Ships of Yugoslav navy

Other Ships

Apart from the above mentioned ships, at least 2 other PC's, 1 armed launch, 3 motor boats, 6 launches, 1 hospital ship, 12 landing boats and more than 200 transports served with the partisans. Some of them were:

Pionir (Patrolni camac = Patrol boat).- 8 crewmen, 1 machine-gun. She was the first partisan ship, armed on December 1942.

Partizan (Patrolni camac = Patrol boat).- Motor sailing ship Evropa captured 1 Jan 1943 by Pionir. Sunk Feb 1943 in Podgora by Italian seaplanes.

Proleter (Naoruzani leuta = Armed launch).- Sunk 1 May 1944 in Smrska bay (Hvar I.) by her crew after an attack of Italian anti-partisan ships NAP-24 and MB-9.

B-4 (Barka = Launch).- Sunk in error 22 Jun 1944 near Mali Drvenik by US MTB's.

Preko (Motorni Camac = Motor boat).- Ex-German motor boat captured 15 Sep 1943.

Marin II (Bolnicki Brod = Hospital Ship).- Sunk 11 May 1944 in Viski Kanal by 2 German MTB's (57 dead).

The 12 landing boats formed the I and II Desantna Flotila on 3 Jul 1944.

In the Partizan Navy served some 17 armed ships, 60 boats, 3 motor boats, 6 launches, 1 hospital ship, 12 landing boats, 18 river patrol boats and more than 200 transports. Also organized some Naval Infantry Battalions.

The Yugoslav Partisan Navy sprang from humble beginnings. As no major harbors were in their possession, they had to resort to a naval variant of guerilla warfare. From gulfs and narrows ot the Yugoslav coast the small partisan armed fishing boats lay in ambush for single axis vessels, laying mines and supporting ground force partisan units from the sea. Laying in ambush when axis vessels took to port in one of the small harbors of the Dalmatian coast, then trying to take over the vessel was also an often-used tactic. The naval war especially grew in intensity after the Italians failed to dislodge the partisans from Central Dalmatia.

For now, it was subordinate to the HQ of the 8th Dalmatian Corps, and divided into 4 Coastal sectors. During the Axis counter-offensive to retake Dalmatia, the NOVJ navy was also set to take part in several evacuations of partisan units hard pressed by axis assaults. Thus, the units of the 4th Coastal sector evacuated the 26th Dalmatian division evacuated from the coast between Makarska and Split to the Island Hvar and Brsac, and two brigades were evacuated from the Peljesac peninsula to the island of Korcula On 24 October Josip Cerni was appointed commander of the NOVJ Navy. Around January 1st 1944, the strength of the Navy NOVJ was 9 armed boats, 45 patrol boats, 8 service boats and 172 smaller motor and sailing boats. After Operation RÃ¶sselsprung, when Tito and the Partisan headquarters (VS) was forced to flee from mainland Yugoslavia, it instead settled on the Island of Vis. Consequentially, the partisan navy became more important, and in July the Navy NOVJ was finally directly subordinate to the VS, with the operative base of it located on Vis Island itself. To protect the island from German attacks, the 26th Dalmatian division with four brigades, 8.000 men all in all, were stationed here. The whole island was mainly supplied from a base in Monopoli in Italy. Until the end of the war about 50.000 tons of aid were transported to Vis during the war, and 800.000 troops, wounded and refugees came through the island. In October a group of British torpedo boats was also stationed at Vis, later also some British cannonboats came. Sometimes even a few destroyers ventured here from Italian bases. As opened German archives show, the effort was well-founded - The Germans indeed planned an attack, but it was postponed twice, then shelved altogether. In November the number of Coastal Sectors was raised to 6, and they were again collected into 3 Sear-Commands, one each for the Northern, Central and Southern Adriatic Sea. The next month, during the liberation of Dalmatia, the navy was augmented by several more vessels captured, but due to losses in combat, the strength was actually halved. During the first half of 1944, the Vis garrison was also augmented by some Western allied troops (the British 2nd Commando group, the 40th and 43rd British Marine Commando and an American operative group comprising artillery, engineers and some service units), all subordinate to the 2nd Special brigade of the 26th Dalmatian division. Together with these, other parts of the 26th could be freed up for operations elsewhere, and during the first half of 1944, a number of Dalmatian islands (Hvar, Mljet, Solta, Korcula and Brac) were taken by the division. The most important of the operations, the occupation of the island of Hvar took place during the nights of 1 and 2 June, when the larger part of the 26th division landed here with some western allied units from Vis. 45 armed and assault boats of the NOVJ navy took part in this operation as did 20 armed and assault boats and two destroyers of the Western allies. All in all, the campaign in the Dalmatian Islands comprised 6 diversion actions, 4 airborne assaults and 3 artillery attacks, the last one on 2 August on the Island of Korcula. In July the major part of the Western allies was taken back to Italy, the rest left in October, as did the 2nd Special brigade. After this, the 26th division was also taken to the mainland, to Split. On Vis remained the Naval School, and on the Dalmatian Islands the 4th and 5th Sea-transport brigades. During the course of 1944, when the eastern part of Yugoslavia was taken in common with the Bulgarians and Soviets, river flotillas were also established for the large rivers in the northern part of Yugoslavia. A Sava-flotilla with base in Sabac and a Danube-flotilla with base in Novi Sad, bot with 15 armed boats, were established.