 An early profile drawing ofSplit | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Kingdom of Yugoslavia | |
| Name | Split |
| Namesake | City ofSplit |
| Builder | Yarrow Shipbuilders, Split |
| Laid down | July 1939 |
| Fate | Captured while under construction, 15 April 1941 |
 Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia | |
| Name | Split |
| Launched | March 1950 |
| Acquired | 27 October 1944 |
| Commissioned | 4 July 1958 |
| Decommissioned | 1980 |
| Stricken | 2 February 1984 |
| Fate | Scrapped, 1986 |
| General characteristics (as designed)[1] | |
| Type | Destroyer |
| Displacement | 2,400long tons (2,439 t) (Standard) |
| Length | 120 m (393 ft 8 in) (o/a) |
| Beam | 11.3 m (37 ft 1 in) |
| Draft | 3.48 m (11 ft 5 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 × shafts; 2 × gearedsteam turbines |
| Speed | 38knots (70 km/h; 44 mph) |
| Armament |
|
| General characteristics (as completed)[2] | |
| Beam | 12 m (39 ft 4 in) |
| Draft | 3.7 m (12 ft 2 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 × shafts; 2 × gearedsteam turbines |
| Speed | 31.5knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph) |
| Complement | 240 |
| Sensors & processing systems | |
| Armament |
|
TheYugoslav destroyerSplit was a largedestroyer designed for theRoyal Yugoslav Navy in the late 1930s. Construction began in 1939, but she was captured incomplete by the Italians during theinvasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. They continued to build the ship, barring a brief hiatus, but she was not completed before she wasscuttled after theItalian surrender in September 1943. The Germans occupiedSplit andrefloated the destroyer later that year, but made no efforts to continue work. The ship was scuttled again before the city was taken over by theYugoslav Partisans in late 1944.Split was refloated once more, but the newSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was able to do little with her before theTito–Stalin Split in 1948 halted most work. Aid and equipment from the United States and the United Kingdom finally allowed her to be completed 20 years after construction began. She was commissioned in July 1958 and served as the Navy'sflagship for most of her career.Split became a training ship in the late 1970s after aboiler explosion. She wasdecommissioned in 1980, andscrapped six years later.
The Yugoslav Navy decided to order a single large destroyer rather than a repeat pair of smallerBeograd-class destroyers in the late 1930s because the Navy's planners didn't believe that the smaller ships could adequately support the raiding strategy that it intended to conduct in the event of a war with Italy. The staff decided on a much larger equivalent of theflotilla leaderDubrovnik that could out-gun any Italian destroyer and cover the escape and return to base of the raiding forces. The French companyAteliers et Chantiers de la Loire was selected and based the new ship on their design for the 2,610-metric-ton (2,570-long-ton)Le Fantasque-class destroyer. She was built byYarrow Shipbuilders at their shipyard in Split and was named after her place of construction.[3]
The Yugoslavs chose to buy the components from a variety of different nations. The pairs of gearedsteam turbines andYarrow boilers were intended to give the ship a speed of 37knots (69 km/h; 43 mph) from 55,000shaft horsepower (41,000 kW) and were purchased from Great Britain. Thefire-control system, with twodirectors, and radios were French[4] while the armament was supplied by theŠkoda Works ofCzechoslovakia.[5]
The ship's designed armament was five 56-caliber14-centimeter (5.5 in) guns in single mounts, five twin mounts for 67-caliber 40-millimeter (1.6 in)anti-aircraft (AA) guns, eight15-millimeter (0.6 in) ZB-60 AA guns in four twin-gun mounts,[6][7][5] and two triple mounts for 53.3-centimeter (21 in)torpedo tubes.[1]
The Yugoslav emphasis on anti-aircraft defense meant thatSplit could only have a singlefunnel to allow the guns as much freedom to fire as possible, which dictated that theboiler rooms were adjacent to theengine room. This made the ship vulnerable to a single torpedo hit in the machinery spaces, which could immobilize her.[8]
The ship waslaid down in July 1939 with herlaunching scheduled for the following year and completion by the end of 1942. By the time the Italians joined the Germans ininvading France in May 1940, only 600 metric tons (590 long tons) of the 1,100 metric tons (1,083 long tons) of material necessary to launch her had been delivered. The British government embargoed her machinery in 1940, despite French protests, when it discovered surreptitious contacts between the Yugoslav and Soviet governments. The Swedish government embargoed the Bofors guns due to the war, and the German control of the Škoda Works meant that the Yugoslavs had to suspend construction ofSplit.[9]
When the city of Split was captured by the Italians on 14 April 1941, the hull remained undamaged, and theRegia Marina decided to complete the ship after a delay of several months. They renamed the shipSpalato, the Italian name for the city of Split. New machinery was ordered fromFranco Tosi, and five 45-caliber13.5 cm (5.3 in) guns, as manyBreda 37 mm (1.5 in) AA guns as could be fitted, and four twin mounts forBreda 20 mm (0.8 in) light AA guns replaced the Czech and Swedish weapons. One torpedo tube mount was removed, and the Italians planned to adddepth charge throwers and racks, the capacity for 40mines, and anEC-3 ter Gufo radar.[10]
The ship was lightly damaged by saboteurs in December, which disrupted progress, and theRegia Marina decided to suspend construction in April 1942 as she remained nearly two years from completion. By late 1942, theRegia Marina's shortage of destroyers had reached a point that every possible hull was needed, and construction restarted at a high priority. This allowed her to be launched on 18 July 1943, but shortly afterwards, a change in the Italian leadership caused any further work to be suspended in August and the resources used in her construction to be diverted to finish a large group of small woodenminesweepers. During the fighting between the Germans and the Italians after theItalian surrender on 9 September,Spalato was scuttled in Split harbor on 24 September. The Germans occupied Split three days later, refloated the ship several weeks later, and stripped her of any valuable material. As part of theirscorched-earth strategy as they abandoned Split, the Germans scuttledSpalato and wrecked the shipyard before the Yugoslav Partisans occupied the port on 27 October 1944.[11]
The newcommunist government of Yugoslavia lacked any sizable warships after the end of the war and decided to resurrectSplit as the centerpiece of their new navy. TheYugoslav Navy ordered replacement parts for the machinery from Franco Tosi and contacted Škoda in 1948 to get delivery of her original main armament, which had sat out the war in awarehouse. The damage to the shipyard meant that the navy had to tow the ship to theKvarner Shipyard (formerly theCantieri navali del Quarnaro) inRijeka. Shortly afterwards, however, the Tito-Stalin split deprived the ship of her main armament and the technical assistance needed to complete her.[12]
The Yugoslavs re-launchedSplit in March 1950 to free up theslipway, but no other work was done. In 1953, there was a rapprochement between Yugoslavia andNATO, and the Americans and the British agreed to help complete the ship. The Tosi machinery ordered earlier had been used for other ships, so the British agreed to furnish her propulsion machinery while the Americans provided the ship's armament, fire-control equipment and electronics.[2]
Split had anoverall length of 120 meters (393 ft 8 in), abeam of 12 meters (39 ft 4 in), and adraft of 3.7 meters (12 ft 2 in). The ships displaced 2,400 metric tons (2,362 long tons) atstandard and 3,000 metric tons (2,953 long tons) atdeep load. She was powered by twoParsons geared steam turbines, each driving onepropeller shaft, using steam provided by twoAdmiralty 3-drum boilers. The turbines were designed to produce 50,000 shaft horsepower (37,000 kW), which would propel the ship at 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph).Split carried 590 metric tons (581 long tons) offuel oil, although her range is unknown, and had a crew of 240.[7]
The main armament ofSplit consisted of four 38-caliber5-inch (13 cm) guns in single mounts, onesuperfiring pair each fore and aft of the superstructure. Her anti-aircraft armament consisted of four twin-gun and four single mounts forlicense-built40 mm Bofors AA guns. The ship carried one quintuple set of 21-inch torpedo tubes and retained her capacity for 40 mines. For anti-submarine combat,Split was equipped with twoHedgehogspigot mortars, six depth-charge throwers and two depth-charge racks. The ship was fitted with aMk 37 fire-control director for the 5-inch guns and a Mk 51 director for the AA guns. The Mk 37 director was equipped with a Mk 12fire-control radar and a Mk 22height-finding radar. SC and SG-1search radars completed her radar suite.[2]
Construction proceeded at a snail's pace, and the ship was finallycommissioned on 4 July 1958, although she did not enter service until 1959. She immediately became the Navy's flagship and retained that position for most of her career.Split proved to betop-heavy, short ranged, slow and very cramped in service. She accidentally collided with the ex-Italiantorpedo boatBiokovo in 1963, damaging the latter so badly that she was immediately struck from thenavy list. In the late 1970s, an explosion of one ofSplit's main boiler steam lines killed all of the men standing watch in the boiler room. The boiler was not repaired, and she was limited to a speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph). The ship became a stationary training ship afterwards.[13] She was decommissioned in 1980, struck on 2 February 1984, and scrapped in 1986.[14]