Yugoslav submarine Nebojša


Nebojša was the second of the Hrabri-class diesel-electric submarines built by the Vickers-Armstrong Naval Yard on the River Tyne in the United Kingdom, for the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and was launched in 1927. Her design was based on that of the British L-class submarine of World War I, and she was built using parts originally assembled for a Royal Navy L-class submarine that was never built. She was armed with six bow-mounted torpedo tubes, two guns and one machine gun, and could dive to.
Prior to World War II Nebojša participated in cruises to several Mediterranean ports. During the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, she evaded capture by Italian forces, and joined British naval forces in the Mediterranean where she performed a training role. After the war she was taken over by the new Yugoslav government and renamed Tara. She was eventually stricken in 1954, and scrapped in 1958.

Description and construction

Yugoslav naval policy in the interwar period lacked direction until the mid-1920s, although it was generally accepted that the Adriatic coastline was effectively a sea frontier that the naval arm was responsible for securing with the limited resources made available to it. In 1926, a modest ten-year construction program was initiated to build up a force of submarines, coastal torpedo boats, torpedo bombers and conventional bomber aircraft to perform this role. The Hrabri-class submarines were one of the first new acquisitions aimed at developing a naval force capable of meeting this challenge.
Nebojša was built in 1927 for the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, by the Vickers-Armstrong Naval Yard on the River Tyne in the United Kingdom. Her design was based on that of the British L-class submarine of World War I, and she was built using parts originally assembled for HMS L-68, which was never completed. Along with her sister submarine Hrabri, she had an overall length of, a beam of, and a surfaced draught of. Her surfaced displacement was or submerged, and her crew consisted of 45 officers and enlisted men. She had an operational depth of.
For surface running, Hrabri-class boats were powered by two diesel engines which were rated at that drove two propeller shafts. When submerged, the propellers were driven by two electric motors generating. They could reach a top speed of on the surface and on their electric motors when submerged. On the surface, the boats had a range of at. The Hrabri-class were armed with six bow-mounted British 21 inch torpedo| torpedo tubes and carried twelve torpedoes. They were also equipped with two QF 4 inch naval gun Mk IV, XII, XXII| guns, and one machine gun.

Service career

Nebojša was launched in 1927 as the second submarine of the navy of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which later became the Royal Yugoslav Navy. Along with her sister submarine Hrabri, she left the Tyne in late January 1928. In company with the Yugoslav submarine tender, the two submarines arrived in the Bay of Kotor on the southern Adriatic coast on 8 April 1928. In May and June 1929, Hrabri, Nebojša, Hvar and six torpedo boats accompanied the light cruiser Dalmacija on a cruise to Malta, the Greek island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea, and Bizerte in the French protectorate of Tunisia. The British naval attaché observed that the ships and crews made a very good impression while visiting Malta. On 16 May 1930, Nebojša was exercising her crew at periscope depth near the entrance to the Bay of Kotor when she collided with a Yugoslav steamship. The damage was not serious and there were no injuries, but her forward 102 mm gun was lost overboard. The necessary repairs were carried out at the dockyard in the Bay of Kotor.
In June and July 1930, Hrabri, Nebojša and the fleet auxiliary Sitnica again cruised the Mediterranean, visiting Alexandria and Beirut. In 1932, the British naval attaché reported that Yugoslav ships engaged in few exercises, manoeuvres or gunnery training due to reduced budgets. In September 1933, Nebojša and the submarine Osvetnik cruised the southern part of the central Mediterranean. In August 1936, Nebojša and Osvetnik visited the Greek island of Corfu.
During the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, she and two Orjen-class motor torpedo boats evaded capture by Italian forces at the Bay of Kotor, arriving at Suda Bay, Crete, on 23 April, after eight days at sea. Despite this, the Italians claimed that they had sunk all the Yugoslav vessels. Nebojša then sailed to Alexandria, but the Royal Navy considered her unfit for combat duties. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill suggested her crew might be retrained and used to operate the recently captured German Type VIIC U-boat U-570, but this idea was soon abandoned. She was based at Valletta in Malta as an anti-submarine warfare training vessel, serving with the British 2nd Submarine Flotilla in 1942 and the British 3rd Submarine Flotilla in 1943. She continued working in the Mediterranean until the end of the war, but her service with the Royal Navy appears to have been limited to a training role.
After the war she was towed first to Bari in Italy, then in August 1945 to the port of Split where she was overhauled, renamed Tara and given the pennant number 801. She was then transferred to Pula on the Istrian peninsula in the northern Adriatic. Used to train the fledgling Yugoslav Navy submarine arm, she was stricken in 1954. One of her guns was removed at the end of her career, and she was eventually scrapped in 1958.

Legacy

In 2011, to mark the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Yugoslavia, the Military Museum in Belgrade, Serbia hosted an exhibit which included a flag from the Nebojša. In April 2013, the 85th anniversary of the arrival of the first Yugoslav submarines at the Bay of Kotor was marked by an event in Tivat, Montenegro, attended by dozens of former Yugoslav submariners.

Footnotes

Books