Today marks the end of the attempted liberation of Cuba by Brigade 2506 (Brigada Asalto 2506), which landed at the island’s Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on 17 April 1961 and, surrounded and cut off, laid down their arms on 20 April, some 65 years ago.
Special Demolition Frogman, Brigade 2506, Cuban Bay of Pigs, by Stephen Walsh, Paratrooper from 1st Bn, and a Brigadista with a MP40
Brigade 2506, Cuban Bay of Pigs, Stephen Walsh
The brigade, 177 airborne paratroops and 1,297 landed seaborne, fought valiantly but, facing upward of 25,000 Cuban troops backed by militia and police, never stood a realistic chance, especially once the Cubans controlled the air over the beachhead.
An estimated 114 drowned or were killed in action, and 1,183 were captured, “tried” before a kangaroo court, and imprisoned.
Exile groups in the U.S. raised $53 million worth of food and medicine in ransom to exchange for the release and repatriation of Brigade prisoners to Miami starting on 23 December 1962.
Four Americans, Capt. Thomas Willard “Pete” Ray, TSgt. Leo Francis Baker, Major Riley W. Shamburger, and TSgt. Wade C. Gray was killed when their Brigade 2506-marked B-26s were shot down over the beachhead. The CIA had recruited all through the Alabama Air National Guard and posthumously earned the Distinguished Intelligence Cross.
The Southern Museum of Flight, joined by the 117th Air Refueling Wing of the Alabama Air National Guard, will assemble in Birmingham on 21 April in solemn remembrance to honor four Alabamians who paid the ultimate price.
Just catching folks up on the operations of the country’s most unsung maritime force.
How about this cutter task group steaming in the Florida Straits, 23 March 2026. They include the 1960s-vintage 210-foot Reliance class cutters Vigorous (WMEC 627), left, and Resolute (WMEC 620), right, with the center being held by two much newer 154-foot Sentinel (Webber) class FRCsRaymond Evans (WPC 1110), center-forward, and William Flores (WPC 1103), center-rear.
It is a decent little OPV SAG, with 200~ assorted Coasties embarked and spots for two MH-65 Dolphin helicopters (and/or assorted UAVs), four RIBs (two 26-foot OTH-IVs and two 19-footers), making it capable of some serious littoral interdiction.
If things get kinetic, they have four (two stabilized Mod 2 and two older Mod 0) Mk 38 25mm mounts and 16 crew-served .50-cals to fall back on, plus well-stocked small arms lockers for their boarding teams.
Of note, Vigorous, seen above, just returned to her home port in Virginia Beach last week following a 26-day patrol.
Busy Tampa
Speaking of returning from patrol, the 270-foot Famous (Bear) class cutter USCGC Tampa (WMEC 902) just offloaded “enough cocaine to kill more than 1.4 million Americans” in Miami after two interdictions in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean through Operation Pacific Viper on a 74-day patrol.
Typical of such patrols, Tampa had a HITRON helicopter detachment aboard, who surgically riddled several go-fast outboards with .50 cal rounds from afar.
They brought back the engine covers for trophies:
Coast Guard Cutter Tampa’s (WMEC 902) crew poses for a group photo during a drug offload at U.S. Coast Guard Base Miami Beach, Florida, April 16, 2026. Tampa’s crew offloaded nearly $28.7 million in illicit narcotics interdicted in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Reese Hindmarsh)
Bertholf returns after 80 days
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) departs the San Francisco Bay on Jan. 21, 2026. Bertholf departed for a deployment to the Eastern Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard Courtesy photo) 260121-G-G0200-1001
Bertholf departed Alameda on Jan. 21 to support Operation Southern Spear in the Caribbean, but prior to transiting the Panama Canal, the cutter was retasked to remain in the Pacific theater, shifting focus to counter drug trafficking and transnational criminal threats on the high seas in support of Operation Pacific Viper.
Bertholf traveled nearly 20,000 nautical miles during the deployment, crossing the equator multiple times while patrolling maritime smuggling routes from Central and South America. The cutter conducted 24 approaches or boardings of suspected drug trafficking vessels and responded to two search and rescue cases, including a vessel fire near Costa Rica.
Bertholf’s crew conducted more than 180 flight operations with helicopter aircrews from Air Station San Francisco, Air Station Ventura, and Air Station San Diego, refining proficiency in shipboard landings, in-flight refueling, and vertical replenishment. The crew completed more than 120 hours of small boat training, strengthening the capabilities of law enforcement teams and cutter boat pursuit crews. Additionally, Bertholf executed two live-fire gunnery exercises, employing minor caliber weapons as well as major weapon systems including the 57 mm and the Phalanx Close-In Weapons System.
In other news, the service just announced it intends to homeport the first two (of up to 11) new Arctic Security Cutters in Alaska, a change from basing polar vessels in Seattle.
Featuring a 5.5-inch barrel, Colt-pattern 32-round magazines, and an SB Tactical HB brace on a three-position receiver extension, the new Saint Victor PDW from Springfield Armory is maneuverable and uncompromising.
Springfield introduced its first 9mm blowback-action Saint Victor model AR in late 2022, featuring a Melonite-coated 16-inch CMV barrel with a 1:10-inch twist, ambidextrous safety, nickel-boron-coated flat trigger, and a standard GI-style charging handle. In a departure from the widespread use of Glock double-stack mags for 9mm PCCs, the Victor carbine accepted 32-round Colt SMG stick mags, which are widely available. We’ve evaluated these carbines in the past and found them to deliver on the range.
Since then, the stick-magged 9mm PCC proved popular, with Springfield responding to customer feedback by delivering more compact models, including an 8.5-inch and a 5.5-inch pistol outfitted with an SB Tactical SB-A3 stabilizing brace. The 5.5 incher, in particular, taped out between 20 and 22.5 inches due to the adjustable receiver extension.
Going even more compact, the new Saint Victor 9mm PDW sticks with the 5.5-inch barrel, while its SB Tactical HBPDW brace, paired with a short buffer system, shrinks the overall length to 18.5 inches and feels much more solid.
And that brings us to this:
The new Saint Victor 9mm PDW uses forged 7075 T6 aluminum, Type III hardcoat anodized receivers finished in a low-glare Tungsten Gray Cerakote.
With its HBPDW brace collapsing into its shortest format, the pistol is 18.5 inches long while still offering a 23.5-inch extended length. Like the rest of its family, it runs Colt-pattern 32-round stick mags.
Sporting probably the best brace I’ve felt and using a common ($30) double-stack steel mag that gives it a very SMG vibe, this new AR-9 from Springfield knocks it out of the park and fits in just about any bag big enough to hold a laptop.
We found the Victor PDW to fit easily in a 5.11 LVC12 Backpack. The bag is small enough (19″ H x 11″ W x 7.5″ D) to be discreet with a clean, urban profile, and still has lots of extra storage available besides the pistol and extra mags.
If you want a solid and utterly dependable 9mm PDW platform that can live in just about any bag that stands 19 inches high, this is it. The tolerances are tight. It is well thought out. It has a vibe.
About the worst you can say is that it is hefty by comparison, about a half pound heavier than a Kuna, which has a softer recoil and is a little cheaper. Plus, when you first load those Colt pattern sticks, take your pre-workout because you have to work on it to get to 32. After a while, they break in, but you have to climb that hill first.
Still, if you are looking for an AR-9 platform that can fit in almost any bag, here you go.
The MSRP on the new Springfield Saint Victor PDW is $1,399
My bud (and podcast partner) Alexander went through the GDC Vault at work, pulled all seven generations (G1-6, plus V, minus the 4.5s), and compared them in a great piece on the site. I just couldn’t pass up the chance to repeat the profile pictures here for those of you guys who may be interested.
As you can tell, the Glock over the past 40 years has basically retained the same profile and manual of arms while showcasing a variety of minor internal tweaks and lots of gentle ergonomic improvements, the latter evolutionarily sculpting away at the pistol’s inherent blockiness.
The Thunderbirds took a slight detour on their way to SUN ‘n FUN from Panama City to link up with the Blue Angels over the Emerald Coast.
Offical caption: The U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (NFDS) – the Blue Angels – and the U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron (USAFADS) – The Thunderbirds – took part in a rare formation flyover of Pensacola Beach April 14. The Super Delta formation, a much anticipated event, stems from joint training opportunities held in 2020 and 2021 and serves as a show of both teams’ discipline and skill.
Photo by Bruce Cummins VIRIN: 260414-N-GO179-9001
The image also shows the big difference in size between the Birds’ 10-ton F-16C/D Vipers they have been flying since 1992 and the Blues’ more recently acquired (2021) F-18E/F Rhinos, which run 16 tons empty.
All four submarines were part of the Balao-class, and all were commissioned into the U.S. Navy in the final two years of WWII, although only Blenny arrived in time to make war patrols that earned battle stars (four) before VJ-Day.
Formation on 18 April 1966. The boats seen are: USS BLENNY (SS-324), CLAMAGORE (SS-343), COBBLER (SS-344), and CORPORAL (SS-346)
Of the quartet, Clamagore survived the longest, retired in 1980, and was scrapped in 2022 after four decades of slowly wasting away as a museum ship in Charleston.
Blenny, the WWII combat vet, decommissioned in 1973, was scuttled off Ocean City, Maryland, on 7 June 1989.
Cobbler, which transferred to Turkey in 1973, was renamed TCG Çanakkale (S 341) and somehow served until 1998.
Corporal also transferred to Turkey in 1974 and commissioned TCG Ikinci İnönü (S333), serving until 1996.
Guam, some 31 years young at the time, left Morehead City, North Carolina, on 27 Jan 1996 at the head of an ARG that included the transport dock ship USS Trenton (LPD 14) and the dock landing ships USS Portland (LSD 37) and USS Tortuga (LSD 46). Embarked was the 22nd MEU (SOC), made up of Battalion Landing Team 2/4, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM) 261, and assorted support elements, sailing under U.S. Sixth Fleet orders.
Just over two months into her (planned) six-month deployment to the Med and afloat in the Adriatic on a series of planned exercises, the call came on 11 April 1996 for Guam— the Mediterranean ARG with the embarked Landing Force Sixth Fleet– to sail at best speed to Monrovia, Liberia, some 3,000nm distant, where trouble was brewing. Leaving Tortuga behind (she was in Haifa, Israel, with the MEU artillery– Battery B, 1st Battalion, 10th Marines, and the light armored reconnaissance company, Company D (-), 2d Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion) to take part in exercise Noble Shirley), Guam and the rest of the ARG made for West Africa.
Four days later, on 15 April, the Marines of the 22nd MEU’s flyaway forward liaison cell arrived at the embassy in Monrovia to begin coordinating with the deployed European Special Operations Command’s forward headquarters in the country.
By 19 April, Guam and the promise of embarked Marines just offshore became real when they arrived at Mamba Station located off the coast of Liberia. The mission now assigned to 22d MEU was to conduct noncombatant evacuation operations and to provide security for the American Embassy in Liberia– Operation Assured Response.
USS Guam (LPH-9), Op Assured Response off Liberia, April 1996. Note her mix of CH-46Es, CH-53Ds, AH-1s, and UH-1s.
As noted by the 82-page Marine History of Assured Response:
At 0600 on 20 April, the first helicopter sorties carrying Marines arrived to replace the soldiers at the embassy in Monrovia. The well-briefed platoon guides from Company F and Weapons Company BLT 2/2 came ashore first. The main body of Marines began arriving at the basketball court landing zone one hour later. Company F arrived first, quickly followed by the small 22d MEU forward command element and some MEU Service Support Group 22 (MSSG-22) personnel. Fast attack vehicles debarked carrying .50-caliber machine guns, Mk19 grenade launchers, and tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided
missiles, commonly called TOW missiles. These vehicles, combined with the mortars, machine guns, and sniper weapons already on station at the embassy, significantly enhanced the Marines’ firepower. The MEU completed the entire lift by 1015.
Company F, commanded by Captain Eric M. Mellinger, assumed security of the compound. The smooth transition left Marine squad leaders and platoon commanders with fire plans and field sketches drawn by the departing airborne troops. Starting at about 1230, soldiers from Company C, 3d Battalion, 325th Infantry, left in six sorties of three Boeing MH-47D Chinook helicopters. The last flight out of the embassy at 2015 included the outgoing commander of the European Special Operations Command’s Joint Task Force Assured Response. That evening, more than 275 Marines protected the compound. Captain Mellinger noted the embassy staff seemed overjoyed the Marines had arrived.
Guam, her two fellow gators, and (most of) the 22nd MEU would remain in/off Liberia with the ships often within direct-line sight of Monrovia for weeks as USAF aircraft ran a quiet evac operation ashore (103 combined sorties via MH-53 Pave Low helicopters, MC-130 Combat Talon aircraft, AC-130 gunships, KC-135 Stratotankers, and C-130 cargo aircraft) from M’Poko Airfield, with the Navy/Marine force providing muscle and presence.
USS Guam (LPH-9), Op Assured Response off Liberia, April 1996
The already split ARG/MEU was further dimenished when Trenton left for the coast of Spain to join with Tortuga for Exercise Matador 96 in early May, and Portland left on 20 June, leaving Guam alone on station off Liberia until the scratch-built SPMAGTF Liberia (732 Marines and Green side Navy personnel with 5 LAVs and 9 AAPV7s, along with six CH-46Es of HMM-264) arrived crammed aboard USS Ponce (LPD 15) on 27 June.
Between 9 April and 18 June, Joint Task Force Operation Assured Response evacuated 2,444 people (485 Americans and 1,959 citizens of 72 other countries) from Liberia.
USS Guam was decommissioned on 25 August 1998 and was disposed of as a target off the East Coast on 16 October 2001 in a SINKEX conducted by the John F. Kennedy Battle Group.
Although battered, Guam took over 12 hours to sink. One tough girl to the last.
The Florida State Guard’s Camp Blanding Joint Training Center just welcomed new members for a 24-day training cycle “designed to equip volunteers with the skills, discipline, and readiness to serve Florida when it matters most. Alpha and Bravo Companies completed administrative in-processing and medical screenings before moving into barracks, with cadre setting the standard from day one.”
The Florida State Guard’s Camp Blanding Joint Training Center
Say what?
Yup, while just about every state and territory authorizes a local defense force outside of the National Guard and Reserves, just 19 states and Puerto Rico have active ones, with the Sunshine State’s Guard, which traces its origin to 1941 (it numbered 2,100 men during WWII), as among the largest and best organized.
M1917-armed Florida Defense Force Personnel at U.S.O., Jacksonville. 1942. Spottswood Studio Collection. The Florida Defense Force, later known as the Florida State Guard, was formed in 1941 and numbered 2,100 men in 36 units two years later.
Benefitting from $10 million in annual funding from the state and access to surplus equipment from the DOD/DOW, the current FSG is authorized at 1,500 drilling members but only has about 1,000 on the rolls (hence the new recruit classes).
Authorized to wear UCP-ACUs and state markings to include a Florida flag shoulder patch, the FSG has a Crisis Response Battalion, a Maritime Response Squadron, an Aviation Response Squadron with two Bell 412EPs (N402TL and N77TL) helicopters, two surplus UH-1Ds (N205FS, N207FS ) two surplus UH-60As (N70K and N898VH), three Textron T206Hs (N152BF, N760CS, and N6384J) a Beech B300 (N5055J), two Cessna 206s; and an armed Special Missions Unit.
Florida State Guard Crisis Response Battalion
Florida State Guard Crisis Response Battalion Fat Trucks
Florida State Guard Aviation Response Squadron
Florida State Guard Aviation Response Squadron with UH-1D N205FS
Florida State Guard Aviation Response Squadron, note the Gator flash on the Huey
Florida State Guard Aviation Response Squadron
Florida State Guard UAS team
Florida State Guard Maritime Response Squadron Metal Shark 300 PQS
Florida State Guard Maritime Response Squadron
Florida State Guard Maritime Response Squadron
Florida State Guard Maritime Response Squadron Metal Shark 300
Florida State Guard Maritime Response Squadron Metal Shark 300 PQS
Even with air and marine assets, the FSG is separate from the Florida Naval Militia (formed in 1897 and dormant since 1941) and the 3,800 volunteer-strong Florida Wing of the U.S. Civil Air Patrol.
Should every other state emulate Florida?
It would not be that bad of an idea. If you extrapolate its 23.6 million population, a similar unit along state per capita lines in all 50 would yield a combined 23,000 volunteers on a comparably shoestring $150 million budget, and provide a genuine civil backup to the often-deployed National Guard and Reserve.
True homeland security– not at the call of the President.
Official caption: “An F-35B stealth fighter jet is prepared for flight aboard USS Tripoli (LHA 7) as the amphibious assault ship sails in the Arabian Sea. Tripoli and its 3,500 Sailors and embarked Marines are executing the mission to blockade ships entering and departing Iranian ports. The blockade is being enforced impartially against vessels of all nations.”
The “Green Knights” of Iwakuni-based Marine All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 121 trace their lineage back to 1941 and were charter members of the Cactus Air Force during the Guadalcanal campaign, then went on to produce 14 aces– more than any other Marine squadron during WWII– downing 208 Japanese aircraft in the process.
They went on to fight in Korea (flying Skyraiders), Vietnam (Skyhawks then Intruders), became the first Marine F-18D night attack squadron in 1989 once the A-6 was retired, logged over 2,000 combat sorties during GWOT, and have been riding the Lightning since 2012.
Their motto is “Have Gun Will Travel,” which tracks.
If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”
Warship Wednesday 15 April 2026: The Fastest Yugo
Courtesy of Mr. C.W. Beilstein 1983. Naval History and Heritage Command Catalog #: NH 94341
Above we see the class-leading destroyer (razarac) Beograd of the Royal Navy of Yugoslavia (Kraljevska mornarica Jugoslavije, KMJ) shortly after she was completed at Nantes in 1939. Note her “B” hull identifier.
Lightning-fast at 39 knots during her trials, she was captured 85 years ago this week and went on to serve under two other flags until the final days of WWII.
The KMJ’s tin can needs
Emerging from the wreckage of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, mashed together with the kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro by the Versailles Treaty in 1919, Yugoslavia needed a fleet.
The country inherited eight small 188-foot/250-ton torpedo boats, four Danube River monitors (the ex-Bosna, Enns, Körös, and Bodrog), four small TBs converted to minesweepers, and some scratch-and-dent auxiliaries from the Austrians. The largest ship collected from the smashed empire was the circa 1887 7,000-ton ironclad SMS Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf, which was condemned and sold for scrap within a couple of years.
In 1921, the budding polyglot country bought six surplus 500 ton German minelayers as tugs on the open market and armed them with new Skoda 3.5″/45s then followed that up in 1926 with the elderly German Gazelle-class light cruiser ex-SMS Niobe (2,370 tons) and added six new Skoda 3.4″/55s to that hulk, bringing her into service as the flagship Dalmacija.
Moving to purchase new construction, in 1927-31 the KMJ bought two small (236-foot/975-ton) 6-tubed Armstrong-built coastal submarines (Hrabri and Nebojsa), another two similarly small subs from France (Smeli and Osvetnik), the 250-foot/1,870-ton seaplane tender/minelayer Zmaj from Germany (capable of supporting 10 floatplanes, which the Yugos didn’t seem to have), and five 174-foot/130 ton Maclinska-class minelayers, the latter built by Yarrow’s Adriatic Yard in Kraljevica.
As part of the 1928 naval program, the KMJ moved to order from Yarrow, Scotstoun, what would be their most modern and well-armed surface combatant, the 2,800-ton destroyer leader Dubrovnik.
At 371 feet overall and powered by three oil-fired Yarrow boilers and dual sets of Parsons steaming and Curtis cruising turbines, she had 48,000shp on tap and was designed for 37 knot speeds (made 37.2 on trials).
Crtež razarača Dubrovnik, Yugo destroyer leader
Yarrow had built the experimental one-off destroyer HMS Ambuscade for the RN, delivered in 1927, and it could be argued that Dubrovnik was basically an enlarged take on that design.
Dubrovnik photographed by A.T. Kelly of Glasgow, while fitting out at the shipyard of Yarrow & Co., during the winter of 1931-1932. Courtesy of Mr. C.W. Beilstein. NH 94345
Same as above. NH 94344
Outfitted with four new 5.5″/56 Skoda single mounts— guns capable of firing 87.7-pound HE rounds at up to eight rounds per minute per tube out to 25,600 yards– Dubrovnik was one of the most heavily armed destroyers in the world at the time. In fact, her guns were the largest the KMJ ever had afloat, barring the trio of 12-inch Krupp M1888 L/35 guns on the old Erzherzog Rudolf, which were likely never put into service.
Škoda 140mm guns, Yugoslav destroyer Dubrovnik, May 1932, during a visit to the Netherlands, Den Helder, to install Hazemeyer fire control devices
Going past the 5.5″/56s, she had weight and space for an embarked seaplane, carried several 83mm M.1929 and 40mm/L67 Skoda AAA guns, and two triple 21-inch tubes for French-designed 1923DT torpedoes as well as depth charges and mines.
Dubrovnik was essentially a lead-in for the construction of a very similar new series of large (2,500-ton/377-foot) British destroyers authorized under the 1935 program, the well-liked Tribal class, which also had four gun mounts (for smaller 4.7″/45s), two funnels, and a three-boiler/two-turbine 44,000shp power plant for 36 knots.
The Yugoslavian fleet, circa 1937.
Yugoslav destroyer Dubrovnik in 1934
Delivered in May 1932, it was planned to build two sisters to Dubrovnik, and, since they were destroyer flotilla leaders, a whole class of modern tin cans for them to lead.
Which brings us to our subject of this week’s Warship Wednesday.
Meet Beograd
Named for the Yugoslav capital (Belgrade), the lead ship was ordered to a design from Ateliers et Chantiers after the fast French destroyer L`Adroit, which had entered service in 1929.
French destroyer torpilleur l’Adroit. The speedy French greyhound went 1,380 tons (standard) and ran 351 feet overall and, powered by three three-drum Temple boilers and two turbines for 31,000shp, could make turns for 33 knots.
French destroyer torpilleur l’Adroit. Armed with four 5.1″/40s and two triple torpedo tubes, she was a brawler, and the French would build 14 of her class.
Beograd would run a little shorter than L`Adroit (321 feet overall, 316 at the waterline with two funnels instead of three and less of a clipper bow) and hit the scales at 1,200 tons standard (1,655 full). Powered by three Yarrow boilers on two sets of Curtiss geared steam turbines, she had 44,000shp on tap and made just over 39 knots on trials versus a designed speed of 38.
Schemat niszczyciela Beograd
Armament would be four new model 4.7″/46 Skoda DPs, which could fire 52.9-pound HE shells at 10 rounds per minute to 18,000 yards. Secondary battery would be two twin 40mm Swedish Bofors with Dutch Hazemeyer fire control devices (one of the first mountings of such guns that would go on to become iconic), two 15mm Skoda heavy MGs, and two triple 21-inch torpedo tubes in addition to a stern depth charge rack. As many as 30 mines could be carried as well.
Laid down as Yard No. 585 at Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire in Nantes in 1936, Beograd took to the water on 23 December 1937 and was completed in August 1939, just as Europe was marching to another world war.
Beograd photographed before World War II. Courtesy of Mr. C.W. Beilstein, 1983. NH 94342
Just 300 miles to the north of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia had just been swallowed up by Germany, Hungary (which occupied Carpathian Ruthenia), and Poland (which occupied and annexed the Zaolzie area), and things were getting tense between Russia, Poland, and Germany. Meanwhile, Italy invaded and swiftly annexed Albania to Yugoslavia’s south in April 1939, sending 22,000 troops across the Adriatic supported by two battleships, six cruisers, and two dozen escorts.
The first of at least two of Beograd’s planned sisters, Zagreb and Ljubljana, were ordered in 1936 from the new Ateliers et Chantiers-founded Jadranska Brodogradilista shipyard in Split, as Yard Nos. 22 and 23, respectively, and were likewise delivered in the summer of 1939.
Yugoslav Beograd-class destroyer Zagreb in the Bay of Kotor
Destroyer Zagreb, 1939
Jadranska brodogradilišta A.D shipyard in 1933, where Zagreb and Ljubljana were constructed between 1936 and 1939. The yard is still around, as Brodosplit, one of the largest Croatian shipyards.
War!
As noted by Dr. Milan Vego in his 1982 Warships International article on the KMJ, in 1940, the force counted 326 officers, 1,646 petty officers, and 1,870 seamen. At that time, just 64 former Great War era Austro-Hungarian officers (1 VADM, 27 CAPT, 27 Senior CDR, 5 CDR) were still on the rolls, while 336 officers were educated in the Yugoslav schools after 1918 (14 CDR, 110 LCDR, 27 ensigns).
The U.S. military attaché in Belgrade then observed that the “discipline and morale of navy personnel was very good. The men are content and like their life.” However, “higher commanders appear somewhat discouraged at the inferior position of the Yugoslav Navy due to totally inadequate appropriations.” In his view, “under such conditions the fleet units kept in service may be said to be in very good condition considering the small amount available for upkeep and training.”
Less than a month after commissioning, as Hitler marched into Poland, Beograd was sent to Britain with a large part of Yugoslavia’s gold reserves (7,344 ingots), which were deposited at the Bank of England for safekeeping.
Keeping their heads down in the event of a surprise attack from Italy, in which they had orders to make to sea to raid the Italian coast and shipping, Beograd and her sister ship Zagreb were deployed to the 1st Torpedo Division in the Bay of Kotor (Cattaro) with Dubrovnik. The third sister, Ljubljana, was undergoing repairs in the Tivat Arsenal after sinking in an accident on 24 January 1940.
It became clear that the Germans and Italians planned to move Yugoslavia into their orbit, especially after Mussolini invaded Greece in October 1940, using Albania as a springboard. When the 27/28 March 1941 coup in Belgrade changed the government’s polarization from semi-German to semi-Allied, the writing was on the wall. By 30 March, it became known that Germany and Italy had started evacuating their citizens living on the Yugoslav coast.
Mobilization orders were passed, and the KMJ’s warships were ordered to keep full bunkers, magazines, and stores, as well as charge the air valves in their torpedoes and depth charges. To keep from being picked off at pier side, they were ordered dispersed, and the crews of the ships camouflaged themselves along the coast; the destroyer Dubrovnik in the Bay of Kotor, the destroyers Beograd and Zagreb near Dobrota.
Royal Yugoslav Navy destroyer Zagreb heavily camouflaged with foliage on April 15, 1941
On the eve of the expected Axis (German, Italian, and Hungarian) invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Zagreb and Beograd, along with four 250-ton class torpedo boats and six MTBs, were sent to the port of Sibenik, about 50 miles south of Zadar– an Italian enclave on the Dalmatian coast which had been occupied since the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920– in preparation for an attack on the Italians, to be joined by a reinforced Yugo army division from landward.
While the assault on Zadar kicked off three days into the war on 9 April, it faltered, and Beograd suffered damage from Italian aircraft off Sibenik, which knocked out her starboard engine. Sailing back to the Bay of Kotor for repairs, Beograd and the rest of the Zadar assault flotilla set up a triangular kill box for attacking Italian aircraft, firing on successive waves over the next few days while the KMJ high command dithered over what to do.
Eventually, it was decided to try to evacuate the ships that could still fight to join the Allies in Greece and North Africa, and on the evening of 16 April, the submarine Nebojsa set out for Alexandria, followed the next day by the torpedo boats Kajmakcalan and Durmitor— without orders. Word was flashed to the KMJ that the surrender would begin at 0500 on the 17th.
With many of Zagreb’s crew heading ashore during the looming collapse, two of Zagreb’s lieutenants, Milan Spasić and Sergej Mašera, scuttled the destroyer, sacrificing their lives in the process on the afternoon of 17 April.
Spasic and Masera were posthumously decorated by exiled Yugoslav King Peter II with the Order of the Karađorđe Star with Swords in 1942, then awarded the Order of the People’s Hero by Tito in 1973. Zagreb never sailed again.
With Beograd hamstrung by her damaged engines, her crew disembarked in lifeboats and landed ashore at Kotor. She was captured there by rapidly advancing Italian forces just after Zagreb settled.
The destroyers Dubrovnik (left) and Beograd (right) photographed in the port of Kotor in 1941 after being captured by the Italian army. Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-185-0116-22A
Beograd in Bay of Kotor April 1941
Yugoslav Navy Beograd in Bay of Kotor, April 1941, Dubrovnik in the background
Beograd in Bay of Kotor April 1941 b
Dubrovnik in Bay of Kotor April 1941. Note the tall German Sd.Kfz. 231 armored car in the background.
Other vessels lost during the short war included the river monitor Drava, bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe aircraft off Cib with the loss of 54 of her 67 crew on 12 April, while her fellow monitors Morava, Vardar, and Sava were scuttled by their crews on the same day. The coasters Senj and Triglav were scuttled to prevent capture at the Island of Krk. Meanwhile, the cargo ships Karadjordje and Prestolonasledik Petar were sunk by Italian mines off Sibenik.
Germany’s Balkanfeldzug sideshow had only cost the Axis about 4,500 casualties to conquer Yugoslavia in less than a fortnight, but is generally believed to have forced the delay of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, by some five precious weeks, which could have made a huge difference in the outcome of the frozen Battle of Moscow that winter, which was a hard-won victory for the Red Army.
Under a different king
Much of the KMJ was put back into enemy service under either Italian or puppet (Croatian) flags over the next couple of years.
Dubrovnik served as the Italian destroyer Premuda from 1941 to 1943.
The destroyer Premuda (ex-Dubrovnik ) in the port of Patras on August 5, 1942.
Ljubljana, sidelined during the war in the shipyard, was completed by her new owner, renamed Lubiana (the Italian translation of her name), and sent to escort convoys to North Africa. She ran aground on 1 April 1943 near Tunisia and was destroyed the next day by an Allied air attack.
Italian destroyer Lubiana, formerly the Beograd-class Yugoslav destroyer Ljubljana, at Pola in January 1943
Destroyer Ljubljana under the Italian flag
Beograd, repaired and up-armed with several Breda Model 35 20mm L/65 AAA guns, was commissioned into the Regia Marina as Sebenico in August 1941.
Italian Navy destroyer Premuda, former Yugoslavian Navy Dubrovnik, crossing into Taranto circa 1942
Sebenico ex Royal Yugoslav Navy Beograd, weighing anchor, autumn 1942. Note her camo scheme and SB identifier.
Beograd/Sebenico’s career in Italian service was much more active than under the KMJ ensign. She was immediately put to work as a convoy escort on routes between Italy and the Aegean Sea and North Africa, completing over 100 runs over a period of two years.
Yugoslav destroyer Dubrovnik (Premuda) and Beograd (Sebenico) listed incorrectly as the former Ljubljanka, USN ONI 202 Flashbook on Italy 1943
Under the Reichskriegsflagge
After the capitulation of Italy in September 1943, several ex-Yugoslav and ex-Italian units were taken over by the Kriegsmarine and designated Torpedoboot Ausland (foreign torpedo-boat). These included TA32 (ex-Premuda, ex-Dubrovnik), TA43 (ex-Sebenico, ex-Beograd), and the TA48 (ex-Italian and Yugoslav T3, ex-Austrian 78 T), which were amalgamated into the hodge-podge 9. Torpedobootsflottille, tasked with escort and minelaying in the still Axis-held northern Adriatic.
In German service, TA43/Sebenico/Beograd landed her torpedo tubes and saw her armament augmented by seven 37mm flak guns in one twin and five single mounts, as well as two single 20mm guns.
Surviving air attacks and both Italian and Yugoslav partisans, TA43 was scuttled by her German crew in Trieste on 1 May 1945, just a week before VE-Day. She narrowly survived Dubrovnik, which had been lightly damaged by British destroyers in March 1945 during the Battle of the Ligurian Sea and was scuttled in Genoa on 25 April.
Varying accounts have Beograd raised and scrapped postwar, generally in the 1947-48 time frame, as Trieste was under UN mandate as a Free Territory before it was split between Italy and Yugoslavia.
Salvage of the destroyer TA32 (ex-Dubrovnik) in Genoa in 1950.
Epilogue
Little remains of our destroyer that I can locate.
As for the treasure that Beograd rushed to London for safekeeping, following the war, the Bank of England restituted 334,654.186 ounces of gold and coins to the National Bank of Yugoslavia between 1948 and 1958.
Models of Zagreb, who had the most heroic ending of her class, dot museums in Zagreb, Belgrade, and Kotor, her story and that of her two defiant lieutenants retold throughout the past 85 years.
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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