NMS Regele Ferdinand

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For other ships with the same name, see Romanian ship Regele Ferdinand.
Regele Ferdinand at sea
History
Romania
NameRegele Ferdinand
NamesakeKing Ferdinand I of Romania
Ordered13 November 1926
BuilderPattison Yard, Naples, Italy
Laid downJune 1927
Launched2 December 1928
Commissioned7 September 1930
FateSeized by the Soviet Union, 5 September 1944
Soviet Union
NameLikhoy
Acquired5 September 1944
Commissioned20 October 1944
Stricken3 July 1951
FateReturned to Romania, 24 June 1951
People's Republic of Romania
Acquired24 June 1951
RenamedD21, 1952
StrickenApril 1961
FateScrapped, after April 1961
General characteristics (as built)
Class and typeRegele Ferdinand-class destroyer
Displacement
  • 1,400 long tons (1,422 t) (standard)
  • 1,850 long tons (1,880 t) (
    full load
    )
Length101.9 m (334 ft 4 in) (
o/a
)
Beam9.6 m (31 ft 6 in)
Draught3.51 m (11 ft 6 in)
Installed power
  • 4
    Thornycroft boilers
  • 52,000 shp (39,000 kW)
Propulsion2 shafts; 2 geared steam turbines
Speed37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph)
Range3,000 nmi (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement212
Armament
  • 5 × single 120 mm (4.7 in) guns
  • 1 × single 76 mm (3 in)
    AA gun
  • 2 × single 40 mm (1.6 in) AA guns
  • 2 × triple 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes
  • 40 depth charges
  • 50 mines

NMS Regele Ferdinand was the

Crimean Peninsula
. Regele Ferdinand covered convoys evacuating Axis troops from Sevastopol and was badly damaged in May when she rescued some troops herself.

Later that year

navy list in 1951 when she was returned to the Romanians who renamed her D21 in 1952. The ship was discarded in 1961 and subsequently scrapped
.

Background and design

Following the end of

British Shakespeare-class destroyer leaders, but differed in the arrangement of their propulsion machinery. The guns were imported from Sweden and the fire-control system from Germany.[1] Four destroyers were intended to be ordered, but only two were actually built.[2]

The Regele Ferdinand-class ships had an

kW) for a speed of 37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph),[Note 1] although the Regele Ferdinands reached 38 knots (70 km/h; 44 mph) during their sea trials.[4] They could carry 480 long tons (490 t) of fuel oil[2] which gave them a range of 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).[3]

The main armament of the Regele Ferdinand-class ships consisted of five 50-

rangefinders, one each for the fore and aft guns.[6]

Modifications

The 40-millimetre guns were replaced by two German 3.7-centimetre (1.5 in) AA guns and a pair of French

13.2-millimetre (0.52 in) M1929 Hotchkiss machineguns were added in 1939. Two Italian depth charge throwers were later installed. During World War II, the 76-millimetre gun was replaced by four 20-millimetre (0.79 in) AA guns. In 1943, the two ships were equipped with a German S-Gerät sonar.[6] The following year, the upper forward 120-millimetre gun was replaced by a German 88-millimetre (3.5 in) AA gun.[5] German 88-millimetre guns in Romanian service were themselves modified by being fitted with Romanian-produced barrel liners.[7]

Construction and career

Regele Ferdinand, named after King

laid down by Pattison[8] in June 1927 at their shipyard in Naples, Italy. She was launched on 2 December 1928 and commissioned on 7 September 1930 after arriving in Romania.[3] The ship was assigned to the Destroyer Squadron,[9] which was visited by King Carol II of Romania and the Prime Minister, Nicolae Iorga, on 27 May 1931.[8]

splinter camouflage

Massively outnumbered by the Black Sea Fleet, the Romanian ships were kept behind the minefields defending

Jibrieni, Regele Ferdinand spotted a submarine's periscope and depth charged the submarine after evading a pair of torpedoes. The ship reported spotting debris and an oil slick; she may have sunk M-59.[Note 3][13][14]

During the winter of 1941–1942, the Romanian destroyers were primarily occupied with escorting convoys between the Bosporus and Constanța. On the nights of 22/23 and 24/25 June, Regele Ferdinand, Regina Maria and the flotilla leader Mărășești covered the laying of defensive minefields off Odessa. After Sevastopol surrendered on 4 July, a direct route between the port and Constanța was opened in October and operated year-round. On 14 October Regele Ferdinand was attacked and missed by the submarine M-32. The submarine Shch-207 unsuccessfully attacked Regele Ferdinand and Mărăști as they escorted a convoy of two Italian oil tankers off the Bosporus; they depth charged the submarine, but she survived. On 14 November the German 2,793-gross register ton (GRT) oil tanker SS Ossag was torpedoed at the entrance to the Bosporus by the submarine L-23 as she was being met by the sisters.[15]

Regele Ferdinand and Mărășești escorted the minelayer Amiral Murgescu as she laid a minefield off the approaches to Sevastopol harbor on the night of 13/14 September 1943. Two days later Regele Ferdinand attacked a submarine, possibly Shch-207, and claimed to have sunk it.[16] Soviet sources do not acknowledge any submarine lost on that day.[12][13] The submarine S-33 made an unsuccessful attack off Yevpatoria on a ship escorted by Regele Ferdinand on the early morning of 22 September. On the night of 9/10 November, the sisters escorted minelayers as they laid a minefield off Sevastopol. The minefield was enlarged between 14 and 16 November as Regele Ferdinand and Mărășești covered the minelayers.[17]

Regele Ferdinand en route to Sevastopol, 1944

Successful Soviet attacks in early 1944 cut the overland connection of the Crimea with the rest of Ukraine and necessitated its supply by sea. In early April another offensive occupied most of the peninsula and encircled Sevastopol. The Romanians began evacuating the city on 14 April, with their destroyers covering the troop convoys. Four days later, the 5,700 GRT cargo ship SS Alba Julia was unsuccessfully attacked by the submarines L-6 and L-4. Shortly after the latter submarine missed with her pair of torpedoes, the freighter was bombed and set on fire by Soviet aircraft. Other ships rescued her passengers and crew after they abandoned ship, but the sisters were dispatched to see if she could be salvaged. They put a skeleton crew aboard to operate her pumps and to stabilise her before a pair of tugboats arrived the next morning to tow her to Constanța.[18]

captain radioed for help, shortly before the final attacks destroyed her radio room and damaged her starboard fuel lines; despite passing oil hand-to-hand in a bucket brigade, the ship ran out of fuel early the following morning and had to be towed a short distance to Constanța.[19] Regele Ferdinand was damaged during a Soviet airstrike on Constanța on 20 August with 47 men killed.[20]

After

Axis Powers. Regele Ferdinand remained in harbour until she was seized by the Soviets on 5 September together with the rest of the Romanian Navy.[21] Before being renamed Likhoy on 20 October, the ship was commissioned into the Soviet Navy on 14 September as part of the Black Sea Fleet, along with her sister. She was struck from the navy list on 3 July 1951[22] after she had been returned to Romania[23] with her sister on 24 June.[8] The sisters rejoined Mărăști and Mărășești when they were assigned to the Destroyer Squadron upon their return. Regele Ferdinand was renamed D21 when the Romanian destroyers were assigned numbers when the Destroyer Division was redesignated as the 418th Destroyer Division in 1952.[9] The ship continued to serve until April 1961, when she was discarded[8] and subsequently scrapped.[9]

Notes

  1. ^ Twardowski says 48,000 shp (36,000 kW) and a speed of 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph).[2]
  2. ^ Variously identified as D-4[10] or M-58.[11]
  3. ^ Sources disagree about the date of this submarine's loss. Polmar & Noot say 17 December,[12] but Rohwer & Monakov attribute her loss to a mine between 28 October and 1 November.[13]

Citations

  1. ^ Twardowski, pp. 359, 361
  2. ^ a b c d Twardowski, p. 361
  3. ^ a b c Whitley, p. 224
  4. ^ a b Whitley, pp. 224–225
  5. ^ a b Axworthy, p. 348
  6. ^ a b Whitley, p. 225
  7. ^ Axworthy, p. 149
  8. ^ a b c d "Istoric Distrugătorul Regele Ferdinand Asul de cupă al Marinei Regale Române" [History of the Destroyer Regele Ferdinand: Ace of Hearts of the Royal Romanian Navy]. www.navy.ro (in Romanian). Romanian Naval Forces. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  9. ^ a b c "Historical Overview: The Counter-Torpedo Squadron/Destroyer Squadron". www.navy.ro. Romanian Naval Forces. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  10. ^ Hervieux, p. 76
  11. ^ Axworthy, p. 334
  12. ^ a b Polmar & Noot, p. 346
  13. ^ a b c Rohwer & Monakov, p. 265
  14. ^ Axworthy, pp. 332–336; Hervieux, pp. 75–76; Rohwer, p. 127
  15. ^ Axworthy, pp. 337–339; Hervieux, pp. 76–77, 79–80; Rohwer, pp. 176, 194, 200, 207
  16. ^ Axworthy, p. 340; Hervieux, p. 81
  17. ^ Hervieux, p. 81; Rohwer, p. 275
  18. ^ Axworthy, pp. 342–343; Hervieux, pp. 82–83; Rohwer, p. 319
  19. ^ Axworthy, pp. 343–344; Hervieux, p. 83; Rohwer, p. 319
  20. ^ Axworthy, p. 345; Hervieux, p. 87; Rohwer, p. 351
  21. ^ Axworthy, p. 345; Hervieux, p. 88
  22. ^ Rohwer & Monakov, p. 268
  23. ^ Berezhnoy, p. 12

Bibliography

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