Royal Hellenic Navy

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Royal Hellenic Navy (Greek Ελληνικό Βασιλικό Ναυτικό) was the name of the Greek military naval force during the monarchy periods of the country's history.

World War II

The Greek Navy consisted of 1 old battleship (built in 1940, disarmed and turned to training duties in 1932), 1 minelayer, 10 destroyers and 6 submarines when Greece entered the war. The Greek Navy participated in a lot of operations in the Mediterranean and also in some convoys in the Atlantic Sea. The Greek merchant navy also contributed a lot during WWII.

The Greek vessels had big successes during whole war, fought bravely and contributed a lot in that war. The Greek Navy sank 2 Italian subs (the Uarsciek was captured by Greek and British destroyers on 15 Dec, 1942 in the Mediterranean but sank while in tow and the Neghelli) and 1 U-boat.

Naval successes

The Greek destroyer Pindos sank the U-458 with depth charges on 22 August, 1943 south-east of Italy.

It is claimed from Greek sources that the destroyer Adrias had a successful depth charge attack on 27 January, 1943 in the North Atlantic Sea. No German U-boat can be attributed to this attack. Also the same destroyer is claimed from Greek sources to have sunk U-623 on 13 February 1943, in the South Atlantic, west of the African coast. This is not true since that boat was sunk by a British aircraft.

Naval losses

Greeks lost many warships in the war, including 5 destroyers (Leon, Psara, Ydra, Vasilefs Georgios, Vasilissa Olga), the minelayer Elli and 4 submarines. None of these warship losses were to German U-boats.

It is worth to mention that the Greek minelayer Elli was sunk on August 15, 1940, intentionally by the Italian submarine Delfino, while Greece was still a neutral country in the war.

According to our files the Royal Hellenic Navy lost 26 warships during WWII (38.81%).

Ships of the Royal Hellenic Navy

Torpedo boats

  • Alcyon Class
    • RHS Aigli (lost 24 Apr, 1941)
    • RHS Alkyoni (lost 24 Apr, 1941)
    • RHS Arethousa (lost 24 Apr, 1941)
    • RHS Doris (lost 23 Apr, 1941)

Destroyers

Minesweepers

Escort destroyers

Submarines

Minelayers

Corvettes

Coastal defence ships

Armoured cruiser

Minelaying cruiser

Patrol craft