:Greek destroyer Vasilefs Georgios

The Vasilefs Georgios-class ships were derived from the British G-class destroyers, modified with German guns and fire-control systems.Friedman, p. 223 They had an overall length of {{convert|98.4|m|ftin|sp=us}}, a beam of {{convert|10.05|m|ftin|sp=us}}, and a draft of {{convert|2.51|m|ftin|sp=us}}. They displaced {{convert|1371|t|LT|sp=us}} at standard load and {{convert|1879|t|LT|sp=us}} at deep load. The two Parsons geared steam turbine sets, each driving one propeller shaft, were designed to produce {{convert|34000|shp|lk=on}} using steam provided by three Admiralty three-drum boilers for a designed speed of {{convert|36|kn|lk=on}}. During her sea trials on 30 October 1938, Vasilefs Georgios reached a speed of {{convert|36.6|kn}} from {{convert|35109|shp|abbr=on}}, although her armament was not yet installed. The ships carried a maximum of {{convert|399|t|LT|0|sp=us}} of fuel oil which gave a range of {{convert|3760|nmi|lk=in}} at {{convert|20|kn}}. Their crew consisted of 162 officers and crewmen.Whitley 1988, p. 155{{refn|Sources differ for the specifications for these ships. Gröner and Koop and Schmolke generally agree on a designed displacement of {{cvt|1414|LT|t|order=flip}} and a deep displacement of {{cvt|2088|LT|t|order=flip}} with an overall length of {{cvt|101.2|m|ftin}}. Curiously, they give a waterline length of {{cvt|98.5|m|ftin}} which is very close to Whitley's figure for the overall length. They give figures of {{cvt|10.4|m|ftin}} for the beam and also credit the ships with Yarrow boilers. They state that the fuel capacity was {{cvt|465|t|LT}}, giving a range of {{cvt|4800|nmi}} at {{cvt|19|kn}}.Gröner, pp. 214–15Koop & Schmolke, p. 120 Freivogel states that the displacement figures given by Gröner and Koop and Schmolke are after the ship was salvaged and repaired.Freivogel, p. 354 No source mentions any significant rebuilding or modifications by the Germans, other than to the armament, so Whitley has been used here as he presumably had better access to the builder's records.|group=Note}} Unlike her sister ship {{ship|Greek destroyer|Vasilissa Olga|D15|2}}, Vasilefs Georgios was fitted out to accommodate an admiral and his staff.

The ships carried four 12.7 cm SK C/34 naval gun in single mounts with gun shields, one pair each superfiring forward and aft of the superstructure. Her anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of four {{convert|3.7|cm|1|adj=on|sp=us}} guns in four single mounts amidships and two quadruple mounts for Vickers .50 machine gun AA machineguns. The Vasilefs Georgios class carried eight above-water {{convert|53.3|cm|in|adj=on|sp=us|0}} torpedo tubes in two quadruple mounts. They had two depth charge launchers and a single rack for their 17 depth charges.

File:Greek ships under air attack in April 1941.jpg dive bombers. Vasilefs Georgios is in the floating drydock at bottom left.]]

The Vasilefs Georgios-class ships were ordered on 29 January 1937 as part of a naval rearmament plan that was intended to include one light cruiser and at least four destroyers, one pair of which were to be built in Britain and the other pair in Greece.Freivogel, p. 351 Vasilefs Georgios was laid down at Yarrow & Company's shipyard in Scotstoun, Scotland, in February 1937, launched on 3 March 1938, and commissioned on 15 February 1939 after she had her armament installed in Greece.Whitley 1991, p. 13 Pending the completion of the light cruiser, the ship served as the flagship of the Destroyer Flotilla, under Commander (Antiploiarchos) Pyrros Lappas.{{cite web | url = http://www.hellenicnavy.gr/el/viografika/206-2015-03-23-19-16-51/1049-lappas,-pirros.html | title = Διατελέσαντες Αρχηγοί ΓΕΝ: Λάππας, Πύρρος | publisher = Hellenic Navy | language = el | access-date = 30 April 2018}}

After the {{ship|Italian submarine|Delfino|1930|2|up=yes}} sank the elderly protected cruiser {{ship|Greek cruiser|Elli|1912|2}} in a sneak attack on 15 August 1940 off the island of Tinos, Vasilefs Georgios and her sister were sent to Tinos to escort the merchant ships there home. During the Greco-Italian War she escorted convoys and participated in raids against Italian lines of communication in the Strait of Otranto on the nights of 14/15 November 1940 and 4/5 January 1941 that failed to locate any ships. The sisters ferried the Greek gold reserves to Crete on 1 March.Freivogel, p. 355

After the German invasion of Greece on 6 April, the sisters began to escort convoys between Greece and Egypt via Crete. While anchored in Sofiko Bay in the Saronic Gulf on 12–13 April, Vasilefs Georgios was attacked by German aircraft and badly damaged by near-misses that caused extensive flooding. She managed to reach the Salamis Naval Base despite a severe list where she was drydocked. On 20 April, the floating drydock was scuttled by the Greeks and sank with the unrepaired destroyer still inside it.Freivogel, pp. 355–56, 364{{refn|Sources disagree about the reason why the drydock sank. Gröner and Koop and Schmolke claim that it was sunk by German Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers,Gröner, p. 215 while Rohwer says that it was merely damaged.Rohwer, p. 69|group=Note}}

The Germans nonetheless were able to raise and repair her, and commissioned her into the Kriegsmarine as ZG3 on 21 March 1942, under the command of Commander (Fregattenkapitän), later Captain (Kapitän zur See), Rolf Johannesson. German alterations were not numerous: they reduced her 37 mm guns to a single pair and exchanged her anti-aircraft machineguns for five 2 cm FlaK 30/38/Flakvierling AA guns in single mounts. Two torpedo tubes were possibly removed as well.Whitley 1988, p. 76 The ship also received German mine rails, radios and a S-Gerät sonar. Her crew now consisted of 10 officers and 215 sailors.Freivogel, p. 356

After working up, ZG3 was declared operational on 30 May, although her first convoy escort mission, scheduled for 1 June, was cancelled. On 24–25 June, she helped to escort a small troop convoy to Souda Bay, Crete, returning to Piraeus, Greece, two days later. On 2–3 July, the ship helped to lay a minefield off the island of Syros.

During the rest of the month, ZG3 escorted two convoys between Greece or Crete and North Africa and received a brief overhaul in the middle of the month. The ship escorted the damaged {{GS|U-97|1940|6}} back to Salamis on 5 August. Her next convoy to Tobruk, Libya, was interrupted by the British Operation Pedestal to Malta in the middle of the month and she then towed the damaged submarine {{GS|U-83|1940|2}} to Salamis on 19–20 August.Freivogel, pp. 356, 358 ZG3 was then renamed Hermes two days later. Over the next several months, the ship escorted convoys between Greece, Crete and Tobruk, interrupted by occasional missions to cover a minefield being laid. Later that month her boilers were cleaned and her 37 mm guns were upgraded. Upon her return to duty on 23 October, she resumed escort work, only adding the Dardanelles and various islands in the Aegean and Dodecanese to her destinations.Freivogel, pp. 358–60 On 16 November Hermes assisted in the sinking of the Greek submarine {{ship|Greek submarine|Triton|Y-5|2}}.Rohwer, p. 213 Her propulsion machinery was overhauled at Salamis from 20 January 1943 to 19 February and she resumed her convoy escort missions until the end of March. During this time, none of the ships that she escorted were lost.Freivogel, p. 360

With Axis forces confined to northern Tunisia by March, the Kriegsmarine ordered Hermes to transfer to Southern Italy on 30 March to protect the supply lines to Tunisia. Now under the command of Fregattenkapitän Curt Rechel, she arrived at Salerno, Italy, on 4 April. The ship laid a minefield south of Sicily with a group of Italian destroyers on 19–20 April. The following day, she detected the British submarine {{HMS|Splendid|P228|2}} and drove it to the surface after 45 minutes of depth-charging, rescuing 20 survivors before the submarine sank. Together with two Italian destroyers, Hermes ferried troops and supplies to Tunisia on 25–26 April. Three days later, she made another supply run with two Italian destroyers, but they were attacked by Allied aircraft off Cape Bon. The two accompanying Italian destroyers were sunk and Hermes had her propulsion machinery crippled by near misses. She was towed to La Goulette, the port of Tunis, and scuttled at the harbor entrance as a blockship on 7 May. Several crewmen were killed in the fighting in Tunis the next day, while the others were either captured by the Allies or evacuated to Trapani, Sicily. Rechel had left for Sicily on the 7th, allegedly to report on the loss of his ship. The Allies refloated the wreck to clear the harbor and it was scrapped after the war.

{{reflist|group=Note}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite journal|last1=Freivogel|first1=Zvonimir|title=Vasilefs Georgios and Vasilissa Olga: From Sister-Ships to Adversaries|journal=Warship International|date=2003|volume=XL|issue=4|pages=351–364|issn=0043-0374}}
• {{cite book|last=Friedman|first=Norman|title=British Destroyers From Earliest Days to the Second World War |publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=2009 |isbn=978-1-59114-081-8 |author-link=Norman Friedman}}
• {{Cite book |last=Gröner|first=Erich|title=German Warships 1815–1945|year=1990 |location=Annapolis, Maryland|volume=1: Major Surface Warships|publisher=Naval Institute Press |isbn=0-87021-790-9|author-link=Erich Gröner}}
• {{cite book |last1=Koop |first1=Gerhard|last2=Schmolke |first2=Klaus-Peter|title=German Destroyers of World War II |year=2003 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |location=Annapolis, Maryland |isbn=1-59114-307-1|name-list-style=amp}}
• {{cite book|last=Rohwer|first=Jürgen|title=Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, Maryland|year=2005 |edition=Third Revised|isbn=1-59114-119-2 |author-link=Jürgen Rohwer}}
• {{cite book|last=Whitley|first=M. J.|title=Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia|publisher=Naval Institute Press|year=1988|isbn=0-87021-326-1|location=Annapolis, Maryland|author-link=Michael J. Whitley}}
• {{cite book|last=Whitley|first=M. J.|title=German Destroyers of World War Two|publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=1991 |isbn=1-55750-302-8|location=Annapolis, Maryland}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061022024210/http://www.hellenicnavy.gr/b.georgios_d14_en.asp Summary of the ship's history from the Hellenic Navy website]
• [http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/captured/destroyer/zg3/index.html Short article in the German Naval History page]
• [http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/zerstoerer/za.htm#ZG3 Short summary from the Württembergische Landesbibliothek]
• [https://www.historisches-marinearchiv.de/projekte/verluste_griechenland/ausgabe.php?where_value=132 Page from the Historische Marinearchiv]

{{G and H class destroyer|others}}

{{April 1941 shipwrecks}}

{{April 1943 shipwrecks}}

{{May 1943 shipwrecks}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasilefs Georgios (D 14)}}

Category:Vasilefs Georgios-class destroyers

Category:Ships built on the River Clyde

Category:1938 ships

Category:World War II destroyers of Greece

Category:Destroyers of the Kriegsmarine

Category:World War II destroyers of Germany

Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea

Category:Maritime incidents in April 1941

Category:Maritime incidents in April 1943

Category:Maritime incidents in May 1943

Category:Naval ships of Greece captured by Germany during World War II

Category:Scuttled vessels

Category:Ships sunk by German aircraft