Fighting the U-boats

Allied Navies

Greek Naval forces


The Greek destroyer Adrias missing its entire bow.

The Greek Navy was 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.

Greek 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.

Greek 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 intentionally by the Italian submarine Delfino, while Greece was still a neutral country in the war.

Read about the famous Peleus incident in our history section.


Allied Navies