Ares (ship, 1927)

Ares

Ship data flag  Greece German Empire   other ship names Graz (from 1941) Ship type Sail training ship home port Salamis Owner Greek Navy Shipyard Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée , La Seyne-sur-Mer Launch January 28, 1927 Whereabouts Sunk on December 5, 1942

Ship dimensions and crew length 77 m ( Lüa ) width 12 m Draft Max. 4.5 m displacement 1,870 t   crew 169 permanent crew members, 250 cadets and cabin boys

Machine system machine 1 steam boiler 1 3-cylinder steam engine Machine performance 1,000 PS (735 kW) Top speed 11.4 kn (21 km / h) propeller 1

Rigging and rigging Rigging More beautiful Number of masts 3 Sail area 1,600 m² Speed under sail Max. 10 kn (19 km / h)

Armament 4 × 7.6 cm guns

The Ares was a 1927-built three-masted schooner and sail training ship of the Greek Navy , named after the ancient god of war . In 1941 the German Wehrmacht seized the ship and used it as a hospital ship until it sank in 1942 .

Construction and technical data

The ship was to order the Greek Navy at the shipyard Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée in La Seyne-sur-Mer ( France built), went there on 28 January 1927 by the stack and was completed in the same year. The Ares was rigged as a three-masted schooner with a sail area of ​​1,600 m² and displaced 1,870 tons . She was 77.00 m long and 12.00 m wide and had a draft of 4.50 m . The machine system consisted of a three-cylinder expansion steam engine with 1,000 HP / 745 kW , an oil-fired steam boiler and a screw . The ship could reach speeds of up to 10 kn under sail and up to 11.4 kn under steam. The armament consisted of four 3 inch guns. The permanent crew numbered 169 men. There were also up to 100 sea ​​cadets and 150 ship boys .

Sail training ship Ares of the Greek Navy

After delivery, the Ares arrived in Greece in May 1928. The ship's home port was Salamis . Just a few weeks later, on June 26, 1928, the Ares left for its first training trip. No further information is available about the destination and the period of this or the following journeys.

After the start of the Italian war of aggression against Greece in October 1940, the Greek Navy is said to have already used the Ares as a hospital ship. With the victory of the Axis Powers , however , the Greek Navy did not move the Ares to Alexandria in Egypt like most other units , but left them in Salamis.

Hospital ship Graz of the German Navy

After the occupation of Greece by the Wehrmacht of the German Empire in May 1941, the ship lying in the Bay of Salamis was used as a hospital ship in the Mediterranean Sea by the German navy from May 15 after removing the guns . In addition to its seafaring crew, the ship now had 38 medical personnel on board and space for a total of 299 patients / wounded. On November 28, 1941, the ship was renamed Graz after the Styrian capital .

Whereabouts

The ship sank at 6.15 a.m. on December 5, 1942 after a mine hit on the island of Cani about 190 nautical miles northeast of Bizerta .

literature

• Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . Volume 5: Auxiliary Ships II: Hospital Ships, Residential Ships, Training Ships, Research Vehicles, Port Service Vehicles . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1988, ISBN 3-7637-4804-0
• Reinhart Schmelzkopf: Foreign ships in German hands . Strandgut Verlag, Cuxhaven 2004
• Volker Hartmann, Hartmut Nöldeke: Transporting the wounded across the sea. German hospital and wounded transport ships in World War II (Small series of publications on military and naval history, Volume 20). Winkler, Bochum 2010, ISBN 3-89911-142-7

Web links

• hellasarmy.gr (Greek, with photo)
• wlb-stuttgart.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gröner, p. 48, Schmelzkopf, p. 22
2. ↑ hellasarmy.gr
3. ↑ hellasarmy.gr
4. ↑ feldgrau.com/hs-graz.html
5. ↑ Gröner, p. 48, wlb-stuttgart.de