Black Sea campaigns (1941–1944)

On 22 June 1941, the Black Sea Fleet of the Soviet Navy consisted of:

On 26 June the Soviet forces attacked the Romanian city of Constanța. During this operation, the destroyer leader Moskva was lost to mines while evading fire from Axis coastal batteries and destroyers. The Black Sea Fleet supplied the besieged garrison in Odessa and evacuated a significant part of the force (86,000 soldiers, 150,000 civilians) at the end of October, but lost the destroyer Frunze and a gunboat to the German dive bombers in the process. Soviet hospital ship Armenia was sunk by German aviation on 7 November, resulting in over 5000 deaths, most of them civilian and patients being evacuated.[8]

The Black Sea Fleet played a valuable part in defeating the initial assault on Sevastopol. In December, there was an amphibious operation against Kerch which resulted in the recapture of the Kerch Peninsula. A naval detachment including the cruiser Krasnyi Krym remained in Sevastopol to give gunfire support. Soviet submarines also raided Axis shipping on the Romanian and Bulgarian coasts, sinking 29,000 long tons (29,000 t) of shipping. During fall of 1941, both sides laid many mine fields in southern Black Sea: Romanian defensive minefields sunk at least 5 Soviet submarines during this period (M-58,[9] S-34,[10] ShCh-211,[11] M-34,[12] M-59[13]), however during such operations the Axis forces lost the Romanian minelayer Regele Carol I,[14] sunk by a mine laid by Soviet submarine L-4: 2 of the 5 Soviet submarines (M-58 and ShCh-211) will be later sunk on that same minelayer's fields, after the sinking of the ship, in addition to another submarine sunk in 1942. In total, up to 15 Soviet submarines were sunk by Romanian defensive minefields until the end of the War.[15] Another Romanian minelayer was lost, the Aurora, when the ship was destroyed by Soviet bombers on 15 July.[16]

Soviet cruiser Krasnyi Krym took part in defending against the Siege of Sevastopol

Operations in 1942 were dominated by the Siege of Sevastopol. During the winter, Soviet warships including the only battleship Parizhskaya Kommuna provided fire support and supply missions near Sevastopol. The Soviets continued supply missions until 27 June, losses were heavy and included the cruiser Chervonnaya Ukraina, destroyer leader Tashkent (built in Italy for the USSR) and six modern destroyers.

The cruiser Voroshilov and destroyers tried to intervene without success in the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula in May and the Soviets could not prevent a landing across the Kerch strait in the Taman Peninsula in September. The remainder of the Black Sea Fleet evacuated to ports in the Caucasus that had very limited facilities. Soviet submarines were active in the western part of the Black Sea where they attacked Axis shipping. Unfortunately this included sinking the refugee ship Struma sailing under a Red Cross flag, International Red Cross and the USSR were informed before departure, the ship was torpedoed while being towed. On 1 October the Soviet submarine M-118 was sunk with depth charges by the Romanian gunboat Sublocotenent Ghiculescu.[17]

Italian MAS torpedo boat

In 1943, the Black Sea Fleet was reduced to the following ships, which all suffered from poor maintenance due to a lack of facilities:

• Battleship Sevastopol
• Four cruisers (two Kirov class - Molotov and Voroshilov -, Krasniy Krim and Krasniy Kavkaz)
• Destroyer leader Kharkov
• Five modern and three old destroyers
• 29 submarines

The Romanian Naval Forces lost the anti-submarine gunboat Remus Lepri in 1941, during minelaying trials after she was converted to minelayer.[18] The submarine Delfinul started an extensive refit at the end of 1942, which would keep her out of action for the remainder of the war.[19] Despite these losses, the Romanian Navy reached its peak strength in 1943. The modern Romanian-built submarines Rechinul and Marsuinul were completed in 1942.[20] In addition, five Italian-built CB-class midget submarines were acquired in the autumn of 1943, however only two could be made serviceable.[21] Four modified M-class minesweepers, armed as anti-submarine frigates, were built in Romania from German materials during the year.[22] Thus, the main operational warships of the Romanian Black Sea Fleet amounted to:

• 4 destroyers (two Regele Ferdinand-class and two Mărăști-class)
• 1 sea-going torpedo boat (Sborul)
• 10 anti-submarine frigates (Amiral Murgescu, four Mihail Kogălniceanu-class, one Sava-class and the four M-class minesweepers)
• 5 anti-submarine corvettes (three Sublocotenent Ghiculescu-class and two Smeul-class)
• 4 submarines (Marsuinul, Rechinul and two CB-class midget submarines)

Operations initially consisted of several offensive operations by the Soviets including the defence of Malaya Zemlya in Novorossiysk and some coastal bombardments and raids. On 7 July, the Romanian destroyer Mărășești sank the Soviet submarine M-31.[23] As the war was going badly for the Axis on other fronts, the Germans began to evacuate the Kuban bridgehead in September. This was successfully accomplished. Kharkov and two destroyers—Sposobny and Besposchadny—were sunk by Stukas while raiding the Crimea. As a result of this loss, Stalin insisted on personally authorizing the use of any large ships. The Kerch-Eltigen Operation followed in November.[24]

Romanian torpedo boat Năluca, sunk by Soviet aircraft on 20 August 1944

By early 1944, the Soviet surface fleet was practically nonoperational due to a poor state of repair. Most of the offensive work was carried out by small vessels and the Soviet Naval air force. The land situation had significantly deteriorated for the Axis. The area around Odessa was liberated in March, trapping the Axis forces in the Crimea. The last Axis forces near Sevastopol surrendered on 9 May 1944 and a considerable number of men were evacuated. (See Battle of the Crimea (1944) for details). Soviet submarines continued to attack Axis shipping. Unbeknownst to them, one of the ships attacked was the MV Mefküre transporting Jewish refugees from Europe.

On 20 August 1944, the Red Air Force carried on a large air raid against the main Axis base in Black Sea. A number of targets were sunk including the German U-boat U-9,[25] and the old Romanian torpedo boat Naluca (converted to anti-submarine corvette before the start of the war). U-18[26] and U-24 [27] were both damaged and were scuttled few days later. The Naval war in Black Sea was now almost over, but U-boats remained operative until they consumed their fuel: with a single strike, Soviet aviation had halved the German submarine force, but the effect could have been greater if such an attack had been carried out earlier.

• Baltic Sea Campaigns (1939–1945)
• Romanian Navy during World War II
• List of battles of the Romanian Navy
• Soviet Black Sea Fleet during the Battle of Stalingrad
• Naval operations in Romanian-occupied Soviet waters

• Ruge, Fredrich - The Soviets as Naval Opponents, 1941-1975 (1979), Naval Press Annapolis ISBN 9780870216763

• Black Sea Fleet History (Russian Language)