The attack of Delfinul

As we all know the NMS Delfinul submarine made an attack on a Soviet ship on 5 November 1941, Southeast of Yalta. The original victim was thought to be the cargo ship Uralles, but it was apparently sunk by Luftwaffe aircraft at Yevpatoria on 29 October. Another version was the motor-tank Kreml, which was damaged, but this was apparently torpedoed by the U-24 in 1943.

Recentlly I have come across some information about the icebreaker Stepan Makarov taht went missing in November 1941 en route to Sevastopol from the Caucasus.

Can anyone shed more light on the events on 5 November?

Hi Victor,

Where does the new information about the loss of the Uralets come from?

Forgive my enquiry, but we seem to live in an age of compulsive revisionism and conspiracy theory. Look at the unlikely proposition that the Moskva was sunk by mistake by a Soviet submarine, even though she was in a minefield and under fire from both shore batteries and warships at the time.

Have you any details on the Stepan Makarov? Does she look like a merchant ship generally or Uralets in particular?

Did Delfinul claim Uralets specifically, or just an undetermined merchant vessel?

If the latter, when was Uralets attributed to Delfinul and by whom?

Cheers,

Sid

P.S. I will be away for a week, so I will not immediately be able to acknowledge any reply.

Hello, Viktor!

“Uralles” really sank in Eupatoria during German air raid in Oct.1941.
Icebreaker “Stepan Makarov” left Tuapse on 17.11.41 and sank on minefield off Sevastopol next day with all crew.
No info about “Kreml” damage on 5.11.41. This ship left Sevastopol for Tuapse on 11.11.41
No any info on 5.11.41 about submarine attacks or so.
Nearest ship what might be object of “Delfinul” attack was minelayer (ex-cargo/passenger motorship) “Ostrovsky” – arrived Sevastopol 10:39 (Moscow Time) 5.11.43. But according to Rohwer “Delfinul” attack was on 08:45 (10:45 Moscow Time?).

It seems that unknown ship was attacked unsuccessfully and she don’t observe the attack.

Do you have a content of Costachescu attack report? Maybe details help to resolve this enigma.

Regards,
Andrey

Sorry, “Ostrovsky” arrived Sevastopol on 5.11.1941, not 1943

I have found two different reports of the events. One is presented in the article on the website:

On 5 November, at 0818, it spotted SE of Yalta a large ship escorted by a gunboat and a submarine hunter. Delfinul started to maneuver for the attack and at 0844 it managed to get into a favourable position and fired its torpedoes and sank the target. The ship was attacked by submarine hunters. About 90 depth charges were launched against the Romanian submarine during the 10 hours of the chase. Finally, at 1840 it managed to lose them and sail home.

The other one:

On 5 November, at 0805 hours, the submarine spotted a transport sailing on an approximate course of 290 degrees towards Yalta. Costachescu passed by the ship's stern and at 0843 fired one torpedo from the aft-tube no. 6. The explosion of the torpedo was followed by the explosion of something inside the ship (maybe munitions or a steam engine) and teh ship sank, still firing its light AA guns in teh water. The first submarine hunters appeared at 0946 and until 1840 they made 23 attacks, launching between 80 and 90 depth charges.

Hello, all!

I'm fully agree with Andrey, but have to add, that Kreml' struck a magnetic mine in Streleckaja bukt off Sevastopol at 20.03 November 3rd, 1941. Of course she was not the victim of Delfinul.

Regards,
Miroslav

Isn't Moscow time is GMT + 3? Bucharest time is GMT + 2 so that would mean the attack happened at 09:43 Moscow time.

I don't know the Romanian time, but the difference between Moscow and Berlin time in November - 2 hours.

Regards,
Miroslav

Hello, Miroslav and Viktor!

I think 08:45 in Delfinul report is Romanian Time of cource, not Berlin Time. Had Romania in 1941 Summer/Winter Time?

Regards,
Andrey

I had no idea, so I looked it up on the Internet. Wikipedia says that there was a permanent summer hour between 1 April 1940 and 2 November 1942 and it was discarded from 1943 to 1978, while an astrological site (acvaria.com) says that between 1941 and 1978 there was no summer hour in Romania. I tend to believe the astrological website, because the hour of birth of a certain person is very important when making personalized horoscopes, from which the respective website makes money. So they probably know better in these matters.

Hi Victor,

What does the Koslinski/Stanescu book say on the subject?

Rohwer, I think, uses the Operations Diary of German Admiral Black Sea as his source. If so, then his information will originally be from the report of Delfinul's commander. Does this report still exist?

What does the Koslinski/Stanescu book say on the subject? They are most likely to have had access to the report of Delfinul's commander.

Cheers,

Sid.

Hello my grand grand fathers brother was on Delfinu. He fought at the battle of Sevastopol, he was on the submarin when they where atacked by russians. In the eve of the battle they lost their radio and antena and they thought they where dead. His name is Petre Zamfir he is now a "contra amiral" in reserve. He was also on the "Rechinu" and on the distroyer "Regina Maria". He was decorated with the Military Virtute and the German natzi Crimea Sheald. If you want photos tell me.

I already posted it:

Claudiu, obviously, photos are more then welcomed.

Hello, all, in the last issue of Modelism (5-2006, number 100), page 4 you can see a facsimile of Bibi Costăchescu's original report about the attack.

The date is 2 November, hour is a bit doubtful due of superimposing, it may be either 8:00 or 8:30. The "3" is impressed harder so it may be the correct figure.

He says "we see a big ship of about 12000 tons making route to cape Aitador, coming probably from Batum." No mention about any name.

The place is somewhere south of Crimeea. Anyway, earlier, at hours 3.30 they were 5 Miles South of Yalta.