A British submarine that disappeared in October 1943 while on secret mission in the Aegean, ‘HMS Trooper’, has been found at a depth of 253 meters in the Ikarian Sea, between the islands of Ikaria and Kos and near Turkey.
The submarine is the eighth submarine to be located by the submarine team of Kostas Thoctarides.
As he told Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA), the 84-meter submarine is broken into three distinctive sections (bow, midsection, stern), which indicates a very violent sinking following the explosion of a mine.
George Malcolmson, former director of the British Royal Navy’s Archive of the Royal Submarine Museum told ANA-MPA he was “very moved to hear that distinguished Greek researcher Kostas Thoctarides and his team resolved an 81-year-old mystery.” The finding, he said, will help complete the story for the living relatives and the descendants of the men on board and serve as a timely reminder of this special category of men who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Richard Wraith, a captain and CBE of the Royal Navy and son of Trooper’s commander, told ANA-MPA that he had known for many years about the hard work of the search team to find the submarine and was very pleased their efforts had been rewarded. He expressed the hope that the families of all those who died with his father will be able to use the permanent position of Trooper as a reference point that will contribute to the repose of the memory of their loved ones.
During the search, there was no disturbance to the submarine’s wreck, as it serves as the grave of the 64 members of the crew. The British submarine crew also included an Australian volunteer, Lt. John Stuart Ryder, 22.
The Trooper set off in October 1943 for a patrol mission between Donoussa islet and Ikaria, following information that the Germans would attempt a new landing, possibly at Leros island. It was declared lost on October 17, when it did not show up in Beirut.
Attempts to find it were derailed by information related to a wrong identification, and the Greek team reviewed historical data to begin the search again.
At the Ikarian Sea, the photos show that the Trooper entered one of five minefields set a few days earlier by the German mine-sweeper ‘Drache’.
The least damaged part, and the largest surviving part (32.5 m long) is the stern.
SOURCE; ANA-MPA
