Spider, your family should be justifiably proud of your Great-Uncle who faced such an ordeal in the waters of the Mediterranean. Most of this information has come from Antony Beevor's book, ' Crete - The Battle And The Resistance' which I would highly recommend. A 'naval action' in which only one navy was engaged.Īs a footnote, Sub-Lt Prince Philip of Greece was serving abaord HMS Valiant on that day. In this dreadful day for the Royal Navy, two cruisers and one destroyer were sunk, with two battleships, two cruisers and a number of destroyers damaged. The scheduled speakers are Salem State University Professor Alexandros Kyrou and Indiana University-Purdue University College of Arts & Sciences Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of. 500 of her crew spent the night clinging to liferafts before being found by Kandahar and Kingston WASHINGTON, DC The American Hellenic Institute (AHI) presents its Virtual Speakers Forum on Monday, June 7, 2 PM ET, focusing on the Battle of Crete. Three bombs straddled the ship which quickly capsized. Half-an-hour later, Leutnant Gerhard Brenner's Junkers Ju88, flying his fourth mission of the day, appeared alone to attack Fiji. Two hours later, a lone Me110 appeared from a cloud and hit HMS Fiji with a single bomb, bringing the cruiser to a halt. 722 of Gloucester 's men died.įorce C / A1 tried now to withdraw to the South-West, still under attack, and the battleship Valiant was struck by two bombs. Fiji was ordered to leave Gloucester which was again repeatedly attacked, with survivors being attacked in the water. Wave after wave of German bombers and fighters then attacked this concentration of almost stationary ships with lifeboats, too, being hit by machine-gun fire.įiji and Gloucester were ordered to withdraw as King realized how short of ammunition they were.īut now Gloucester was hit by a number of bombs in clear view of both Admirals aboard Warspite.
These two ships were by this stage running very low on AA ammunition. Kandahar and Kingston were sent to pick up survivors, and then Admiral King ordered the two cruisers Gloucester and Fiji to give covering anti-aircraft support. However, the British forces C and A1 under Rear Admirals King and Rawlings came under attack, as so often in the Crete campaign, from the Luftwaffe's VIII Fliegerkorps.ĭuring action near the Kithera channel, the battleship Warspite was struck by a bomb, followed by the sinking of the destroyer HMS Greyhound. I don't have the detailed information you seek, but your Great-Uncle lost his life on one of the Mediterranean Fleet's most disastrous days of the war.īriefly, the objective of the days' action was to prevent any possible German troop transports from reaching Crete. Hello Spider and a warm welcome aboard these forums !