Sevastopol/Hersones '44

Anyone knows how come that the hungarian ships Tissa and Budapest worked side by side with romanian and german ships to evacuate the romanian and german soldiers (+ slovacs and russians) from Sevastopol and Hersones in 1944 ?

From what point of view, you ask?
If it is a technical one, Danube ships (some of them) have had sea "walks" in good wheather conditions.

Iama

The Tisza and the Budapest were seagoing ships, not river ships.
The Budapest was damaged by VVS-ChF aircraft on 6 May and the Tisza had the same fate on 11 May (it was towed back to Constanta IIRC).

Sorry I forgot to mention it is not the technical side I was interested in but the political one: how come that hungarian ships agreed to asist in the evacuation of romanian troops ? From what I have read so far Romania and Hungary were one step away from war during ww2.

The Hungarian ships were subordinated to the German Black Sea Command and carried out the orders they received.

Victor is right. Despite obvious differences, both Rumania and Hungary were part of the Axis camp and fought for a common goal.
One should not always try "to stir the pot", as they say, when it comes to Hungary and Rumania. Today, the military of the two countries, allied again, have excellent relationships.

BTW, another Hungarian ship, the KOLOZSVÁR, 1200 tons, was also attacked on January 22, 1943, by Soviet aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet while docked in port [which one?]. It burned out, but did not sink.

Another one, UNGVÁR, 1031 tons, sunk on November 9, 1941, by a Soviet mine [where?]

MAGYAR VITÉZ (Hungarian Warrior) was sunk on May 10,1944, under Kriegsmarine flag and with German crew, while evacuating Sevastopol.

Does anyone have more details?

Gen. Dénes

Denes, I have hungarian friends and I think I broke the romania vs. hungary barrier some time ago - my question was strictly related to that era when both Hungary and Romania kept troops at their comun borders and provocations were made, as I said they were one small step away from war.

Unfortunatelly I do not know about those two ships but I will ask a hungarian friend who has a particular interest in navy.

The Ungvar was carrying ammunitions and eventually blew up, taking two Romanian Vosper class MTBs with it. The Romanian ships were then attempting to rescue survivors, but the blast was very powerful and given their small size they were also sunk.

Thanks, Victor.
Do you know where did this accident happen? Did every one die (both on Hungarian and Rumanian vessels)?

Gen. Dénes

These ships were sunk off Cape Carolina, near Bugaz, at the north-eastern edge of the Dniester liman. Some German ships were sunk too. There were survivors from all ships. 9 Romanian sailors died.
Ungvar was the first to hit a mine, it launched the lifeboats and the Romanian ships attepted to board it, but then a second explosion followed sinking all the 3 ships. Possible causes: it hit another mine or the ammo on board blew up.
The blast was so powerful that it damaged a Romanian seaplane who was also part of the escort.

Recently a Navy history researcher informed me of a different desciption of the fate of transport ship UNGVÁR and the two Rumanian torpedo boats.

Here is the description of the event:

Can sombody check out Rumanian (and other) sources and confirm, or infirm, this new version?

Gen. Dénes

The book "Marina romana in al doilea razboi mondial" by Koslinski and Stanescu confirms this version, except that instead of VISCOLUL it was VIFORUL.

VIFORUL hit a mine after UNGVAR, then VIJELIA.

I was informed that the version I posted above comes from a book written by Craciunoiu: " Vedetele Torpiloare din Marina Romana", Bucuresti, ed. Modelism, 2003. So, whom we should believe now?

Gen. Dénes

I would go with Koslinski's work. It also offers accounts of sailors that were on those ships.

For example, Ion Gociman, sergent torpilor on VIFORUL:

9 Romanian sailors lost their lives on the two torpedo boats:

Aspirant Aurel Cornateanu
Aspirant Mircea Metz
Submaestru Dragan
Sergent T. Popovici
Fruntas R. Tataru
Fruntas Gh. Sarbu
Fruntas I. Vintila
Fruntas Gh. Niculescu
Fruntas C. Columbina