Aegean sea, December 29-31, 1941
When the Hellenic Navy sails out of Eleusis bay in the night of December 29th, 1941, it has been having a very active war for the last year. In fourteen months the navy has fought in the invasion of the Dodecanese, relieved the survivors of the garrison of Corfu, fought in three fleet actions at Cythera, Lesvos and Malta and also had to deal with innumerable air and submarine attacks. Overall the Greeks can be justifiably proud of their navy. But the fourteen months of war have taken their toll on the fleet. The single battleship, Salamis, is under repair following damage in the battle of Malta. Of the five cruisers, one, Koundouriotis, has been sunk by German aircraft back in April. Two more destroyers have been added to the fleet. But at the same time seven have been lost in action so far reducing the fleet to 19. Four, out of the original twelve submarines of the fleet have been also lost with only a single boat, the Delphin, delivered earlier in the year.
On the Turkish side casualties have been so far, quite lower. The armoured ship Barbaros, the light cruiser Turgut Reis and a single destroyer were lost in the battle of Lesvos in March 1941. Afterwards the Turkish surface fleet did not venture in the Aegean, concentrating instead in supporting the Turkish army operations against the Soviets. In this it has been generally successful, the battle of Samsun has done much to restore the navy's self-confidence even though the victory, and the battle itself, came from the Italian ships attached to the Turkish navy attacking the Soviets. In the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean, the Turks have been limited to submarines and motor torpedo boat attacks which have been met with some success despite heavy escort and the Greeks also building and deploying motor torpedo boats of their own in the East Aegean islands to counter Turkish, Italian and German boats. The main problem of the Turkish navy is its near complete inability to replace losses. Local shipbuilding capabilities are rudimentary at best, locally building destroyers or submarines has been proposed but has proven so far impossible. Italian industry has her hands full with the needs of the Regia Marina. Germany given geography cannot provide anything that cannot be transferred overland. Aside from motor torpedo boats the sole exception is submarines. Twenty-six U-boats have made it through Gibraltar to the Mediterranean. Three more small Type IIB U-Boats U-9, U-19 and U-24 have been moved overland and through the Danube to the Black sea, with more on the way. Of the 29 U-boats, 9 have been assigned to the 23th and 30th U-Boat flotillas operating from bases in Thessaloniki, Lemnos and Constantinople with 3 more on their way there from the Western Mediterranean.
The Greeks find themselves in battle almost as soon as they are out of the Megara channel when U-75 attacks and sinks the light cruiser Lambros Katsonis. The German submarine is depth charged and sunk shortly afterwards by the destroyers Kanaris and Kriezis. More submarine attacks follow during the night as their convoy heads south-east to the Cyclades before turning north-east towards Ikaria, to turn north from there towards the Chios channel and Smyrna. To this as dawn comes are added Luftwaffe, THK and Regia Aeronautica aircraft, though thankfully for the Greeks they have strong air cover of their own, the Polish 303 Squadron will particularly distinguish itself during the fighting of the day. Then the Turkish navy coming from the north is detected and rear admiral Kolialexis, swings Averof, Helli and 8 of his 13 destroyers north towards the Turks as the his transports covered by the remaining destroyers rush for Chios and the relative safety of the coastal fortifications.
The two fleets meet to the west of Chios and south of Psara. Orbay has the pocket battleship Fatih, the strongest ship on both sides, the small light cruiser Yavuz and numerical superiority in light ships with 12 destroyers and 3 torpedo boats to Kolialexis 8. Kolialexis has two heavy ships while his destroyers while fewer are ship for ship considerably more powerful than most their Turkish counterparts. Overall the two fleets are far more evenly matched materially than either of the two admirals would had liked. And when they engage neither side is much interested in retreat. The result is a hard fought battle with casualties much heavier than someone might have otherwise expected. Fatih, engaged by Helli and Averof and attacked by Greek torpedo bombers is sunk, with Orbay killed in action. Helli, severely damaged in the action against Fatih is sunk in turn by U-331 as it tries to reach Smyrna. Two Greek destroyers, Leon and Spetsai are also sunk but so so three Turkish and one Italian destroyer. When the next morning Averof enters Smyrna harbour, the Greeks have suffered heavily, including the loss of 5 merchant ships. But their Cretan division has made it to Smyrna mostly intact...