Survival at Sea

Survival at Sea Triton Y-5

Triton was a Proteus Class submarine of the Hellenic Royal Navy that was built at the Ateliers & Chantiers de la Loire Shipyard in Nantes, France. She was launched on 4th April 1928 and commissioned on 1st March 1930. Triton was the 3rd of four submarines of this class built for the Hellenic Navy in the late 1920s, the others being Protefs, Nirefs and Glafkos. At 750 tons (surfaced), Triton was 68.6m (225ft) long with a beam of 5.73m (18.8ft) and a draft of 4.18m (13.7ft).Her top speeds were 14 knots at the surface and 8.5 knots submerged. Triton’s war missions began in the Greek-Italian War, when she conducted patrols in the Ionian Sea. These and other duties were interrupted when Greece became occupied by Germany. At that point in WWII, Triton sailed for Alexandria. From the Middle East she completed 7 patrols and one voyage to Malta, where she delivered supplies before returning to home waters. On November 10th 1942, the submarine began her 15th and final mission to Northern Euboea in order to drop off 5 agents and 340 kg of war supplies. On 16th November Triton reached her destination. However, the mission was delayed due to bad weather. At 16:00 the crew spotted an enemy hydroplane and descended to a depth of 30m to evade it. At 16:20 it ascended in order to use its periscope and spotted an enemy convoy which it decided to attack. While approaching the convoy she changed course, heading northeast for a better angle of attack. At 16:30 from a distance of 5.5km Triton launched an attack on the convoy, firing one torpedo which did not find its target. Triton had been spotted by UJ-2102, which remained at a distance of 1.400m and did not follow the convoy. At 16:40 UJ-2102 launched its first attack with 13 depth charges set for a depth of 70 to 125m. At 17:00 there followed a second attack with 11 depth charges which did not cause any significant damage to Triton. After several manoeuvres, at 20:05, UJ-2102 launched its third attack against Triton with 13 more depth charges which managed to cause significant damage. Although damaged, the submarine remained operable and attempted to escape. However, because the external fuel tanks were breached the oil that leaked to the surface gave Triton’s position away. At 20:30 a fourth attack was launched dropping 12 more depth charges which caused significant damage and made steering impossible and disabled the

gyroscopic compass. At 21:00 Triton ascended to use its periscope. UJ2102 was spotted heading toward her at great speed. Triton then submerged to a depth of 30m where it was attacked with 9 more depth charges resulting in the loss of the right engine amongst other significant damage. The commander of Triton had two choices: ascend and surrender, or fight. He chose to fight. At 22:00, five and a half hours after the first attack, the Commander of Triton, E. Kondogiannis, ordered the submarine Submarine Triton and her crew in the to surface and fire with a machine gun. port of Alexandria, Egypt As soon as they reached the surface the Courtesy of: Evangelos Kollintzas Commander fired his revolver at UJ2102 and then attempted to fire with a machine gun. UJ-2102 then fired at the submarine. The Commander then lost consciousness due to the shock and fell into the sea whilst the crew opened fire with machine guns at UJ-2102. At 22:14 UJ2102 using all its guns attacked Triton one more time after which began the evacuation of the submarine. From the surviving crew, 28 surrendered Crew of submarine Triton Courtesy of: Evangelos Kollintzas or were found unconscious, including Commander Kondogiannis, while Nikolaos Maroulas and D. Papadimitriou escaped by swimming to shore, seeking refuge at the nearby village of Thimiani and finally fleeing to the Middle East. The crew that had opened fire with machine guns were all killed, and were among the 23 who perished. Christos Soliotis, who was the last person on board Triton, opened the ventilation in order to sink it faster and not let the submarine be taken by the enemy. The crew that was captured received medical aid from the German UJ-2102. After being interrogated they were transported to the prison of war camp “MARLANG”, where they remained until their liberation from the allied forces on 28th April 1945. Triton’s flag remained in the hands of the Commander of UJ-2102 until 20th September 1972, Evangelos Kollintzas on duty, when it was surrendered to Ioanni Maniati onboard submarine Triton in a special ceremony at the Mürwik Naval Courtesy of: Evangelos Kollintzas School. Today Triton’s flag can be found on display at the submarine base in Salamina. This story is not only particularly relevant because it is part of Greek Naval history but it has a connection to the Company. More specifically, one of the survivors on board Triton was 2nd Engineer, Evaggelos Kollintzas, the grandfather of his namesake who currently works in the Chartering Department at Head Office in Glyfada. Sources: el.wikipedia.org, www.uboat.org , en.wikipedia.org, www.hellenicnavy.gr www.mixanitouxronou.gr