Axis victory Soviet victory Submarine Campaign The Black Sea Campaigns were the operations of the Axis and Soviet naval forces in the Black Sea and its coastal regions during World War II between 1941 and 1944, including in support of the land forces.

The Axis forces in the Black Sea consisted of the Romanian and Bulgarian navies together with German and Italian units transported to the area via rail and canal.

Many incomplete ships which were afloat were evacuated to harbours in Georgia which provided the main bases for the surviving fleet.

These ports such as Poti, however had very limited repair facilities which significantly reduced the operational capability of the Soviet Fleet.

[1] As Turkey was neutral during World War II, the Axis could not transfer warships to the Black Sea via the Bosphorus.

Additional vessels were built in German or local shipyards, captured from Soviets, or transferred from the Mediterranean nominally as merchant ships.

[5] The German Black Sea fleet ultimately operated hundreds of medium and small warships or auxiliaries before its self-destruction immediately prior to the defection of Bulgaria.

The force dispatched included six MAS boats, six (originally four) CB class midget submarines and four torpedo motorboats.

[6] Hungary became landlocked in the aftermath of World War I, but some Hungarian merchant ships were able to reach the Black Sea via the Danube River.

The Croats' purpose in posting a naval contingent to the Black Sea was to evade the prohibition on an Adriatic navy imposed by the 18 May 1941 Treaties of Rome with Italy.

Upon its arrival at the Sea of Azov, managed to scrounge up 47 damaged or abandoned fishing vessels, mostly sailing ships, and to man them hired local Russian and Ukrainian sailors, many deserters from the Soviet Navy.

The Black Sea Fleet supplied the besieged garrison in Odessa and evacuated a significant part of the force (86,000 soldiers, 150,000 civilians) at the end of October, but lost the destroyer Frunze and a gunboat to the German dive bombers in the process.

Soviet hospital ship Armenia was sunk by German aviation on 7 November, resulting in over 5000 deaths, most of them civilian and patients being evacuated.

During fall of 1941, both sides laid many mine fields in southern Black Sea: Romanian defensive minefields sunk at least 5 Soviet submarines during this period (M-58,[9][self-published source?]

During the winter, Soviet warships including the only battleship Parizhskaya Kommuna provided fire support and supply missions near Sevastopol.

[21] Four modified M-class minesweepers, armed as anti-submarine frigates, were built in Romania from German materials during the year.

A number of targets were sunk including the German U-boat U-9,[25] and the old Romanian torpedo boat Naluca (converted to anti-submarine corvette before the start of the war).

The Naval war in Black Sea was now almost over, but U-boats remained operative until they consumed their fuel: with a single strike, Soviet aviation had halved the German submarine force, but the effect could have been greater if such an attack had been carried out earlier.