Yugoslav minelayer Zmaj

Yugoslav minelayer Zmaj.
Zmaj was built in Germany as a seaplane tender for the Royal Yugoslav Navy between 1928 and 1930, and converted to a minelayer in 1937. During the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, she was slightly damaged by Italian dive bombers. Captured by the Italians, she was handed over to the Germans who renamed her Drache. She was used as a seaplane tender and later as a troop transport. In mid-1942 she was rebuilt as a minelayer with improved anti-aircraft armament, renamed Schiff 50, and then used to evaluate the shipboard use of helicopters for anti-submarine warfare and mine reconnaissance. She continued to be used as both a troop transport and minelayer, laying several minefields in the Aegean Sea. A minefield she laid in the Dodecanese in 1943 sank one British submarine and two Allied destroyers, and badly damaged a third. Sunk by British aircraft on 22 September 1944 while in port (pictured), she was scrapped in place after World War II. (This article is part of a featured topic: Ships of the Royal Yugoslav Navy.)