From a collection of texts, "The veterans on the road of honor and sacrifice", an adapted translation of a fragment of a story of Morar Geratimusz, vanatori de munte, ANVR Sibiu :
On May 13teen, 1944, after one month of fights, our unit was embarqued om maritime ships, together with other units from Crimea.
In the afternoon, the convoy had 14 ships, on each ship were 1200-1400 men. The departure from Sevastopol was made under the camouflage of artificial fog. On board I had only my rifle and my bag. Next day, Sunday May 14 teen at 12.00, the AA watch reported 6 sov.planes. The cover of the convoy was 28 german AA guns. The order for fire was given, the planes have spread, but in 10 min. came back and fired the ships with MGs. for about 10-12 min. They were hundreds of dead peoples on ships. After one hour another 5 planes came, having magnetic torpedoes, sinking some ships in few minutes. The ship "Danubius" has been torpedoed, with no explosion but a large brake. The ship floaded and got panic on board. Seeing the ship will sunk, by myself I jumped over board. The convoy, just two remained ships, continued to sail and in the cold water we remained 30 men. Nex day in the morning we were only 5. At 1100-1200 there came 2 hydroplanes and lifted us.
From a collection of texts, "The veterans on the road of honor and sacrifice", an adapted translation of a fragment of a story of Stoica Ioan, ANVR Tulcea :
In the spring of 1944 I was embarqued onboard the gunboat Ghiculescu Eugen ( CO Lt.Cdr.Costin, officiers Cpt.Nicula, Lt.Stroescu, Lt.Radulescu)... The ship received order for escort mission of a convoy to Sevastopol with materials and ammunitions, and on the way back, retiring troops. The departure was on Apr.24th. together with a german escort ship and one destroyer for a half of the way. We sailed for one day and one night, with antisubmarine visual watch, an exhausting job... Aproaching to Sevastopol, the weather became very bad and one maritime motor barge (Submaistrul Cls.3 Staicu) started to fload, then sunk. The CO of Ghiculescu, also chief of the convoy, ordered rescue actions but was saved only the engineer... In Sevastopol, during night, only on-dutty crewmen remained on board the ship, the rest sheltered and sleeped on some catacombs in port.
Next day, the troops started the enbarquement on ships and after 10 hours, at 2000-2100, we left for Constantsa. On board Ghiculescu, all the crew was on the deck, with antisubmarine watch dutyes, and the troops were inside ship.. At the midnight, 10 miles from the coast we were attacked by soviet MTBs and a german escort ship has been sunk, in a huge explosion. A rescue action was not possible. An artillery duel became, a big explosion was to the enemy by a fire of Ghiculescu. One MTB sank, then the fight cessed... |
