Ioan Florea Dumitru, Submariner/Naval Officer.

[CtahhR]

Here is a recollection of the transfer of the vessel from Romanian to Soviet hands.

"On 28th August 1944, nothing out of ordinary happened. Several Soviet aircraft surveyed the harbour, nobody fired at them and they did not attack.

On 29th August 1944, 15.00 hours, a Soviet military car stopped at the main access gate. It did not enter the harbour, nobody questioned its presence. The Soviet officer, standing up in the car, examined the harbour through field glasses for 2-3 minutes. The car left afterwards. Meanwhile, as a result of negotiations between the Romanian Sea Navy Force and the Soviets, it was decided that on 30th August 1944, two speed boats, under the command of Captain Papzoglu Mircea and Lieutenant Apostolescu Emil, would go to Sulina, where they were to meet the Soviet ships and to lead them to Constanta harbour. During the night, several vedettes of the Soviet fleet entered the harbour. A Soviet officer was dispatched to every Romanian ship to prevent any unauthorised movement.

The next day, 31st August 1944, aboard the depot ship to which Marsuinul was tied-up, arrived several Soviet officers, mostly youths, who heard they will receive a good meal and booze at the officers' mess hall. Discussions in Russian, little in English. They were disappointed to see intact some of our ships they reported as being sunk. Such cases happened to us also!

On 1st September 1944, onto the depot ship came uninvited a Soviet major, an intelligent, elevated and mannered man, who offered to read to us excerpts from "Pravda", because he learned that we were indoctrinated by the Fascists and the Nazis. Nobody knew it was about to start a lot of trouble for us. In the evening, the crew of the trawler charged with closing the harbour with net was a little too amiable with the Soviet officer, who, because of the euphoria caused by the booze, forbade any movement of the trawler.
Because of this, in the night of 1st-2nd September 1944, a German submarine, that left the harbour 4 days earlier and knew the place very well, entered the harbour and launched a torpedo which hit the commercial ship Oituz. The ship was sunk.

The next day, 3rd September 1944, the quarrel started, because we were considered guilty. Our anti-submarine ships were ordered to exit the harbour, to search for the German submarine and to sink it. But a new tragedy occurred. Our available anti-submarine ships were two-three trawlers with underwater listening devices and depth grenade launchers, but not suited for heavy sea. At sea with average waves, the deck was swept by water and the mechanisms rusted. Therefore, each 2-3 months the grenades had to be returned to workshop to be checked. But during those troubled times, this was neglected. The anti-submarine trawlers spotted a submarine, launched the grenades, but they did not detonate. A new quarrel, this time we were charged with "sabotage".

On 4th September it was announced that a Soviet convoy with occupation troops is expect to arrive in Constanta harbour. The ship Admiral Murgescu was ordered to meet them and lead them inside the harbour. At sea, Admiral Murgescu detected submarines and signalled the Soviet ships from the mast the international sign. The Soviets, travelling in line, disregarded the signal, and continued in line instead of navigating in front. The torpedoes launched by the Germans submarine hit two transport ships, with hundreds of men aboard. A new quarrel started, using the same term of "sabotage". The following days, the waves brought to the shore many bodies, this set off the Soviets.

In the morning of 5th September 1944, before sunrise, platoons of Soviet soldiers armed with SMGs approached Romanian ships. The access ladders were guarded by a sentinel with a M1914 Rifle and bayonet. At an accosting and light signal, the Soviet platoons forced their way aboard the ships, disgraceful killing our sentinels in most of the cases. Once on board, they demanded the surrender of all officers. I was the officer on duty on the depot ship, near Marsuinul. I slept in the cabin, dressed up, to be ready in case. All the officers that were bunched on the shore, were forced to surrender their weapons. The doors to crew compartments were blocked by armed Soviet soldiers. Once on shore, we, 10-15 officers, were escorted to the Marina Station, where we met 80-90 officers from the other ships.

We were seized, as between us there were soldiers armed with automatic weapons,and we couldn't figure what was happening outside because the windows of the Station were painted in blue, for camouflage.

Meantime, a Jewish Soviet officer, in NKVD uniform, who spoke Romanian, told us that we were gathered here because the Soviet admiral in charge of operation was to come and to propose us a collaboration in the war against the Hitlerites.

From outside we could hear gunshots, trucks, we thought that, according to their usual practice, we were going to be taken outside the city and executed on the bank of a landfill.

It was 5.00. We stayed under increasing tension until about 12.00. We heard that when the Soviets tried to board one of the R Class destroyers, where it was the HQ of the destroyers flotilla, Commander Dumbrava, in order not to be dishonoured, committed suicide. At 12.00, the NKVD man told us that the Soviet admiral is too busy to talk to us and because of his good will, he allows us to go home, but not on the ships. At our protests, we were authorised to send an officer to go on board of each ship, to recover the luggage of the crew mates. Because in the cabin of the depot ship I had all my personal property, including my ID papers, I was allowed to go there.

Arriving at the depot ship, we saw the Romanian sailors carrying on shore crates with kitchen waste. We learned thereafter that they were doing so in order to escape from the ships. When the Soviets caught on, they forbid this activity.

In my cabin I found everything stolen. My suit was emptied of papers and money, my fountain pen and other personal items were missing, all the shirts in the dresser were missing, the watch on the side table, the pyjamas etc etc. I found several minor things that I gathered into a pillowcase and I also found my parade sword.

After the officers have been taken away from the ships, the sailors were told that their officers ran away, a fact that upset them since they saw through headlights what had happened. A soldier of my crew, the Transylvanian Tarsoaga, asked me to take him with me to carry my luggage, in reality a reason to leave the ship.

Returning to the Marina Station, around 15.00 hours, we were arranged in a row and we were escorted to the railway station, where a train was leaving to Bucharest at 16.00. The townsfolk of Constanta saw us and they were pitying us and crying. The picture was sad. Of the about 100 navy officers that were leaving the Marina Station, only I and another younger comrade were dressed in a navy officer uniform. The others, probably out of fear, tore their rank insignia from their sleeves, took off their ties and every detail that could have been dangerous and were walking in row, sad, to the railway station.

At 16.00 the train left the station to Bucharest."

Here's a picture from the launch of S-2 on 25th May 1941.