 In April 1941 , during the Axis Invasion of Yugoslavia , Dalmacija remained in harbor and did not see action . Following the Yugoslav surrender , the ship was captured by the Italians in Kotor on 25 April . Renamed Cattaro , the ship was placed in service with the Regia Marina . On 31 July 1942 , the cruiser was attacked by the British submarine HMS Traveller south of <unk> but all of the torpedoes missed . The ship 's fate is somewhat unclear ; according to Hildebrand et. al . , Cattaro was later transferred to the Navy of the Independent State of Croatia , where she was commissioned as a training ship under the name Znaim . She returned to German service in September 1943 after Italy surrendered to the Allies , significantly reducing the warships available to Germany in the Adriatic . A German and Croatian crew operated the ship , once again named Niobe , under the German flag . According to Gardiner and Chesneau , however , the ship remained in Italian hands until Germany seized it in September 1943 , thereafter turning her over to the Independent State of Croatia as Znaim before retaking the ship and restoring her original name at some point thereafter . 
