NMS Ardeal

At the turn of the 20th century, the Austro-Hungarian Danube Flotilla was the strongest force on the river, however, growing concerns over Russia threatening the control over the mouths of the Danube led Austria-Hungary to further increase its river capabilities. In this sense, an order was given for building two twin-turreted river monitors. Based on the lessons learned in previous designs, the two ships had to be capable of covering a 270° arc with their turrets, have light armament to defend against small arms fire from shore, and needed to have a very shallow draught. The design of the new vessels was entrusted to naval engineer Josef Thiel. Temes and her sister ship Bodrog were built by the Danubius Schönichen-Hartman Shipyards in Budapest The original armament configuration consisted of two Škoda /L35 guns located in the forward section mounted on each side of the main deck and a /L10 howitzer located in the aft section mounted on a central pivot mount and fitted with a gun shield. Light armament consisted of two quick-firing /L42 Vickers (British QF 1-pounder pom-pom guns) placed in the forward and aft sections on each side of the upper deck. A single Škoda M1893 protected by a gun shield was also mounted. By 1910, the Vickers were replaced with the /L18 gun mounted on the upper deck. ==Service==

World War I Between 1908 and 1914, SMS Temes served as the flagship of the Austro-Hungarian Danube Flotilla. At the outbreak of World War I, Temes was stationed at Zemun along with Bodrog, Szamos, and Körös. Together with the other ships, Temes participated in the Bombardment of Belgrade. On 8 September 1914, the monitors repelled a Serbian attempt to cross the Danube, however the Austro-Hungarian troops were forced to evacuate the city to avoid encirclement. In the following days, the Sava monitor group under the command of Linienschiffsleutnant Olaf Richard Wulff supported the Krauss Division during the Srem Offensive. The group again prevented the crossing of the Serbian troops which threatened Zemun on 28 September. While on a nighttime reconnaissance mission on the Sava River on 22/23 October, Temes struck a Serbian mine and sunk with the loss of 31-33 of her crewmen. The survivors were rescued by the patrol boat Patrouillenboot B. The three ships were named after the three new provinces which united into Greater Romania with Temes receiving the name Ardeal, Inn was named Basarabia and Sava was named Bucovina. Interwar period to World War II While in Romanian service, the ship went through a series of modifications. In 1929, the two Škoda L35 guns were replaced with two /L50 Škoda-Bofors Mk.4 cannons. More substantial upgrades followed between 1937 and 1940: the armor was increased to for the belt and for the deck, the guns and the machine guns were dismounted and a third gun was installed in the aft section, thus matching the . Other installed weapons included two pivot-mounted Rheinmetall C/38 guns, a twin Hotchkiss heavy machine gun on the searchlight platform and two SK C/30 anti-aircraft guns, one placed on the upper deck in the forward section, the other placed in front of the aft-mounted gun. The complement was also increased to 129 crewmen. All the received upgrades decreased her maximum speed to . On 27 June 1940, after the Soviet ultimatum, Ardeal received the order to move to Reni and protect the evacuation operations from Bessarabia. The deployment ended on 30 June when the Soviets took control over the city and the ship was moved to Galați. In the spring of 1941, the monitor was moved to Orșova to ensure the protection of the river traffic from any Yugoslav attempt to block the river during the German invasion of Yugoslavia. On 23 June, two Soviet monitors and two gunboats attempted to leave Reni and retreat to Izmail but were stopped by the Romanian monitors. Repeated attempts by the Soviet Danube Flotilla to reach Izmail followed and the battles with the Romanian monitors continued until the night of 9/10 July when the Soviet ships managed to sneak to Izmail. On 20 July, after the Soviet ships left the Chilia arm of the Danube, Ardeal and '''' formed the Vâlcov Tactical Detachment with the role of maintaining control over the Black Sea access point to the Chilia arm. While passing by Isaccea, Soviet airplanes tried to bomb the monitors but were forced to drop their bombs early and retreat by the anti-aircraft fire coming from the ships. The missions continued to be conducted in rotations until August 1944. On 31 August, the ships were called to Brăila then to Reni where the Soviets confiscated them on 2 September. On 30 October, Ardeal was pressed into Soviet service as Berdiansk and assigned to the 2nd Monitor Division of the 2nd Sulina River Ship Brigade within the Soviet Danube Flotilla. In November, Berdiansk was brought to Galați for repairs and then was transferred to the Soviet ports. Post-war In Soviet service, the monitor received a few modifications. The deck armor was increased to above the machinery, while the light armament was replaced with four /63 70-K guns mounted on the upper deck and four /Oerlikon Mk4 cannons evenly divided between the upper and main decks. On 28 February 1948, Berdiansk was mothballed and moved to for lay-up a year later. The vessel was removed from Soviet service in June 1951 and returned to Romania in July. On 12 August 1951, Berdiansk (Ardeal) along with four other monitors, was brought back into Romanian service during a ceremony held in Galați. She received the designation M.20 and entered service as a training monitor. In 1952, the designation was changed to M.207. Service continued until 1957 when the ship was placed in reserve and later scrapped in 1959. ==References==