The Battle of Jibrieni was an attack on 17 December 1941 by a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

on an Axis convoy and its Romanian escorts off the coast of the

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n village of Jibrieni (today Prymorske,

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

). The engagement ended with the sinking of the attacking Soviet submarine ''M-59''.

Battle

On 17 December 1941, the Soviet M-class submarine ''M-59'' carried out an attack against an Axis convoy near the coastal town of Jibrieni in December 1941. The convoy consisted of the Hungarian cargo ships ''Kassa'' and ''Kolozsvár'' and the Bulgarian cargo ship ''Tzar Ferdinand''. The three ships were escorted by the Romanian destroyers '' Regele Ferdinand'' and ''Regina Maria'', the Romanian gunboats ''Stihi'' and '' Ghiculescu'' and the Romanian torpedo boats '' Sborul'' and '' Smeul''. The two torpedoes launched by the Soviet submarine missed the aft and bow of the Romanian destroyer by about 30 feet each. With 25 knots, ''Regele Ferdinand'' rushed to the place the torpedoes were launched from and dropped three series of depth charges. Between the second and third series, fuel and bubbles emerged from the water. ''Regele Ferdinand'' subsequently circled the area and dropped four more depth charges, followed by more fuel emerging from the depths as well as pieces of wood. ''Regele Ferdinand'' reported the sinking of the submarine, which was confirmed by the Romanian Naval Command. Post-war sources revealed the identity of the submarine as ''M-59''.

Disputed account

According to modern Russian sources, ''M-59'' was probably lost several weeks prior in minefields east of

Constanța Constanța (, ; ; rup, Custantsa; bg, Кюстенджа, Kyustendzha, or bg, Констанца, Konstantsa, label=none; el, Κωνστάντζα, Kōnstántza, or el, Κωνστάντια, Kōnstántia, label=none; tr, Köstence), histo ...

, in late October or early November before the battle took place. Soviet archival documents state that the submarine did not have enough fuel to operate beyond 8 December on its final patrol, thus making impossible for the submarine to be involved in the engagement on 17 December. The likely reason of M-59's loss was defensive field of mines east of Constanța, the field responsible being the one laid by the Romanian minelayers ''Admiral Murgescu'', ''Dacia'' and ''Regele Carol I''.Jurgen Rohwer, ''Stalin's Ocean-going Fleet: Soviet Naval Strategy and Shipbuilding Programs, 1935–53'', 2012, p. 265

References

External links

Regele Ferdinand, Regina Maria warships feted on 85th anniversary
{{coord missing, Romania Jibrieni Jibrieni Jibrieni Jibrieni Military history of the Black Sea December 1941 events

Battle

Disputed account

See also

References

External links