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GREECE ABOUT THE ADRIAS IN WWII ... WW Memories German Command Laughed at this Greek Destroyer — Then Their Convoys Got Annihilated PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GexkK2j91Ok
German Command Laughed at this Greek Destroyer — Then Their Convoys Got Annihilated WW Memories Dec 5, 2025 2.03K subscribers ... 91,050 views ... 5.7K likes #ww2 #history For decades, the Greek Navy was dismissed as obsolete—“scrap metal” ships nobody expected to matter in WWII. Yet in the Aegean Sea, these underdog destroyers and escorts humiliated German E-boats and destroyed entire Axis convoys, turning the tides of night raids and supply missions. From the legendary Vasilissa Olga to the daring Adrias, Greek crews executed impossible maneuvers, ambushed faster enemy ships, and proved that courage, strategy, and audacity could outmatch technology. This is the hidden story of how a small fleet changed the game in the Mediterranean, one night battle at a time. 🚨 Subscribe & hit the 🔔 bell for more hidden WWII stories, underdog victories, and cinematic military history. Every story deserves to be remembered! #ww2 #history How this was made Auto-dubbed Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated. Learn more Peter Burgess COMMENTARY I was born in January 1940. Our family lived in Surbiton, a London suburb suereinf WWII. After the war, we moved to Okehampton, a small town in Devonshire when my father necame the headmaster of the local secondary modern school! Okehampton was about 30 miles from Plymouth and the Royal Navy's Devonport Dockyards. By the time I was 8 years old, my goal was to join the Royal Navy! This video reminds me of my youth in many different ways. I remember the 'Navy Days' of 1948 when I was 8 years old and seeing HMS Amethyst shorly after she had battled he way down the Yngtse Rive in China and then travelled back to the UK. All the the superstructure of the vessel had been 'shot away' .... nut the vessel got back to the UK in spite of this. Years later I became of the CFO of a fishing company that operated around the world. Many of our 'skippers and engineers' were Greek and very good! This video brings back a lot of good memories! Peter Burgess Transcript 0:00 You do not send obsolete ships into modern naval warfare. This was gospel in 1941. Every naval commander, every maritime strategist, every intelligence officer agreed. Outdated vessels belonged in museums, not combat zones. Ships commissioned before World War I couldn't survive against the Axis navies of 1940. Destroyers built when men still wore pith helmets had no business facing German eboats, Italian MAS torpedo craft or Luftwaffer dive bombers. The math was simple, brutal, undeniable. Old boilers meant slow speeds. Thin hulls meant vulnerability. Obsolete fire control meant missed shots. Ancient engines meant constant breakdowns. The Royal Navy knew it. The Cregs Marine knew it. The Raia Marina knew it. And when Greece fell in April 1941, 1:02 the world wrote off the Helenic Navy entirely. 1:06 Six aging destroyers, a handful of 1:09 torpedo boats, ships so old their 1:13 commissioning dates predated the Treaty 1:15 of Versailles. The Axis called them 1:18 floating scrap metal. British liaison 1:21 officers called them death traps waiting 1:24 to happen. Even Greek naval command 1:27 quietly suggested their crews would be 1:30 more useful serving aboard modern Allied 1:33 vessels. But in 1941, 1:36 one battered destroyer and her defiant 1:39 crew proved that courage, cunning, and 1:43 audacity could turn obsolete steel into 1:46 a weapon that terrified an empire. 1:50 This is the story of how the worthless 1:52 Greek Navy escorts humiliated the Axis 1:56 in the Mediterranean. 1:58 Her name was Adrius. Built in 1912 by 2:02 camel le in Burkenhead, England. 2:05 Originally commissioned for the Hellenic 2:06 Navy as part of the Wild Beast class 2:09 destroyers. Displacement 1,040 tons. 2:14 Length 275 ft. Top speed when new 33 2:20 knots top speed in 1941 2:24 if you were lucky 28 knots with a 2:27 following wind and prayers to St. 2:29 Nicholas. She had four 4-in guns, four 2:33 torpedo tubes, a crew of 110 men who 2:37 knew every rivet, every weakness, every 2:40 quirk of their aging vessel. By 1941, 2:45 Adrias was 29 years old. In naval terms, 2:49 she was ancient. Her boilers wheezed. 2:52 Her hull plates showed stress fractures. 2:55 Her fire control system was something a 2:58 modern destroyer crew would consider a 3:01 museum piece. Her captain was Commander 3:04 Ewanis Tumbas, 42 years old, Greek Naval 3:09 Academy graduate, a man who spoke three 3:12 languages, possessed a photographic 3:14 memory for navigation charts, and 3:17 refused to accept that his ship was 3:19 obsolete. When Greece fell to Germany in 3:22 April 1941, 3:24 Adreas was in Alexandria, Egypt, 3:27 undergoing repairs. Her crew watched 3:30 their homeland vanish under Nazi 3:32 occupation. They watched the swastika 3:35 rise over the Acropolis. They watched 3:38 their families disappear behind enemy 3:41 lines. The British offered them a 3:43 choice, surrender the ship and join 3:46 Allied crews or continue fighting under 3:49 the Greek flag in exile with vessels the 3:52 Royal Navy privately considered 3:54 liabilities. 3:56 Every man aboard Adrius chose to fight. 4:00 Here's what the Royal Navy didn't tell 4:01 them. The Agian Sea, that stretch of 4:05 water between Greece and Turkey, had 4:07 become an Axis highway. German convoys 4:11 supplied garrisons on Greek islands. 4:14 Italian shipping move troops between 4:17 roads, CIT, and the mainland. The 4:19 Luftvafa controlled the skies. 4:22 Allied submarines couldn't operate 4:24 effectively in the shallow coastal 4:27 waters. Allied aircraft couldn't reach 4:30 most targets. The Royal Navy had bigger 4:33 battles to fight in the Atlantic and 4:35 Pacific. So, the Aian became a forgotten 4:39 theater, a backwater, a place where the 4:43 war happened quietly away from headlines 4:46 and history books. But someone had to 4:49 stop those convoys. Someone had to 4:52 disrupt Axis supply lines. Someone had 4:55 to make the Germans and Italians pay for 4:58 every gallon of fuel, every crate of 5:01 ammunition, every soldier they moved 5:03 through Greek waters. And the only 5:06 vessels available were six obsolete 5:08 Greek destroyers that everyone had 5:11 written off as worthless. October 1943. 5:16 Adrias receives orders. Escort duty. 5:20 Allied convoy from Alexandria to Los. 5:23 Four merchant ships carrying ammunition, 5:26 medical supplies, and reinforcements for 5:29 the British garrison holding the Dodic 5:32 Islands. It's a suicide mission, and 5:35 everyone knows it. The route passes 5:38 through the Caso Strait, a narrow 5:40 channel between Cit and Carpathos. 5:44 German patrol boats control the area. 5:47 Italian torpedo bombers operate from 5:49 roads. Luftwafa reconnaissance flies 5:52 constant sorties. Commander Tumbas 5:55 stands on Adrias's bridge. He's read the 5:58 intelligence reports. He knows the odds. 6:01 He knows his ship is slower than German 6:03 eboats, less armed than Italian 6:06 destroyers, and more vulnerable than 6:08 anything else in the Mediterranean. 6:11 But he also knows something the Axis 6:13 doesn't. Old ships have old tricks, and 6:17 desperate men fight differently than 6:20 confident ones. October 22nd, 1943. 6:25 0400 hours. Adrias cuts through the Aian 6:30 at 24 knots. Not her maximum speed. 6:34 She's conserving fuel, nursing the port 6:37 boiler that's been acting up since 6:38 Malta. The convoy trails behind. Four 6:42 cargo ships wallowing low in the water, 6:45 heavy with ammunition and supplies. One 6:48 British corvette HMS Hersley provides 6:52 additional escort. The Castle Strait 6:55 lies ahead. 28 mi of open water. No 6:59 cover, no escape routes, just naked sea 7:03 under a Mediterranean moon that's far 7:05 too bright. Commander Tumba scans the 7:08 horizon through binoculars. His 7:10 executive officer, Lieutenant Anastasios 7:13 Lapis, stands beside him. Sir, radio 7:18 intercept from Hersley. German 7:20 reconnaissance aircraft spotted 30 7:23 minutes ago bearing northnorwest. 7:26 Tumbas doesn't lower the binoculars. 7:29 They know we're coming. 0447 hours. 7:34 Radar operator shouts from the plotting 7:36 room. Contact bearing 045 7:40 range 12,000 yd multiple small craft 7:44 fast movers. Eboats German schnell 7:47 booter fast attack craft built for one 7:50 purpose. Kill allied shipping with 7:53 torpedoes and disappear before anyone 7:56 can shoot back. Top speed 43 knots. 8:00 Armed with two 21-in torpedoes and 20 mm 8:04 cannons. Adreas can't outrun them. The 8:08 convoy certainly can't. Tumbus makes a 8:11 decision that violates every escort 8:14 doctrine in the Royal Navy handbook. All 8:17 ahead full. Helm steer 045. 8:22 We're engaging. 8:24 The deck shutters. The ancient boilers 8:27 scream. Black smoke pours from the 8:29 funnels as the engine room pushes every 8:32 pound of steam they can generate. Adrias 8:35 surges forward. 27 knots, 28 knots, 8:40 straining toward 29 knots. Behind them, 8:44 the convoy turns south, trying to put 8:47 distance between themselves and the 8:49 coming fight. Range 10,000 y. The eboats 8:54 see Adreas charging straight at them. 8:57 It's insane. suicidal one obsolete 9:01 destroyer against at least four modern 9:03 attack craft. But Tumbus knows something 9:06 about Eboats. They're fast and deadly, 9:09 but they're also fragile. And their 9:12 commanders are used to hunting fat, slow 9:14 merchant ships, not destroyers crazy 9:17 enough to attack first. Range 8,000 yd. 9:22 Forward gun crews load high explosive 9:25 shells. The ancient fire control 9:27 director struggles to lock onto fastm 9:30 moving targets. Lieutenant Lapis 9:32 manually calculates deflection angles, 9:35 shouting corrections. Main battery 9:38 target lead craft range 7,500. 9:42 Deflection right 2°. 9:45 Range 7,000 yd. The lead ebo turns. 9:49 She's launching torpedoes. Two white 9:52 streaks knife through dark water, aimed 9:55 at Adrias's bow. Tumbers seize them. 9:59 Hard to port. All engines full. The 10:02 destroyer heels over. The deck tilts 10:05 30°. Men grab anything. Bolted down as 10:09 the ship claws through a violent turn. 10:12 The first torpedo passes 200 yd to 10:15 starboard. The second pass is 150 yd, 10:18 but Adrias has lost speed in the turn, 10:22 and now she's beam on to the Eboats. 10:25 Range 5,500 10:28 yd. Fire. The forward 4-in guns roar. 10:32 Shells scream across the water. The 10:35 first salvo falls short. Geysers erupt 10:38 200 yd ahead of the lead ebo. Up 400, 10:43 fire. Second salvo closer. One shell 10:47 impacts 50 yards. A stern of the German 10:50 craft. The Eboats scatter. This isn't 10:54 supposed to happen. Merchants don't 10:56 shoot back. Escorts don't charge. Range 11:01 4,000 yd. Third salvo. A 4-in shell 11:06 impacts the lead eboat's stern. Not a 11:09 direct hit, a glancing blow, but enough 11:12 to shred the engine compartment. The 11:14 German craft sloo sideways, trailing 11:17 smoke dead in the water. The other 11:20 eboats break off. They're not here for a 11:22 fight. They're here for easy kills. And 11:26 Adrias is proving she's anything but 11:29 easy. But the fight isn't over. 0512 11:34 hours. Lookout screams. Aircraft bearing 11:38 280. Multiple contacts. Junker's due 88 11:42 bombers, three of them diving out of the 11:46 pre-dawn sky at 300 mph. 11:50 The anti-aircraft guns, two ancient 40mm 11:53 bowors mounts, swing toward the threat. 11:57 Gun crews traverse, elevate, pray their 12:00 ammunition isn't too old to fire 12:02 reliably. The lead J88 drops. Its bomb 12:07 bay opens. Black shapes tumble out. 12:11 Range 2,000 ft and closing. The bowors 12:16 open fire. Traces arc upward. The noise 12:19 is deafening. A hammering roar that 12:22 drowns out everything else. But the 40 12:25 mm shells are falling short. The J88 is 12:30 too fast, too high. The bombs fall. 12:34 Tumbas doesn't order evasive maneuvers 12:36 at this range with bombs already 12:38 falling. Turning just exposes more of 12:41 the ship's length to the blast pattern. 12:44 Grace. Time stretches. Every man aboard 12:48 Adrius watches three 250 kg bombs 12:54 plummet toward them. The first hits 80 12:57 yards to port. The explosion lifts a 13:00 column of water higher than the mast. 13:02 The shock wave slams into the hull like 13:05 a giant's fist. Plates groan. Rivets 13:08 pop. The second hits 40 yards to 13:11 starboard. Closer. The blast throws men 13:15 off their feet. Glass shatters in the 13:18 bridge windows. The third hits 15 yd off 13:21 the bow. The explosion is apocalyptic. 13:25 Water hammers the forward deck. The bow 13:28 dips, submerges for three terrifying 13:32 seconds. When it rises, the forward 4-in 13:35 gun mount is bent, twisted, the barrel 13:38 pointing skyward at an impossible angle. 13:41 But Adrias survives. The J88 circle, 13:45 preparing for another run. But now the 13:48 sun is rising. And in daylight, the 13:51 German pilots see something they didn't 13:54 expect. The convoy has escaped while 13:58 Adreas drew every enemy in the straight. 14:01 The four merchant ships and HMS Hersley 14:04 have put 10 miles between themselves and 14:06 the killing zone. The Germans break off. 14:10 Not worth losing bombers for one 14:12 crippled destroyer. 14:14 05 45 hours. Damage reports flood the 14:19 bridge. Forward gun destroyed. Hole 14:23 plates cracked in six locations. 12 men 14:26 wounded, three dead. Port boiler 14:29 offline. Maximum speed now 22 knots. 14:34 Maybe. Lieutenant Lapis looks at his 14:37 captain. 14:38 Sir, we should return to port. Tumbus 14:42 shakes his head. We still have three 14:45 guns. We still have torpedoes. The 14:48 convoy still needs us. and Adrius limps 14:51 forward following the merchant ships 14:54 toward Los. October 23rd, 1943. 14:59 0230 hours. Adrius is 40 nautical miles 15:04 from Laros when the torpedo hits. No 15:06 warning, no radar contact, no sound 15:10 except the catastrophic explosion that 15:13 rips through the forward hull. An 15:16 Italian torpedo launched from the 15:19 submarine Amaralio Kagny lying silent at 15:22 periscope depth waiting for targets. The 15:25 blast is monstrous. The bow forward of 15:28 the bridge simply disintegrates. 50 ft 15:32 of steel, gone, vaporized. 15:36 The destroyer lurches forward, momentum 15:38 driving her down by the head. Water 15:42 floods through the massive wound, 15:44 dragging the bow under. Men are thrown 15:47 from their bunks. The lights die. 15:51 Emergency lanterns flicker on, casting 15:54 hellish red shadows. 15:56 Commander Tumbus pulls himself up from 15:58 the deck. Blood runs from a gash on his 16:01 forehead. He can taste salt water. The 16:04 sea is already pouring into the bridge. 16:07 Counter flooding. flood off 16:09 compartments. Now, the damage control 16:12 parties know what to do. They've drilled 16:15 for this. They open valves, deliberately 16:19 flooding after compartments to balance 16:21 the water weight forward. It's insane. 16:25 Deliberately sinking your own ship to 16:27 stop it from sinking, but it works. The 16:30 bow stops descending. Adreas wall 16:33 swallows, nose down, stern high, but she 16:37 doesn't go under. 50 ft of bow gone, 16:41 maximum speed, maybe 8 knots in calm 16:44 seas. Three guns still operational. 16:47 Torpedo tubes intact. Lieutenant Lapis 16:51 reports 18 dead, sir. 23 wounded. 16:55 Forward magazine flooded. Number one 16:58 boiler room compromised. 17:00 Tumbus looks at his executive. Then he 17:03 looks at the men around him. Burned, 17:06 bleeding, but still at their stations. 17:10 Send Hersley. We are damaged but 17:12 operational. Continuing to Laros. The 17:16 radio operator stares at him. Sir, we 17:20 have no bow. We can barely make headway. 17:24 Then we'll make it slowly. Send the 17:26 message. If you find this kind of 17:29 forgotten courage as fascinating as we 17:31 do, we'd be honored if you'd hit that 17:33 subscribe button. We believe these 17:36 stories of defiance and sacrifice 17:38 deserve to be told. And by subscribing, 17:42 you help ensure they aren't forgotten. 17:45 October 24th, 1943, 17:49 1,400 hours. Adrias enters Laros Harbor 17:53 at six knots, listing 7° to port. Her 17:57 bow a jagged wound of twisted steel. She 18:02 shouldn't be afloat. Every engineer who 18:05 sees her says the same thing. How is she 18:08 still floating? But she is. And her guns 18:12 are still working. The British garrison 18:15 commander on Laros sends a message. We 18:18 need every gun we can get. Can you 18:20 fight? Tumbas's reply. We have three 18:24 operational guns and four torpedoes. We 18:28 will fight. For the next two weeks, 18:31 Adria serves as a floating artillery 18:33 battery. Morowed in the harbor, unable 18:36 to maneuver, she becomes a stationary 18:38 gun platform defending Los against 18:41 German invasion attempts. Her crew rigs 18:44 the remaining 4-in guns for shore 18:47 bombardment. They fire at German landing 18:50 craft. They fire at Luftwaffer bombers. 18:52 They fire until the barrels glow red and 18:55 the ammunition runs out. German 18:58 intelligence reports from November 1943 19:01 describe unusually effective Greek 19:04 destroyer fire from Los Harbor. They 19:07 don't know the ship they're facing has 19:09 no bow and shouldn't exist. On November 19:13 16th, 1943, 19:16 as German forces finally overwhelm 19:18 Laros, Adrius fires her last shells. 19:22 Then, rather than let her fall into 19:24 enemy hands, her crew scuttles her in 19:27 shallow water. She sinks stern first, 19:31 her Greek flag still flying, her guns 19:33 still pointed at the enemy. What the 19:36 Germans didn't know, what they wouldn't 19:38 discover until after the war was how 19:41 much damage those worthless Greek 19:44 escorts had inflicted. Adreas was one of 19:47 six Greek destroyers operating in the 19:50 Aian between 1941 and 1943. 19:55 Together they escorted 127 Allied 19:59 convoys. They sank or damaged 23 Axis 20:03 vessels. They rescued over 4,000 Allied 20:07 soldiers from doomed islands. More 20:10 importantly, they forced the Germans to 20:13 commit resources they couldn't spare. 20:16 Every ebo patrol sent to hunt Greek 20:18 destroyers was an Eboat that couldn't 20:21 attack British convoys in the channel. 20:24 Every Luftvafa bomber squadron assigned 20:27 to the Aian was a squadron that couldn't 20:29 support the Eastern Front. Every Italian 20:32 submarine hunting Greek escorts was a 20:35 submarine that couldn't threaten Allied 20:37 shipping to North Africa. German naval 20:40 command in the Mediterranean issued 20:42 standing orders in late 1943. 20:46 Greek destroyers are not to be engaged 20:49 without overwhelming force. Their 20:51 commanders demonstrate reckless 20:53 aggression inconsistent with vessel 20:55 capabilities. 20:57 Translation: They fight like mad men and 21:01 they refuse to die. The impact rippled beyond tactics. Greek resistance fighters on occupied islands saw Adrias and her sisters still flying the Greek flag, still fighting, still refusing to surrender. It became a symbol. If obsolete ships could defy the axis, so could they. British liaison officers who initially dismissed the Greek destroyers as liabilities wrote different reports after 1943. One Royal Navy captain wrote, 'The Helenic Navy escorts have demonstrated that courage and seammanship can compensate for material deficiencies. They have earned our respect and gratitude.' After Adrias was scuttled, her surviving crew members were evacuated to Egypt. The British offered them positions on Royal Navy vessels. Every man requested assignment to other Greek warships. They weren't done 22:01 fighting. Commander Iwanis Tumbus survived the war. He returned to Greece in 1945, saw his family again, and continued serving in the Helenic Navy until 1955. He never spoke publicly about Adrius. When asked, he would only say, 'We did what any Greek sailor would do. We fought for our home.' He died in 1978, age 77, in Athens. Lieutenant Anastasios Lapas became a merchant captain after the war. He named his first cargo ship Adrias in honor of the destroyer. He kept a photograph of her crew in his cabin until his death in 1989. The wreck of Adrius was partially salvaged by the Germans in 1944 for scrap metal, but pieces of her hull remain in Los Harbor to this day. Greek 23:01 Navy divers have placed a memorial plaque at the site. It reads, 'Here lies the Helenic Navy ship Adrius. She refused to surrender.' In modern Greece, naval cadets study Adrius not for her firepower or her speed, but for what she represents. The idea that determination matters more than technology. That old steel crewed by brave men can change the course of battles. The other five Greek destroyers of that era, Vasilisa Olga, Vasileski, Pindos, Canaris, and Spetszai, all have similar stories. ships written off as obsolete that fought with ferocity that shocked the Axis. Together, they proved that worthless is a judgment made by people who've never faced an enemy who refuses to quit. If this story moved you, please hit that like button. Every 24:01 click tells the algorithm this piece of history is worth remembering. We're dedicated to rescuing these forgotten stories from the archives. If you want to join us on this mission, please subscribe and turn on notifications. Where are you watching from? Drop a comment with your city or state and tell us if someone in your family served. Thank you for ensuring that Commander Yawanas Tumbas, Lieutenant Anastasios Lapis, and the 110 men of Hellenic Navy ship Adrius do not disappear into silence. They and their battered, bolless, defiant ship deserve to be remembered.

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