Brătianu-class river monitor
The "Brătianu"-class river monitors were a class of four river monitors used by the Romanian Navy. They were named "Ion C. Brătianu", "Lascăr Catargiu", "Mihail Kogălniceanu" and "Alexandru Lahovari". Design and construction. The class was based on similar Austro-Hungarian river monitors, such as the "Körös" and "Temes" classes. The Romanian warships were larger and had a main armament of three 120 mm naval guns in individual turrets, two 120 mm howitzers, four QF guns of 47 mm and two 6.5 mm machine guns. Armor thickness reached 70–75 mm around the belt, turrets and conning tower , 60 mm at the bulkheads and down to only 20 mm over some portions of the deck. The four warships were built by STT in Austria-Hungary in sections, transported to Romania by rail then assembled and launched at the Galați shipyard in Romania between 1907 and 1908. Operational service. World War I. During the Romanian Campaign of the First World War, the monitors supported Romanian ground forces during the Battle of Turtucaia and evacuated the Romanian 9th Infantry Division from the besieged city. Later, they contributed to the halting of the Central Powers' advance into the Danube Delta and  held the line against the German forces in Moldavia during the summer and fall of 1917. They also contributed to the Romanian-Russian victory at the First Battle of Cobadin and news about their arrival ended the Battle of Flămânda. World War II. On 22 and 23 June 1941, at the start of Operation Barbarossa, "Mihail Kogălniceanu", aided by another Romanian monitor, "Basarabia", and four patrol boats, managed to repel two Soviet attacks, sinking one patrol boat and damaging another two as well as two Soviet monitors. On 24 August 1944, "Lascăr Catargiu" and "Mihail Kogălniceanu" were sunk by Soviet  aircraft. On 27 August "Ion C. Brătianu" was captured by the Russians and renamed ' while "Alexandru Lahovari" was also captured on 2 September and renamed '. The two ships were eventually returned to Romania on 23 June 1951. They were put into reserve in 1957 and subsequently scrapped between 1959 and 1962.