The Greek light cruiser Elli, which was sunk by an Italian submarine BEFORE hostilities had been declared-with massive loss of life by Greek sailors. The Elli was in port celebrating a religious holiday when the Italian sub torpedoed it.

This was the "Queen Olga", a Greek Destroyer. There were two of this design in Greek service in 1940 and it was the most modern ship in the Greek navy. It was a British design. This ship did great service in WW2, sinking numerous Italian military and merchant ships. It was finally sunk by German dive bombers in 1943, just after the Italian capitulation.

Most Greek destroyers in WW2 were ex-WW1 designs like this ship. Obsolete, they never-the-less did good service keeping Italian convoy's on guard in the Adriatic. Most were sunk before the wars end by the German aircraft and submarines. Greece had about 8 destroyers of three different WW1 era classes at the start of the war-to supplement the 6 modern destroyers they also had.

The 6 working Greek subs at the start of the war were French Designs purchased in 1929-1932. There were two classes, one was the Papanikolas/Katsonis class of about 750 tons. The other was the Proteus/Nirefs/Glafkos/Triton of about 1000 tons.

Small, cramped, with limited range, weaponry and diving characteristics they still kept the Italian convoys on edge. The Greeks knowing their subs were vulnerable to Italian bombing attacks kept them based in caves along the west coast of Greece! From there, they'd sortie out and attack Italian shipping.

Their main achievment was forcing the Italians and later the Germans to deploy anti-submarine forces to checkmate them. But they still achieved some significant sinkings of axis shipping.

Thanks Landos...

one important link to add...

http://www.hellenicnavy.gr/history3_en.asp

and the most impressive history of saving a destroyed ship...

ADRIAS...Greeks are leventes... ;)



http://www.greece.org/poseidon/work/museums/hmm/adrias.html

Thanks Lord. What I'm hopeing to do is to encourage members to open up their fathers and grandfathers scrap books and post some pics we haven't seen before! I'm sure there are TONS of wonderful pics of Greek forces in WW2 in personal scrapbooks that we'd LOVE to see in this forum.

Anyone have pics to share of Pappou in uniform????

Oh boy.. they would be hard to find... But both served but both are gone for 20 years. I would love to find them - its a worthy cause, I'll check...

More great WWII info :thumbsup:

Landos,
That is a very good Idea because we can admire them and can safe them before this pics get lost.

Regards Pagratios

Another pic of a Hunter Class Destroyer, which the Hellenic Navy had two of. A very good destroyer constructed in the late 1930's. These ships displaced about 1900 tons, fully loaded. They were about 320 feet long (98M) and had a 33 foot beam. Could hit about 36 knots with their geared turbine engines. The crew was 145 men and officers. Deployed 4 120 mm main guns, 8-13 mm antiaircraft weapons, 45 depth charges and 10 21 inch torpedo tubes.

This pic is of a British ship but it's identical to the Greek 'Queen Olga' also shown above.

Excellent pics and info i love it :drink: I never new this about are military,

that we had this kinds of navy ships :applause:

At the start of the war the Greek navy also had 4 Dardo class Destroyers, which had been purchased from Italy in the early 1930's. This picture is of an Italian ship, but the Greek ships were the same. These ships were very fast, even for Destroyers.

Displacement: 1,205 tons standard, 2,116 tons full load
Length: 96.15 m
Beam: 9.75 m
Draught: 3.15 m
Machinery: 2 shaft Parsons type geared turbines, 3 boilers, 44,000 hp
Speed: 38 knots
Range: 4,600 nm at 12 knots
Armament:
4 - 120mm guns (2x2)
2 - 40mm pom pom anti-aircraft guns
4 - 13.2 mm machine guns
6 - 533mm torpedo tubes
54 Mines
Crew: 185

This Minerve class French coastal submarine was very similar to the Papanicolas class Greek sub. Same engine, same equipment, slightly different conning tower configuration.

The Greek subs, though outdated, gave good performance against the Italians.

The pride of the Greek fleet, the Armored Cruiser "Averof". Originally procured in 1911, she did good service in the Balkan Wars and was continually upgraded. Escaped the Axis forces in WW2, she sailed to Alexandria and then on to the Indian Ocean where she did convoy duty for the British. Lasted out the war and is now a floating museum in Piraeus.

Another pic of the "Wild Beasts" class of small destroyers Greece had at the start of WW2. The ships were originally acquired in 1912, built in England and fitted out in Italy. Argentina had ordered them, but backed out due to lack of funds. The Greeks bought them for a good deal! :D

While small, slow and lightly armed by WW2 standards, the ships did a good job doing escort duty and reconnaisance in the Adriatic. Only one was sunk by German dive-bombers, the other three were decommissioned after the war.

With the 4 Wild Beasts, 4 Dardo Class and 2 Queen Olga Class destroyers Greece had 10 destroyers at the start of the war that could be classified as 'first line" ships. Also had several smaller 'torpedo ships' that were ex-Austrian navy ships acquired as war reperations after WW1-but these were very outmoded, mechanically unreliable and were only fit do do coastal patrols away from the 'hot areas'.

Greek Torpedo Boat sunk in Corfu Harbor. It was the Prousa, of a class of 375 Ton Torpedo boats of which Greece had about 4.