:NMS Regele Ferdinand

Following the end of World War I and the re-purchase of two Aquila-class cruisers from Italy, the Romanian Government decided to order also two modern destroyers from the Pattison Yard in Italy, as part of the 1927 Naval Programme. The design was based on the 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.Twardowski, pp. 359, 361 Four destroyers were intended to be ordered, but only two were actually built.

The Regele Ferdinand-class ships had an overall length of {{convert|101.9|m|ftin}}, a beam of {{convert|9.6|m|ftin}}, and a mean draught of {{convert|3.51|m|ftin}}. They displaced {{convert|1400|LT|MT|0|lk=on}} at standard load and {{convert|1850|LT|MT}} at deep load. Their crew numbered 212 officers and sailors.Whitley, p. 224 The ships were powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving a single propeller, using steam provided by four Thornycroft boilers.Twardowski, p. 361 The turbines were designed to produce {{convert|52000|shp|kW|lk=on}} for a speed of {{convert|37|kn|lk=on}},{{refn|Twardowski says {{cvt|48000|shp}} and a speed of {{convert|35|kn}}.|group=Note}} although the Regele Ferdinands reached {{convert|38|kn}} during their sea trials.Whitley, pp. 224–225 They could carry {{convert|480|LT|t}} of fuel oil which gave them a range of {{convert|3000|nmi|lk=on}} at a speed of {{convert|15|kn}}.

The main armament of the Regele Ferdinand-class ships consisted of five 50-calibre Bofors {{convert|120|mm|in|adj=on}} guns in single mounts, two superfiring pairs fore and aft of the superstructure and one gun aft of the rear funnel. For anti-aircraft defense, they were equipped with one Bofors {{convert|76|mm|in|adj=on|0}} anti-aircraft (AA) gun between the funnels and a pair of {{convert|40|mm|adj=on}} AA guns. The ships were fitted with two triple mounts for {{convert|21|in|mm|adj=on|order=flip|0}} torpedo tubes and could carry 50 mines and 40 depth charges.Axworthy, p. 348 They were equipped with a Siemens fire-control system which included a pair of rangefinders, one each for the fore and aft guns.Whitley, p. 225

The 40-millimetre guns were replaced by two German {{convert|3.7|cm|in|adj=on}} AA guns and a pair of French Hotchkiss M1929 machine gun were added in 1939. Two Italian depth charge throwers were later installed. During World War II, the 76-millimetre gun was replaced by four {{convert|20|mm|adj=on}} AA guns. In 1943, the two ships were equipped with a German S-Gerät sonar. The following year, the upper forward 120-millimetre gun was replaced by a German 8.8 cm Flak 18/36/37/41. German 88-millimetre guns in Romanian service were themselves modified by being fitted with Romanian-produced barrel liners.Axworthy, p. 149

Regele Ferdinand, named after King Ferdinand I of Romania, was ordered on 13 November 1926 and was laid down by Pattison 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. The ship was assigned to the Destroyer Squadron,{{cite web |publisher=Romanian Naval Forces |url=http://www.navy.ro/despre/organizare/flotila_56/istoric_en.php|title=Historical Overview: The Counter-Torpedo Squadron/Destroyer Squadron |website=www.navy.ro |access-date=2 November 2018}} which was visited by King Carol II of Romania and the Prime Minister, Nicolae Iorga, on 27 May 1931.

File:RegeleFerdinand1930-1944.jpg]]

Massively outnumbered by the Black Sea Fleet, the Romanian ships were kept behind the minefields defending Constanța for several months after the start of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, training for convoy escort operations. Beginning on 5 October, the Romanians began laying minefields to defend the route between the Bosphorus and Constanța; the minelayers were protected by the destroyers. After the evacuation of Odessa on 16 October, they began to clear the Soviet mines defending the port and to lay their own minefields protecting the route between Constanța and Odessa. On 1 December Regele Ferdinand, her sister ship {{ship|NMS|Regina Maria||2}} and the flotilla leader Mărăști were escorting a convoy to Odessa when a submarine{{refn|Variously identified as {{ship|Soviet submarine|D-4||2}}Hervieux, p. 76 or {{ship|Soviet submarine|M-58||2}}.Axworthy, p. 334|group=Note}} unsuccessfully attacked the convoy. It was quickly spotted and depth charged by Regele Ferdinand and Regina Maria with the latter claiming a kill. Soviet records do not acknowledge any losses on that date. The sisters escorted another convoy to Odessa on 16–17 December, the last one before ice closed the port. As the convoy passed 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 {{ship|Soviet submarine|M-59||2}}.{{refn|Sources disagree about the date of this submarine's loss. Polmar & Noot say 17 December,Polmar & Noot, p. 346 but Rohwer & Monakov attribute her loss to a mine between 28 October and 1 November.|group=Note}}Rohwer & Monakov, p. 265Axworthy, pp. 332–336; Hervieux, pp. 75–76; Rohwer, p. 127

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 {{ship|NMS|Mărășești||2}} 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 {{ship|Soviet submarine|M-32||2}}. The submarine {{ship|Soviet submarine|Shch-207||2}} 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 {{GRT|2793|disp=adj}} oil tanker {{SS|Ossag}} was torpedoed at the entrance to the Bosporus by the submarine {{ship|Soviet submarine|L-23||2}} as she was being met by the sisters.Axworthy, pp. 337–339; Hervieux, pp. 76–77, 79–80; Rohwer, pp. 176, 194, 200, 207

Regele Ferdinand and Mărășești escorted the minelayer {{ship|NMS|Amiral Murgescu||2}} 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.Axworthy, p. 340; Hervieux, p. 81 Soviet sources do not acknowledge any submarine lost on that day. The submarine {{ship|Soviet submarine|S-33||2}} 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.Hervieux, p. 81; Rohwer, p. 275

File:RegeleFerdinand1944.tif

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 {{GRT|5700|link=off}} cargo ship {{SS|Alba Julia}} was unsuccessfully attacked by the submarines {{ship|Soviet submarine|L-6||2}} and {{ship|Soviet submarine|L-4||2}}. 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.Axworthy, pp. 342–343; Hervieux, pp. 82–83; Rohwer, p. 319

Adolf Hitler suspended the evacuation on 27 April, but relented on 8 May after further Soviet attacks further endangered the Axis forces in Sevastopol as they closed within artillery range of the harbour. Regele Ferdinand arrived at Sevastopol harbour during the early morning of 11 May and loaded troops before departing later that morning. Soviet air attacks began at 06:00 and lasted until 10:30. The exposed troops and her AA gunners suffered the most from strafing of her decks by aircraft and bomb splinters, but one bomb struck the bridge and killed two officers. Other hits started small fires, but the biggest problem was an unexploded bomb that pierced the port oil tank, causing a major leak. At 09:30 she was engaged by Soviet coastal artillery, but suppressed them with her counter fire. About an hour later, her 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.Axworthy, pp. 343–344; Hervieux, p. 83; Rohwer, p. 319 Regele Ferdinand was damaged during a Soviet airstrike on Constanța on 20 August with 47 men killed.Axworthy, p. 345; Hervieux, p. 87; Rohwer, p. 351

After King Michael's Coup on 23 August, Romania declared war on the 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.Axworthy, p. 345; Hervieux, p. 88 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 1951Rohwer & Monakov, p. 268 after she had been returned to RomaniaBerezhnoy, p. 12 with her sister on 24 June. 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. The ship continued to serve until April 1961, when she was discarded{{Cite web|url=http://www.navy.ro/despre/organizare/istoricF221.php|title=Istoric Distrugătorul Regele Ferdinand Asul de cupă al Marinei Regale Române|website=www.navy.ro |publisher=Romanian Naval Forces|language=ro|trans-title=History of the Destroyer Regele Ferdinand: Ace of Hearts of the Royal Romanian Navy|access-date=2 November 2018}} and subsequently scrapped.

{{reflist|group=Note}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |last1=Axworthy |first1=Mark |title=Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945 |date=1995 |publisher=Arms and Armour Press |location=London |isbn=1-85409-267-7}}
• {{Cite book|url=http://militera.lib.ru/enc/berezhnoy_ss01/index.html|title=Трофеи и репарации ВМФ СССР|last=Berezhnoy|first=Sergey |publisher=Sakhapoligrafizdat|year=1994|location=Yakutsk|language=ru|trans-title=Trophies and reparations of the Soviet Navy|oclc=33334505}}
• {{cite book |last1=Budzbon |first1=Przemysław |last2=Radziemski |first2=Jan |last3=Twardowski |first3=Marek |title=Warships of the Soviet Fleets 1939–1945 |date=2022 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |location=Annapolis, Maryland |isbn=978-1-68247-877-6|volume=I: Major Combatants|name-list-style=amp}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hervieux |first1=Pierre |editor1-last=Preston |editor1-first=Antony |title=Warship 2001–2002|chapter=The Romanian Navy at War, 1941–1945 |date=2001 |publisher=Conway Maritime Press |location=London |isbn=0-85177-901-8 |pages=70–88}}
• {{cite book|last1=Polmar|first1=Norman|last2=Noot|first2=Jurrien|title=Submarines of the Russian and Soviet Navies, 1718–1990 |year=1991 |publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=0-87021-570-1|name-list-style=amp}}
• {{Cite book|last=Rohwer|first=Jürgen|title=Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=2005|edition=Third Revised|isbn=1-59114-119-2|author-link=Jürgen Rohwer}}
• {{cite book|last1=Rohwer|first1=Jürgen|last2=Monakov|first2=Mikhail S.|title=Stalin's Ocean-Going Fleet: Soviet Naval Strategy and Shipbuilding Programs 1935–1953|publisher=Frank Cass |location=London |year=2001|isbn=0-7146-4895-7|name-list-style=amp|author-link1=Jürgen Rohwer}}
• {{cite book|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946|editor-last=Chesneau|publisher=Conway Maritime Press |location=Greenwich, UK|year=1980|isbn=0-85177-146-7|last=Twardowski|first=Marek|pages=359–362|chapter=Romania|editor-first=Roger}}
• {{cite book|last=Whitley|first=M. J.|title=Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia |year=2000| publisher=Cassell & Co.|location=London|isbn=1-85409-521-8|author-link=Michael J. Whitley}}

{{Regele Ferdinand-class destroyer}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Regele Ferdinand}}

Category:Regele Ferdinand-class destroyers

Category:1928 ships

Category:Ships built in Naples