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In the summer of 1942, the Soviets sent their fleet and air elites to attack the Romanian coast, hoping to have freedom of maneuver across the Black Sea during the war. The coast was defended by the destroyers “Regina Maria”, “Mărăşti”, “Regele Ferdinand” and “Mărăşeşti”, who were patrolling.
The watchmen of the first two ships in the formation took notice of the Russian ships, and shortly after the artillery barrage was launched, our destroyers opened fire on the Russian ships.
One of the witnesses, Captain Nicolae Mihalcea, recounted how the naval battle unfolded: “Dawn, June 26, 1941. For four days, since the declaration of war, our ships patrolled the coast, determined to repel the attack attempts. of the enemy. Black.
On board the destroyers, absolute silence. An aerial alarm sounded at 2 in the morning had awakened the entire crew on the battlefields and the sailors of the parties were now hearing the noise of the planes, which had been rejected by the defense of Constance.
A sailor from the highest observation post yelled at the command: “Something is visible on the horizon, starboard, at two”, and suddenly, in the indicated direction, the binoculars and the observers point, along with the scrutinizing glances of two hundred sailors.
The clarification is not complete. After a summer night, now chased away by twilight, there are some spots on the horizon, not delineated, but still can’t get the details we needed. However, the commands begin to flow into the phones: “Boost the battery! Starboard target! Time … Central shot … »
Rangefinders carefully observe moving points. The enemy is on his way to the coast and the few shadows begin to turn into black columns, nailed in the water ”, the captain relived the drama of that night that went down in history.
When day broke, they understood who they were dealing with: “Instead of the forest of masts, two large figures appear, similar to our ‘Queen Mary’ destroyers. In the command of navigation and artillery, it is known exactly who we are dealing with: leaders of Soviet flotillas, Moskva type, tonnage 30,000, speed 37 knots, 5 guns, battle of 24 km ”.
“They are stronger than us, but they do not care. They are stronger in the weight of the steel, in the length of the tubes and in the power of the machines, but not in the will to win. The rangefinder announces the distance of 24,500 . A minute later, five flashes of fire were seen on both enemy ships. They fired! And we still can’t get to them (…) “Attention! Fire!” Five cannon jaws suddenly doused the brave Bolsheviks who had come to desecrate the borders guarded by our sailors with their steel. There was only steel on board the destroyers. Steel in the souls, steel in the barrel ”.
“We are firing another volley, two … the third volley does not go away. In the place where, at the end of the enemy formation, the daring Moskowă was, now a cloud of flames rose that seems to want to reach the sky. It was probably hit in the munitions chamber, as the explosion occurred like the eruption of a burning volcano. A huge red pear sphere, glowing like lightning, then when it went out, nothing was left. ”
Even now it is not known whether the destroyer “Moskva”, the so-called “Black Sea Titanic” sank after being hit by Romanian artillery or was torpedoed by its own Russian submarine. “Kharkov,” the destroyer accompanying her, along with other ships, returned.
The wreck is still found in the Black Sea by a team of divers from Ukraine, Russia and Romania. The pride of the Russian WWII fleet is at a distance of 20 kilometers from the coast, off Tuzla.
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