Re: Royal Yugoslav Navy Submarines
Posted by:
Platon Alexiades
()
Date: September 29, 2007 02:48PM
Hello,
NEBOJSA reached Alexandria on 24 April 1941 after stops at Argostoli and Suda. She was used briefly for A/S training before leaving for Port Said and Suez in October 1941 where she was used for landing exercises before returning to Alexandria et the end of the month. In June 1942 she was moved from Alexandria to Port Said to escape the Axis advance which had reached El Alamein. In October 1942 it was planned to use her as a petrol tanker to supply Malta and to refuel MTBs but this was abandoned due to the changing situation in the Mediterranean (the crew was mostly British with only one Yugoslav officer). Instead she was sent to Beirut in January 1943 where she was to be used in anti-caique patrols in the Aegean and was equipped with 10 Mark II torpedoes (she fired a salvo of three during exercises). However she suffered a battery explosion and this plan again came to nothing and in March 1943 she returned to Alexandria and eventually to Port Said where she completed her repairs and she was handed back to the Yugoslav Navy on 11 June 1943. She sailed from Port Said in December 1944 to join up with two submarines and a destroyer (all Italian) on passage from Haifa to Taranto. Off Cyrenaica she broke down and had to be towed by the Italian submarine ZOEA then by the destroyer GRANATIERE and brought to Tobruk. She finally arrived in Malta on 20 August 1945. Unfortunately the details of her career are quite fragmentary and there are still many gaps to be filled.
As mentioned by Brian HRABRI was deemed inoperable by the Italians and was scrapped, she had been brought to Pola on 23 May 1941 with the other two submarines.
FRANCESCO RISMONDO (ex OSTVENIK) was quite active carrying a total of 128 sorties (including a few patrols but mostly for A/S exercises). She sailed from La Spezia on 7 September 1943 for Bonifacio (Corsica) where she was seized by the Germans who scuttled her on 18 September.
ANTONIO BAJAMONTI (ex SMELI) had a similar career (107 sorties, her last one being on 6 September 1943) before being scuttled at La Spezia on 9 September 1943.
The above information come from research at the National Archives (London) and the Ufficio Storico (Rome), more details will be available in books on Allied Submarine Operations and the Italian Submarine Fleet which I hope to publish in the near future.
Best regards,
Platon Alexiades
NEBOJSA reached Alexandria on 24 April 1941 after stops at Argostoli and Suda. She was used briefly for A/S training before leaving for Port Said and Suez in October 1941 where she was used for landing exercises before returning to Alexandria et the end of the month. In June 1942 she was moved from Alexandria to Port Said to escape the Axis advance which had reached El Alamein. In October 1942 it was planned to use her as a petrol tanker to supply Malta and to refuel MTBs but this was abandoned due to the changing situation in the Mediterranean (the crew was mostly British with only one Yugoslav officer). Instead she was sent to Beirut in January 1943 where she was to be used in anti-caique patrols in the Aegean and was equipped with 10 Mark II torpedoes (she fired a salvo of three during exercises). However she suffered a battery explosion and this plan again came to nothing and in March 1943 she returned to Alexandria and eventually to Port Said where she completed her repairs and she was handed back to the Yugoslav Navy on 11 June 1943. She sailed from Port Said in December 1944 to join up with two submarines and a destroyer (all Italian) on passage from Haifa to Taranto. Off Cyrenaica she broke down and had to be towed by the Italian submarine ZOEA then by the destroyer GRANATIERE and brought to Tobruk. She finally arrived in Malta on 20 August 1945. Unfortunately the details of her career are quite fragmentary and there are still many gaps to be filled.
As mentioned by Brian HRABRI was deemed inoperable by the Italians and was scrapped, she had been brought to Pola on 23 May 1941 with the other two submarines.
FRANCESCO RISMONDO (ex OSTVENIK) was quite active carrying a total of 128 sorties (including a few patrols but mostly for A/S exercises). She sailed from La Spezia on 7 September 1943 for Bonifacio (Corsica) where she was seized by the Germans who scuttled her on 18 September.
ANTONIO BAJAMONTI (ex SMELI) had a similar career (107 sorties, her last one being on 6 September 1943) before being scuttled at La Spezia on 9 September 1943.
The above information come from research at the National Archives (London) and the Ufficio Storico (Rome), more details will be available in books on Allied Submarine Operations and the Italian Submarine Fleet which I hope to publish in the near future.
Best regards,
Platon Alexiades
