Ramb-classe – Wikipedia

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Bouquet Was the name of four construction-like Italian cooling freight ships, which was built in 1937-1938 on behalf of the state Azienda Monopolio Banane (RAMB) of the same name by Ansaldo and CRDA. From their home port of Massaua in Eritrea, the ships should ensure banana transport between Italian East Africa and the mother country.

The four ships were already designed during the planning so that they could quickly be converted into military ships in the event of war. After Italy entered the Second World War in June 1940, the freighters of the Regia Marina were subordinate and three to auxiliary cruisers, the fourth converted into a hospital ship. All ships were sunk during the war.

Bouquet and was built by Ansaldo in Genoa in 1937. She had a repression of 3667 tons and, like the three sister ships, reached around 18 knots.

At the time of the war, the Bouquet and in the port in Eritrea and was converted to the auxiliary cruiser for the trade war in the Red Sea and assigned to the Italian flotilla there. Throughout the next three quarters of a year, she was involved in several unsuccessful attempts to attack. After the British conquest of East Africa was foreseeable in February 1941, the Bouquet and Together with the RAMB II and the colonial ship Eritrea From the Red Sea by successfully broken the blockade of the Bab al-mandab. But as early as February 27, the Bouquet and after she had separated from the other ships and before she could capture a pinch, near the Maldives of New Zealand cruiser Leander sunk. 113 survivors could be accepted by the cruiser.

The Ramb II was in 1937 by the Retaired construction sites of the Adriatic (CRA) built in Monfalcone. It was powered by two CRDA-7-cylinder oil engines with an output of 7200 BHP.

Like RAMB I, she was in Massaua at the beginning of the war and divided her fate until the escape into the Indian Ocean, but was able to successfully reach Japan in contrast to this. The crew planned to attack allied freight ships from Japanese ports, but this rejected the Japanese authorities, since the country was not yet in the war with the western powers. Instead, the ship was disarmed and, while maintaining the crew and Italian flag in 1942 Quality II renamed. When two years later in 1943 the Italian government a ceasefire with the Allied Castle, the crew sank its ship in the Bay of Kōbe on September 8th. The wreck was lifted and as IKUTAGAWA Maru added to the Japanese fleet. On January 12, 1945, she sank an American bomber during the Operation Gratitude .

The Ramb III was completed by Ansaldo in Genoa in 1938. In contrast to her sister ships, she never reached Africa due to the occurrence of the war, but was used as convoy protection after the renovation into a auxiliary cruiser in the Mediterranean. On November 12, 1940, she was involved in a battle in the street from Otranto, but was able to escape by lowering the remaining ships of the companion. At the end of May 1941, the ship in the port of Bengasi was sunk through a submarine, but was dragged to Trieste and repaired there again. In September 1943 the Ramb III adopted by the German Navy and as a mine layer Kiebitz used. The mining layer was lost in November 1944 when he first ran on his own mine and then sunk by a US air attack at Rijeka. After the war, the wreck was raised and extensively to the Yugoslav state yacht Seagull rebuilt.

The Ramb IV was built by CRDA in Monfalcone from 1937. How Bouquet and and II If she was in Eritrea at the beginning of the war, but in contrast to the other ships, she was converted into a hospital ship. She remained in the port of Massaua, where she was captured by the British in April 1941. These took the ship as HMS Ramb IV in your own services. On May 10, 1942, it was sunk by EL-Alamein by fighter planes from the 1st group/teaching squadron 1. [first]

  • Roger Jordan: The World’s Merchant Fleets, 1939: The Particulars And Wartime Fates of 6,000 Ships , S. 224, S. 535
  • Nathan Miller: War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II , Oxford University Press, S. 242ff, S. 618
  • Marc’Antonio Bragadin: The Italian Navy in World War II , S. 74ff
  1. ↑ Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the 1939–1945, May 1942 , accessed on June 17, 2013