NMS Mihail Kogălniceanu

Mihail Kogălniceanu in 1941
History
Romania
NameMihail Kogălniceanu
NamesakeMihail Kogălniceanu
Builder
Laid down1907
Launched1907
Completed1907
Commissioned1907
Decommissioned1957
FateScrapped in 1959
NotesSunk by Soviet aircraft, 24 August 1944. Refloated in 1956.
Service record
Commanders:
Operations:
Victories:
  • Second Balkan War:
  • Contribution to the scuttling of 4 gunboats
  • World War I:
  • 77 vessels captured
  • World War II:
  • 1 barge possibly sunk
  • 2 monitors and possibly 1 armored motor gunboat damaged
  • 1 aircraft destroyed
General characteristics
Class & typeBrătianu-class river monitor
Displacement
  • 680 tonnes (670 long tons) (standard)
  • 750 tonnes (740 long tons) (full load)
Length63.5 m (208 ft)
Beam10.3 m (34 ft)
Draft1.6 m (5.2 ft)
Propulsion2 engines, 2 Yarrow boilers, 2 shafts, 1,800 hp (1,300 kW)
Speed13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Range1,500 nmi (2,800 km; 1,700 mi)
Complement110
Armament
Armor

NMS Mihail Kogălniceanu was a Brătianu-class river monitor of the Romanian Navy. She saw service in both world wars, being the most successful vessel in her class of four ships. Like her three sisters, she was initially built as a river monitor, but in early 1918, she was converted to a sea-going monitor. During the Second Balkan War, she supported the Romanian crossing of the Danube into Bulgaria. During World War I, she carried out numerous bombardments against the Central Powers forces advancing along the shore of the Danube and carried out the last action of the Romanian Navy before the 11 November 1918 armistice. She later fought successfully against Bolshevik naval forces during the early months of the Russian Civil War, helping secure the Budjak region.

During the interwar period, she contributed to the suppression of the Tatarbunary Uprising and was rearmed with longer main guns towards the end of the 1930s. During World War II, she fought several engagements against the Soviet Navy in the first month of the Eastern Front, but was ultimately sunk by Soviet aircraft shortly after Romania ceased hostilities against the Soviet Union, on 24 August 1944. She was refloated in 1956 and scrapped in 1959.