Submarine Campaign The Raid on Constanța was an attack by the Soviet Black Sea Fleet on the Romanian port of Constanța on 26 June 1941, shortly after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, and resulted in the only encounter between major warships in the Black Sea during World War II.

After Romania joined the Tripartite Pact in November 1940, the Germans agreed to construct coastal artillery batteries to bolster obsolete Romanian coastal defences, including the Tirpitz battery south of Constanța, armed with three World War I-era 28 cm (11 in) SK L/45 guns.

[2] Forewarned by Adolf Hitler about the scheduled date for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, codenamed Operation Barbarossa, on 22 June 1941,[3] the Romanian minelayers Amiral Murgescu, Regele Carol I and Aurora laid 1,000 mines between Cape Midia and Tuzla to protect Constanța between 16 and 19 June.

Two SBs failed to return;[5] the Romanian fighter pilot Horia Agarici was credited with shooting down three SB bombers down during the raid and was celebrated as a national hero in a propaganda song.

[7] The Voroshilov task force approached and shelled Constanța in the early hours of 26 June 1941, setting ablaze some oil tanks and warehouses,[7] and damaging port infrastructure.

At the same time, the Romanian coastal battery and two warships opened fire with their 120 mm (4.7 in) guns from a distance of 14 miles (23 km).

[10][14][15] According to most sources, she was sunk by Romanian mines,[9] although shells from Regina Maria and the Tirpitz coastal battery[16] or an unintentional friendly fire torpedo attack by Soviet submarine Shch-206 have also been suggested as causes.

The pair of Ilyushin Il-4 twin-engined bombers from the 2nd Mine-Torpedo Aviation Regiment that comprised the first wave had to return because of mechanical problems before reaching their target.

[22] The failure of the raid, together with other losses suffered by the Black Sea Fleet, caused Oktyabrsky to be much more cautious in his use of surface warships.