SS Petrella
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country= France |Ship flag= {{Shipboxflag|France|civil}} |Ship name=* Pasteur (1923–1928)
|Ship namesake= |Ship owner=* Plisson et Cie de Bayonne (1923–1924)
|Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Ateliers et Chantiers de la Gironde, Graville, Le Havre |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=3 February 1923 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service=10 August 1923 |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification=Official number: 5606113 |Ship fate=Transferred to Italy, 10 July 1941 |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country= Italy |Ship flag= {{Shipboxflag|Kingdom of Italy|civil}} |Ship name= Capo Pino |Ship namesake= |Ship owner=Government of Italy |Ship operator=Cia Genovese di Navigazione à Vapore SA, Genoa |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship acquired=10 July 1941 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Captured by Germany, 8 September 1943 |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country= Germany |Ship flag= {{Shipboxflag|Nazi Germany|civil}} |Ship name= Petrella |Ship namesake= |Ship owner=Mittelmeer-Reederei GmbH |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship acquired= 8 September 1943 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship fate=Sunk by {{HMS|Sportsman|P229|6}}, 8 February 1944 |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Ship class= |Ship type= Cargo liner |Ship tonnage=*{{GRT|4785}}
|Ship displacement= |Ship length= {{Convert|110.6|m|ftin|abbr=on}} o/a |Ship beam= {{Convert|14.98|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=1 × {{Convert|2500|hp|0|abbr=on}} 3-cylinder inverted triple expansion steam engine, 1 shaft |Ship speed= {{Convert|12|kn|lk=in}} |Ship range= |Ship capacity= |Ship crew= |Ship notes= }} |
SS Petrella was a German merchant ship, which was torpedoed and sunk on 8 February 1944, north of Souda Bay, Crete, killing some 2,670 of the Italian POWs aboard.{{cite web |url= http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?59625 |title=Petrella Passenger/Cargo Ship (1923–1944) |work=wrecksite.eu |year=2013 |access-date=1 July 2013}}
Service history
The ship was built under the name Pasteur as a cargo liner, one of a class of nine ships ordered by the French government to replenish its merchant fleet after the losses of World War I. The ship was launched on 3 February 1923 from the Ateliers et Chantiers de la Gironde shipyard at Graville, Le Havre.{{cite web |url=http://www.frenchlines.com/ship_en_35.php |title=Cargo ship Aveyron |work=French Lines Association |year=2013 |access-date=1 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924015608/http://www.frenchlines.com/ship_en_35.php |archive-date=24 September 2015 |df=dmy-all }} On 11 July she was sold to the Plisson et Cie company of Bayonne, entering service on 10 August 1923. The following year she was sold to the Cie des Chargeurs Français, and in 1925 was chartered to the Compagnie Navale de l'Océanie shipping line, a subsidiary of the Ballande & Fils group, for service to New Caledonia. In June 1928 the ship was bought by the Compagnie Générale d'Armement Maritime (CGAM) and renamed Aveyron. She was operated by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT) company, and was finally transferred to the ownership of CGT in 1939.
On 10 July 1941, following the French armistice the ship was transferred to the ownership of the Italian Government, and renamed Capo Pino was operated by the Cia Genovese di Navigazione à Vapore, based at Genoa.
The ship was captured by the Germans at Patras, Greece, on 8 September 1943, following the announcement of the Italian capitulation. She was renamed Petrella and operated under the ownership of the {{Interlanguage link multi|Mittelmeer-Reederei|de|lt=Mittelmeer-Reederei GmbH}} of Hamburg, a state-owned company that managed captured ships in the Mediterranean on behalf of the German Wehrmacht, with civilian crews under military jurisdiction.{{cite web |url=http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/mittelmeer/italien/mmr.htm |title=Deutsche Mittelmeer-Reederei |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130212143316/http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/mittelmeer/italien/mmr.htm |archive-date=12 February 2013 |work=Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart |year=2009 |access-date=1 July 2013 |url-status=live }}
=Sinking=
Crete had been captured by the Germans in May/June 1941, and was occupied by a mixed German-Italian force as "Fortress Crete". The Italian 51st Infantry Division Siena consisted of some 21,700 men, and occupied the easternmost prefecture of Lasithi. Following the armistice of September 1943 the Italians in Crete were disarmed by the Germans without major problems. As elsewhere, they were given the choice to continue the war alongside Germany, or to be sent to the Reich as military internees to perform forced labour. A minority chose to continue the fight and formed the Legione Italiana Volontari Creta.
As ordered by Adolf Hitler, the Italian internees were transported back to Germany.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}} On 8 February 1944, some 3,173 prisoners were crammed into the hull of the Petrella. The ship was detected by the Royal Navy submarine {{HMS|Sportsman|P229|6}} and torpedoed, despite the Petrella having been clearly marked as a prisoner of war transport.[http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/44-02.htm Chronik des Seekrieges 1939-1945, Württembergische Landesbibliothek, entry on February 1944] Some 2,670 prisoners died when the ship sank; a factor in the high death toll was that the guards did not open the holds where the POWs were and fired on those trying to get out.{{cite web |url= http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3447.html |title=HMS Sportsman (P229) |first=Guðmundur |last=Helgason |work=uboat.net |year=2013 |access-date=1 July 2013}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Coord|35|32|N|24|18|E|region:GR-M_type:event|display=title}}
{{February 1944 shipwrecks}}
{{French Line ships}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrella}}
Category:Ships built in France
Category:Ships of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique
Category:World War II merchant ships of Germany
Category:Maritime incidents in February 1944
Category:Ships sunk by British submarines