The Mediterranean light, and perhaps an artist's "colourised" enhancements, makes Papanikolis (Y-2) an unusually pretty sub :) (Photo courtesy)
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It has been reported
that Nikolaos Tasiakos, the
last surviving member of the crew of Greek submarine Papanikolis (Y-2), died in
mid-December 2015, aged 101.
The French built, Papanikolis (Y-2) had an outstanding
career sinking Italian ships and sailing boats in WWII. Dropping and recovering
British, New Zealand and Greek agents/commandos against German/Italian held islands was
another of Papanikolis (Y-2)’s major functions. Some specs for this sub include 580 tons (surfaced), 30 crew, 7 x 533mm torpedos, 4
inch gun.
Wiki reveals: "Papanikolis (Y-2)
together with her sister ship, Katsonis, formed the first class of Greek submarines ordered after the First World War.
She was built at the Chantiers de la Loire shipyards between 1925–27, and
commissioned into the Hellenic Navy on 21 December 1927. Its first captain was
Cdr P. Vandoros.
Despite her age and mechanical
problems, she participated in the 1940-41 Greco-Italian
War under the command
of Lieutenant Commander Miltiadis Iatridis, carrying out six war
patrols in the Adriatic.
During one of these, on 22 December 1940, she sank the small Italian motor ship Antonietta, and, on the very
next day, the 3,952-ton troop carrier Firenze near Sazan Island.[1] After the German invasion of April 1941, together with the rest
of the fleet, Papanikolis fled
to the Middle East, from where she would operate during the next years,
carrying out nine war patrols in total.
Under the command of Commander Athanasios Spanidis, the former
captain of Katsonis, she
participated in two patrols in the Aegean
Sea in 1942. During the first, in
June 1942, she sank six small sailing vessels between 11 and 14 June, and
proceeded to disembark SOE agents
in Crete and receive a team of 15 New Zealand
commandos.[2] During the next patrol, from 31 August to
15 September, she unsuccessfully attacked an 8,000-ton oil carrier, and
disembarked two mixed British-Greek commando teams at Rhodes, which succeeded in attacking
the island's two airfields and destroying a large number of Axis aircraft[2] in "Operation Anglo".
Coming under the command of
Lieutenant Nikolaos Roussen,
the submarine went into another patrol in November, offloading men and
equipment at Crete. On 30 November, Papanikolis successfully ambushed and sank an
8,000-ton cargo vessel at the Alimnia islet, near Rhodes.[3] On 17 January 1943, after carrying agents
and equipment to Hydra,
she captured the 200-ton sailing vessel Agios
Stefanos and manned her with
part of her crew, which sailed her to Alexandria,
while the next day, she sank another 150-ton sailer.[2] During subsequent patrols in March and May,
she sank further 4 sailers, totaling 450 tons.[2]
Papanikolis survived the war and returned to Greece
after liberation in October 1944. However, she was severely outdated, and was
decommissioned in 1945. The ship's conning
tower was preserved and is on
display in the Hellenic Maritime Museum at Piraeus."
Pete
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