River Flotilla of Serbian Armed Forces

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=River Flotilla of Serbian Armed Forces
"Rečna Flotila"


caption= River Flotilla
dates=March 30, 1833 - current
type=River Flotilla
role=Defense of Serbian rivers and support for Land Forces
size=900 sailors
current_commander= Frigate Captain Nebojša Joksimović
garrison= Novi Sad
battles=WWI
WWII
notable_commanders=
anniversaries=August 6

River flotilla is а specific unit of Serbian armed forces with task of keeping optimum operational regime of sailing and of protection of Serbian interests in inner sailing corridors, which consist of net of sailing rivers and canals in total length of 1.626 km.Command ship "Kozara", river minesweepers and assault loading boats are in composition of unit.

History

Conflicts and fights on rivers start with the appearance of first settlements at their water sides. Aleksandar Makedonski had the first fleet at Danube basin, according to written documents. Romans were the first to have Danube flotilla.

Huns, Avars, Giths, Gepids, Mongols and others formed similar units for that time.

After they came at Balkan peninsula, Serbs and other Slavs used rivers and were very skilled at making boats and later at making ships also.

The last Serbian Despot, Pavle Bakić's Šajkaši flotilla fought against the Ottomans.

On March 30th, 1833, the ship called Serbia started sailing. It was built at shipyard Dubravica by Greek Nikola Kefala by order of Knjaz Miloš (TT information: length 24m, breadth 7m, draughts 3,5m, carrying capacity 250t).In April 1840 a war ship was built at shipyard in Brza Palanka and it got a name Knjaz Mihailo (TT information: length 65m, breadth 7,5m, draughts 4,5m, armament of ship was 12 cannons).

Serbia got its first real war ship, patrol boat Jadar, on August 6th, 1915. It was built at shipyard in Čukarica. The ship was armed and used for mine laying at Sava.

On April 20th, 1941, after the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia and seven days of fighting with German airplanes, tanks, ships and ambushes from watersides in Čelarevo, boat Drava was shot. That is a boat that came in legend of warring at rivers. On September 11th, 1944, in Neštin, by Order of General staff "NOV" and "PO" in Vojvodina, the Naval troop was formed, the first official naval unit for militant fights at Danube and Sava, which came into composition of 11th Vojvodinians "NOU" brigade.The troop was made at a crew of ship "Zagreb", signal-corps troop of General staff of Vojvodina and soldiers from different units who were earlier serving at navy. Its first commander was Kara Dimitrijević from Ledinci, deputy commander was Dragutin Iskra, political commissary Svetozar Milovanović, and deputy of political commissary Rada Prodanović.Ship "Zagreb" was a passenger ship rearranged for mine disposal at subwater mines. Crew of "Zagreb" came into 'partizans' after they captured German part of crew. Action was lead by deputy commander of "Zagreb" Dragutin Iskra. The crew brought all light arms and ship anti-aircraft cannon 20mm with them.The troop had 70 to 80 soldiers and it had a duty to attack enemy river traffic and to do transports at Danube. It was based on 3 places at Fruška Gora: at Testera, near Neštin and Krčedin.

On November 20th, 1944, a navy base was formed in Novi Sad, and this troop was a part of the base. After a little bit more than two months of existence, the troop made a hard damage on 5 and light damage on 43 enemy boats and killed or injured a lot of enemy soldiers. At the same time, it transported 220,000 soldiers over Danube, about 2,000 cannons, 3,000 trucks and more thousands of different material.In a period from 1944 to 1965, river flotilla was organized in a few detachment of river armor boats, river assault ships, river auxiliary ships and minesweepers squadron.

A period since 1965 to 1984 was characteristic because of technical modernization and perfecting of tactics of using RF. Minesweepers type 319 and 307 and assault ships type 401 were reconstructed, a new minesweepers type 331 were built, station for demagnetization of ships and the ships were armed with new arms.

Role and tasks

River flotilla is intended for keeping aproppitious operative regime of sailing and protection of interests of Serbia at inner sailing corridors (ISC). Assignments execute independent, in cooperation with unites of Army, Air Forces and AD and in cooperation with forces of Police. Assignments:

*Transporting includes transport of personnel and technics (machinery) across the river and along rivers and canals.

*Anti-terrorist actions include a protection of objects and ships at base regions, in cooperation with unites of Army at discovering of terrorist groups (TG) at grasp of ISC.

*Security of sailing and rescuing at ISC is providing a security of sailing and rescuing at river.

*Taking a part in international missions

ee also

*Military of Serbia
*Serbian Land Forces
*93 River Center