagle was considered the symbol of Jupiter. The loss of the aquila on the battlefield was considered a terrible dishonor (the legion that had lost the aquila was to be disbanded), so the Roman soldiers were willing to die to retrieve the symbol.

The ceremonial launching of the Cruiser Scout "Aquila" 1916-26-07

Aquila is the first of 4 ships of this series built. It left the stocks in July 1916 and was commissioned in February 1917. During the Great War, he was sent to the Lower Adriatic (Brindisi). He was a member of the 3rd reconnaissance group and, with the active participation of MAS-type torpedo boats, carried out raiding operations in the area of the Austrian (now Croatian) coast of the Adriatic Sea. MAS (abbreviation from Italian. Mezzi d'Assalto) - assault vehicles or “Motoscafo Armato Silurante” - armed torpedo boats.

Aquila before commissioning. 1916-th year

World War I. Aquila goes to sea from Brindisi for a combat mission

To ensure their actions, seaplanes carried out aerial reconnaissance, looking for suitable targets. Torpedo boats were usually towed by torpedo boats to the enemy base. According to the reconnaissance of seaplanes, MAS boats left Brindisi in tugboats of destroyers to attack enemy ships found in the roadstead. On the approaches to the roadstead, the boats gave up tugs and at a low speed followed inside the roadstead, where, after a short search, they discovered enemy ships. Torpedo boats fired torpedoes, and then they quickly found the destroyers and returned to base in tow.

On November 28, 1917, the Aquila and Sparviero scouts, interacting with 9 destroyers (Animoso, Ardente, Ardito, Abba, Audace, Orsini, Acerbi, Sirtori and Stocco) and with several reconnaissance seaplanes, attacked and pursued an Austrian detachment consisting of 3 x destroyers (Dikla, Streiter and Huszar) and 4 torpedo boats that fired at the railway near the mouth of the Metauro River. The Italian ships had to interrupt the pursuit, as they reached the area of Cape Capo Promontore, not far from the enemy naval base Pula (Pola - since 1991 a city in modern Croatia, on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula in the Adriatic Sea).

On May 10, 1918, Aquila, along with 5 destroyers (Acerbi, Sirtori, Stocco, Ardente and Ardito), was sent to Porto Levante (Veneto, Italy) to support the MAS-class torpedo boats of the 1st Squadron in the raid, which later became known as "beffa di Buccari" - "mockery or prank at Buccari".

During the First World War, Aquila made a total of 42 combat missions (433 hours).

The rise of the cruiser Aquila from the water to the floating dock, apparently for hull work. Brindisi, summer 1918

Let me digress a little and describe in more detail one rescue operation during which the cruiser Aquila distinguished itself. This happened in the interwar period. On the morning of June 6, 1928, not far from the Pula naval base, the Aquila scout, the light cruiser Brindisi and several other ships conducted exercises to counter submarines (the F-14 and F-15 submarines acted as a mock enemy). At 08-40, the submarine F-14, making an ascent maneuver, collided with the destroyer Giuseppe Missori: she was under it under the stem. This happened 7 miles west of San Giovanni in Pelago (Brijuni island, near the Pula naval base).

Aquila was among the first to rush to the place where the submarine landed on the ground, and took part in the rescue of the surviving 23 of the 27 crew members who were in the aft compartment. During rescue operations, Aquila hooked on a sunken submarine with its anchor chain, it began to drift to the side and it got a roll of about 70 degrees. Only thanks to the 30-ton GA-145 pontoon that came to the rescue from the Poole base, the F-14 boat was freed: a cable was lowered from the pontoon and with its help the anchor chain was detached from the submarine. The divers raised the boat from a depth of 37 meters 34 hours after the incident, but the submariners could not be saved: the entire crew died from poisoning with chlorine vapors released from the flooded battery, already during the ascent of the boat.

On October 11, 1937, Aquila was secretly sold to the Spanish nationalists (Marina nazionalista spagnola), who by that time had only one destroyer: Velasco (V). Important: the destroyer Velasco was a four-pipe ship.

The Spanish renamed Aquila Melilla, after a Spanish city and port on the Mediterranean coast of Africa, and was again considered a destroyer.

For political reasons, the Italians were in no hurry to exclude the cruiser Aquila from the Italian Navy (Regia Marina), and therefore, for some time after its sale, the Spaniards managed to maintain the appearance that Aquila was still serving under the Italian flag. In order to increase the confusion, the Spaniards at first equipped the three-pipe Melilla (formerly Aquila) with another (fake) pipe made of wood, and it began to remotely resemble the Francoist destroyer Velasco.

And in order to hide the fact of the sale of warships to the Spanish rebels, Melilla (formerly Aquila) often appeared under the name Velasco-Melilla.

Melilla (ex. Aquila) during the Spanish Civil War

During the Civil War, the Francoists, like the British, began to paint their warships in a light gray color, and on-pipe marks were applied to the top of the pipes: black stripes. Melilla (ex. Aquila) was painted in the same way. By that time, Melilla (ex. Aquila) was considered obsolete and began to be used as an escort destroyer for solving auxiliary tasks: in particular, it carried patrol and convoy service. That was until August 1938, when fate brought him together with the Republican destroyer Jose Luiz Diez / JD.

On August 20, after the completion of repair work in Le Havre, in northern France, the destroyer Jose Luis Diaz tried to break through to the Spanish port of Carthage, in the Mediterranean Sea, and sank 2 Franco trawlers along the way. The light cruiser Mendes Nunes with a battalion of destroyers went out to meet him for cover.

It is worth noting that Diaz was a Churruca-class destroyer that was built with an eye on the British G-class destroyers.

The former Diaz captain was dismissed for non-compliance, and after refurbishment, Juan Antonio Castro was appointed to his position. Since the path was long, and the times were turbulent, the “Commander Castro” who took command decided to use a military trick: using the outward similarity of his ship with British destroyers, to pass off the Republican “Diaz” for the British leader of the destroyers “HMS Grenville” (His Majesty's ship “Grenville”). The choice on "Grenville" fell not by chance: at that time he was the head of the 20 th destroyer flotilla of the Mediterranean fleet.

The captain of “Diaz” took the masquerade seriously. To do this, the destroyer was marked with the pennant number (alphanumeric designation) D19 and on-pipe marks corresponding to the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet division: 2 black stripes on the front tube. The flag of the Royal Navy of Great Britain was raised on the ship, and even from a single 76, 2-mm gun they tried to create a fake 120-mm Mark IX gun.

Republican destroyer Jose Luis Diaz, disguised as His Majesty's ship "Grenville"

REFERENCE. Pennant number D19 was assigned to another British destroyer: "HMS Malcolm" (His Majesty's ship "Malcolm"), which in the early 1920s was part of the 5th destroyer flotilla (on-pipe mark - one white stripe), and then until September 1939 of the year was in reserve as the leader of the reserve fleet flotilla. The leader “Grenville” (type “H”) had a different prefix and a different number, namely H03.

Unfortunately, the "Commander Castro" trick failed: the "secret of dressing up" was revealed by Franco's intelligence (espionaje nacional), and on the night of August 26-27, 1938, on the way to Gibraltar, "Jose Luis Diaz" was waiting for the flagship of the Franco fleet: heavy cruiser Canarias. According to Spanish sources, the Canarias was accompanied by the light cruisers Navarra and Almirante Cervera, the destroyer Huesca, the gunboat Júpiter and 2 destroyers of the Romanian order: Melilla (formerly Aquila) and Falco. As a result of the skirmish, Diaz was hit by a 203-mm shell, which caused extensive damage in the interior, and at dawn on August 27, the destroyer was forced to take refuge in the port of Gibraltar, which belongs to the British crown.

Found these 2 photos, but no explanatory labels.

It looks like “our clients”

After the end of the war, Melilla (formerly Aquila) was used for training purposes, and in 1950 it was withdrawn from the fleet, disarmed and scrapped. In the history of the Spanish Navy, the ship Melilla (ex. Aquila) appears as a destroyer of the "Ceuta" class.

Sparviero … Captain Vrungel used to say: “As you name the yacht, so it will float”. And often, along with the names of the ships, they received mottos.

Name. Sparviero: The sparrowhawk, or lesser hawk, is a species of bird of prey from the hawk family. It is a small bird of prey with short and wide wings and a long tail that helps it maneuver among the trees.

Motto. It so happened that during the First World War, the cruiser Sparviero was part of the 2nd reconnaissance group and was commanded by Ferdinand of Savoy (1884-1963) with the rank of capitano di vascello (captain 1st rank).

Commander of the cruiser Sparviero 1st-Class Captain

Ferdinand of Savoy, 3rd Duke of Genoa

The noble prince of Udine, the future Duke of Genoa, and so on and so forth, was an educated man (naval academy), an experienced warrior (participant in the Italo-Turkish war of 1912) and an experienced sailor (made a round the world trip on the armored cruiser Calabria).

And it so happened that Gabriele D'Annunzio (Italian writer, poet, playwright and politician), while flying over the cruiser Sparviero, as a sign of his special affection for his commander, invented a motto for the ship in Latin: “Cursu praedam inausum audet”. I am not strong in Latin and translated it like this: “The trail of prey will always find”. Soon the rest of the ships of the project received their mottos: “Aquila” received the motto “Alarum verbera nosce” (Hear the fuss of the wings); “Falco” - “Piombo sulla preda” (He will be the first to rush to the prey); “Nibbio” - “Milvus praedam rapiet” (Kite will grab prey).

On September 29, 1917, Sparviero with a group of destroyers Abba, Acerbi, Orsini, Stocco, Ardente, Ardito and Audace went to sea to provide fire support and cover for a squadron of aircraft that flew to bomb the Austro-Hungarian naval base located in the city of Pula (Pola).

After the disaster at Caporetto (October 1917), Italian troops were forced to retreat, and Sparviero and Aquila were relocated to Venice, where they remained until March 15, 1918.

During this period, Sparviero actively participated in the defense of the Venetian Lagoon and in support operations for MAS-class torpedo boats during operations off the enemy coast. In May 1918 Sparviero was relocated to Brindisi and until the end of World War I took part in active hostilities in the Lower Adriatic.

Sparviero in the port of Taranto (Gulf of Tarentum) 1918

Sparviero in Venice. Spring 1918

Sparviero leaves Venice. 1918-02-05

After the war, Sparviero arrived in Naples for urgent repair work, and in October 1919 (under the command of another commander), together with his twin brother Nibbio, sailed to Constantinople (the name of Istanbul from 1453 to 1930), where they cruised along the Eastern (Levantine) coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and also sailed in the waters of the Black Sea, in the immediate vicinity of Russian and Romanian ports.

It was during this period that negotiations began between Italy and Romania, the subject of which was the transfer by Italy of Sparviero and Nibbio to the Romanian Royal Navy. As I wrote earlier, some Romanian sources use the term “resale”. On June 1, 1920, the Romanian flag (pennant) was raised on the cruiser Sparviero and it was renamed Mărăști. According to the Romanian classification, Mărăști was again considered a destroyer. In addition to the new name, the destroyer Mărăşti received a distinctive side design (emblem): Ace of tambourine.

The destroyer Mărăști (formerly the cruiser Sparviero) in Naples. 1926th year

During World War II, it was used mainly as an escort destroyer, to escort convoys from the Bosphorus to the Crimea.

On June 26, 1941, together with the Regina Maria, he took part in repelling the attack of a naval strike group of 4 ships of the Black Sea Fleet on Constanta, during which the leader of the destroyer Moskva was killed.

Some sources claim that during one of its missions (July 1943) the destroyer Mărăști damaged (sank) the Soviet submarine Meduza M-31 of the Malyutka type. I found the following data on attacks on the M-31 submarine:

- 04.10.1941, on the outer roadstead of Constanta: blew up on one of the mine defenders of the Romanian minefield;

- 1942-16-08, on the approaches to Odessa: during a counterattack, a patrol ship dropped 8 depth charges at the alleged location of the submarine;

- 1942-17-12, in the Zhebriyany bay (Odessa region, Kiliysky district): ships from the escort of the convoy dropped more than 40 depth charges, after which the enemy observed signs of the submarine's death.

On August 29, 1944, the destroyer Mărăști, together with other Romanian ships, was captured in Constanta by Soviet troops, on September 5, 1944, the USSR naval flag was raised on it, on September 14, 1944, it was introduced into the Black Sea Fleet, and on September 14, 1944, the destroyer was named Dexterous”And attributed to the subclass of destroyers.

Since the destroyer Mărăști did not undergo not only major, but also current repairs (the last documented repair was carried out in Naples, in 1919) and was not fully equipped with spare parts, tools and devices (spare parts), the combat capability of the accepted Romanian ships caused the leadership of the Soviet Navy has reasonable doubts. Therefore, the Romanian destroyers were excluded from the combat strength and transferred to the detachment, which was soon renamed the 78th brigade of training ships, and from October 20, 1944 "Dexterous" began to appear as "Board number 22".

On November 6, 1945, “Board No. 22 / Light” was expelled from the USSR Navy, on October 12, 1945, it was returned to Romania (which became a socialist republic), where it was first introduced as the destroyer “Mărăşti”, then a whole string of renames followed: “D2” from 1948, "D12" from 1951, "D4" from 1956 and again "D12" from 1959. In 1963 he was expelled from the Romanian Navy and disarmed, and a year later it was scrapped.

This is all that remains of the cruiser Sparviero.

Destroyer "D12" (from 1951) ex. "Mărăşti" in Constanta, November 1951. Photo from the archives of the CIA with the stamp “SECRET / U. S. OFFICIALS ONLY”:

highly secret, for official use only, not for foreign citizens