Galeb-class minelayer

Galeb-class minelayer.
The six Galeb-class minelayers were originally built as minesweepers for the Imperial German Navy. In July 1921, they were purchased for the Royal Navy of the newly created Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (from 1929, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). Re-armed, they were mainly used for training and "show the flag" cruises. Reclassified as minelayers by 1936, they laid mines off the Yugoslav coast just before the April 1941 Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, which probably resulted in the sinking of two Yugoslav merchant ships. All six were captured and put into Italian service escorting convoys in the Mediterranean Sea. All but one were lost or sunk during the war. The last escaped into Allied hands in September 1943 and was returned to the Yugoslav navy-in-exile at Malta in December. It was transferred to the new Yugoslav Navy after the war and helped clear thousands of mines laid in Yugoslav waters, being finally disposed of in 1962. (This article is part of a featured topic: Ships of the Royal Yugoslav Navy.)