 | ||
Tulcea Tactical Group
2 river monitors
4 patrol boats Reni Group
3 river monitors
7+ armored patrol boats None 3 monitors damaged
2 armored patrol boats sunk
3 armored patrol boats damaged (including 1 captured) | ||
The Chilia or Kilia branch (Romanian: Brațul Chilia; Ukrainian: Кілійське гирло) is a distributary of the river Danube, that contributes in forming the Danube Delta. It is named after the two towns having this name, located on its two shores: Kiliya, on the northern, Ukrainian bank and Chilia Veche on the southern, Romanian bank.
The other two main branches of the Danube are the Sulina branch and the Sfântu Gheorghe branch.
The Chilia branch begins at the Ismail Islet, and is 104 km long. The flow at the entrance into the delta is of 6,350 m3/s; the Chilia branch carries between 58 and 60 percent of this flow.
Naval engagements
As the branch formed the border between the Soviet Union and Romania, it was the location of several naval engagements in June 1941, at the start of Operation Barbarossa.
The first Soviet-Romanian naval engagement occured on 22 June 1941, the first day of Operation Barbarossa, when one Soviet monitor and one armored patrol boat attacked the port-city of Tulcea. The Romanian river monitors Basarabia and the Brătianu-class Mihail Kogălniceanu repulsed the attack, sinking the patrol boat. Romanian coastal batteries opened fire on the three Soviet monitors of the Reni Group (Zheleznyakov, Rostovtsev and Zhemchuzhin).
The main engagement took place on the following day, when the Romanian Tulcea Tactical Group (Basarabia, Mihail Kogălniceanu and four patrol boats) repulsed another attack of the Soviet Danube Flotilla's Reni Group, damaging two monitors and two armored patrol boats. The Romanian monitors then counterattacked at Reni, sinking one armored patrol boat and damaging another Soviet monitor. On 24 June, the Reni Group switched to defensive.
The last naval engagement on the Danube occured on the night of 25–26 June, when two Romanian patrol boats, V1 and V3 (or just V2, depending on source), engaged three Soviet armored patrol boats, setting one of them on fire and forcing all three to retreat. Later, the damaged patrol boat was captured by Romanian forces.
Naval engagements ceased after the failed Raid on Constanța, carried out by the Soviet Black Sea Fleet on 26 June, resulting in the activity of Soviet surface warships becoming much more restricted.