On August 28, 1939, Captain Theodoros Glyptis with the steamship “Ioannis Karras”, coming from Buenos Aires, Argentina, sailed to the port of Gdansk, Poland to unload. Aboard the previous weeks he had not heard the news of the impending war, which he faced upon his arrival in the city of Gdansk, which at the time was at the heart of the German invasion. On September 5, 1939, the Poles, in order to strengthen their defense and prevent the entry of German warships, blew up the ships at the entrance of the port, among which was the “Ioannis Karras”, the first Greek merchant ship to fall victim to B΄ World War.
At the same time, the Greek fleet of trucks, with a total capacity of almost two million tons, was the third largest in the world in the transport of bulk cargoes (such as coal, grain, cotton, fertilizers, iron ores, etc.), after Britain and Norway. The importance of requisitioning the Greek and Norwegian shipping fleets was a top priority for the Allied forces. Maintaining the sovereignty of the sea lanes and the control of the ports was a dominant strategy of the allied forces, not only to facilitate the movement of troops, but mainly for the constant flow of munitions. German submarines and planes were the scourge of the large Allied convoys. The importance of maintaining England’s supply led Churchill to declare the “Battle of the Atlantic”: “The mortal danger threatening our vital lines of sea communication gave me a painful dread. At the beginning of March 1941 I said to Admiral Pound: This case should concern us before anything else, nothing should be regarded as more urgent. I intend to declare the “Battle of the Atlantic”. The demand for Greek ships in the fight against the Axis and their active participation in the fight was made by the Greek government of Tsouderou, based in Crete, with N.D. 3009/1941, on May 20, 1941, the day of the German attack on Crete.
The officers
After the occupation of Crete by the Germans, in April 1941, the Greek war fleet fled to Alexandria, where it acted under the orders of the British fleet in the “Battle of the Mediterranean”. Allied warships, based at Alexandria, effectively protected merchant shipping convoys on one of the most dangerous lines of communication of the war. German mortars, Italian U-boats and mines posed the mortal threat to convoys of Allied warships and merchant ships, where often only 10% of them escaped.
It was October 21, 1943 that the Greek destroyer “Adrias I” commanded by Vice Captain Ioannis Toumba sailed from Alexandria with three other destroyers headed for Kalymnos. Off Kalymnos the flotilla was attacked by German mortars and headed for the Asia Minor coast. On the way Adrias I hit a mine and after a deafening explosion her entire 27 meter bow was blown off, with debris and human limbs flying everywhere, flames and black smoke in the bow, while the ship heeled slightly. The irony is that the sister British destroyer ‘Harworth’ which came to her aid also hit a mine but she sank on her own. The losses of “Adria I” were 21 dead and 30 wounded. The captain of the ship managed to put out the fire, control the vessel and stop its heeling and steer the stricken ship to a sandy beach in Gumusluk. There, “Adrias I” was sealed with reinforced concrete and, after being roughly repaired, after 40 days it started the difficult and dangerous voyage to its base. He managed to travel the 730 miles from Gumusluk to Alexandria and arrive safely. As the destroyer with her bow cut off sailed through the harbor to the anchorage, she was given a rare triumphant reception. In the words of Governor Toumba: “[Εις το λιμάνι] we pass by an English cruiser which has its crew lined up at the stern. We think it would be a normal service move. But when we got closer, an order was heard from his loudspeaker and for a moment a thousand hats were raised to the sky, while from a thousand mouths a thunderous thunderous “Hurrah” was heard, repeated three times… I’ve lost it… I never imagined that I would be worthy of God that I live in such a moment… The harbor is full of warships of all nationalities – English, French, Polish, Dutch, Greek… From every ship we pass we are greeted with cheers. Minesweepers and merchant ships whistle the letter V of Victory with their sirens, which is similar to the background music of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. My eyes are blurry.
German mortars, Italian submarines and mines posed the mortal threat to convoys of Allied warships and merchant ships, where often only 10% of them escaped.
– Lieutenant Mourikis, I can’t see well in front of me. I will break the ship.
– Don’t worry, Mr. Governor, Mourikis answers me, it’s because it’s broken.”
After two months, 6 destroyers will be sunk in the Dodecanese operations, among them the “Queen Olga” famous for its action, with Admiral Blessa, as well as submarines, including the submarine “Katsonis” with Vice Captain Lasko. At the same time, throughout the war, the small boats, fishing boats and small sailing ships of the Aegean islands were an important lifeline and communication flotilla for the Greeks of occupied Greece and the allied troops of the Middle East.
The “Battle of the Atlantic”
The Greek sailors in the merchant fleet fought their own battle against the Axis and in favor of the interests of their professional class, beyond their small conquered place: at sea and in the allied ports. The stories and narratives from the surviving sailors are endless. A nugget of the daily life of the Greek sailor during the war, the story of Kardamylite Stefanis I. Ktistakis. Ktistakis enlisted on the Andriot freighter steamer “Nikocles” in Glasgow, Scotland on June 29, 1942 as a second lieutenant. From Glasgow the “Nikocles” departed empty of cargo in a convoy accompanied by English warships to load in North America. In a common practice, English warships escorted merchant ships to the Azores and then signaled them to detach from the convoy and sail alone to the port of destination: “Wishing you God speed and safe passage.” On the evening of the same day she was detached from the convoy, the “Nikollis” was torpedoed 100 miles south of the Azores by lurking German submarines. The ship sank in no time. Stefanis Ktistakis dived into the sea and was caught by a catfish, swimming all night. In the morning he saw 8 companions who had been saved and had built a raft and went up with them. The sailors wandered without water or food in the Atlantic for 19 days, until currents and improvised oars brought them to the shores of Mauritania, Africa. The three survivors of the ship: the lieutenant Stefanis Ktistakis, the first engineer Ioannis Kanellos and the Ithaca sailor Georgios Karfakis. The three Greek sailors were hospitalized in the hospitals of Casablanca in Morocco, Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and Gibraltar for a total of 50 days. From Gibraltar they were sent to Glasgow, where they re-embarked on the Atlantic sea routes. The torpedoing of “Nikocles” resulted in the death of 20 of the 23 crew members.
The “Battle of the Atlantic” was won by the Allied forces with the relentless flow of merchant ships in maintaining England’s line of communication with the United States. Hundreds of cargo merchant ships carried grain and war material from the US to England and sank along the way, with hundreds of castaways wandering in open boats in the bitter cold or the unforgiving heat of the Atlantic. At the start of World War II, the Greek merchant fleet ranked ninth among the top ten fleets, consisting of 607 merchant cargo vessels of 1.8 million gross tonnage (gross). The bulk of this fleet was used on the extremely dangerous Atlantic and North Sea routes, as well as the Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific sea routes. At the end of the war, 486 cargo ships of 1,408,000 gross tons had been lost, i.e. 72% of the Greek merchant fleet, which had the highest casualty rate of all the allied powers, with Great Britain following with losses of 63%. In the first two years of the war, 57% of the Greek fleet was lost. Of the approximately 9,000 Greek sailors, we had 2,000 dead, 2,500 disabled and 150 insane, i.e. 50% of the Greek sailors.
Ms. Jelina Harlautis is head of the Center for Maritime History, director of the Institute of Mediterranean Studies – ITE and professor at the University of Crete.
Main photo. The captain of “Adrias I” Ioannis Toumbas gives a speech to the men of the crew upon receiving the ship, telling them that they will write its history. [Imperial War Museum, Λονδίνο]
