Athina: The wreck of the first iron steamboat built in Greece

By Pierre Kosmidis The first iron steamboat built in Greece in 1893 at Syros shipyards was used for decades in the Saronic Gulf and was then purchased by a Jewish organization carrying refugees from Europe to the Middle East, where the state of Israel was created in 1948. Mr. Aris Mpilalis, a Greek maritime history researcher, tells about this […]

Leros Island, 1943: The underwater museum of WW2 aircraft wrecks and shipwrecks

By Pierre Kosmidis The Eastern Aegean was the setting for a series of German air-sea landings, something not normally associated with the Wehrmacht. German infantry carried out beach assaults and, unusually, Fallschirmjäger were deployed in their intended role as paratroopers, more than two years after sustaining frightful losses in Crete. Both sides relied on air […]

FOUND! Théophile Gautier: A French ocean liner at the seabed of the Aegean

By Pierre Kosmidis The Aegean seabed is a silent witness of many dramatic events during the Second World War. The wreckdiving.gr research team located and positively identified the wreck of the French ocean liner Théophile Gautier, at a depth of 112 meters below sea level. “Following information received from local fishermen, and thorough research in the historical archives, and despite […]

Gradisca: The “Odyssey” of the Italian hospital ship in Greece during WW2

By Pierre Kosmidis The Hospital Ship “Gradisca” at the Port of Patras, Greece GRADISCA and AQUILEA: Two large hospital ships operating on the Mediterranean under Italian and German flag from 1939-45 In 1935, Italy bought two pre-World-War-I steamships built in England and the Netherlands and originally used as passenger ships – the GRADISCA (13,879 G.R.T.) […]

Η αερομαχία πάνω από τα Ιωάννινα στις 2 Νοεμβρίου 1940

By Pierre Kosmidis Με την πολύτιμη αρωγή των κ.κ. Ιωάννη Μυλωνά, Νίκου Χριστοφίλη, Θέμη Σέρμπη, Δημήτρη Πάντου, Κωνσταντίνου Ντάσιου, Ηλία Κορομπίλη Η αερομαχία της 2ας Νοεμβρίου 1940 αποτέλεσε το έναυσμα για την αποκάλυψη πολλών στοιχείων, τα οποία βοηθούν να αποκτήσουμε μια σφαιρική εικόνα για τα όσα συνέβησαν εκείνο το μοιραίο μεσημέρι, πάνω από τα Ιωάννινα […]

Roald Dahl and the Battle of Athens on 20 April 1941

By Pierre Kosmidis Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and fighter pilot. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. He saw service during the last chaotic days of the German invasion of Greece and was one of the few survivοrs of the […]

Historical Re-enactment Society: Reliving the Battle of Crete in New Zealand

By Pierre Kosmidis A group of reenactors from New Zealand, named World War Two Historical Re-enactment Society, are bringing History back to life.  With attention to detail, the re-enactors are reliving important elements of the military traditions of new Zealand during WW2, with a special focus on the Battle in mainland Greece and on the […]

Η τελευταία αερομαχία: Ο θάνατος του υποσμηναγού Ιωάννη Σακελλαρίου στις 2 Νοεμβρίου 1940

By Pierre Kosmidis Με την πολύτιμη αρωγή των κ.κ. Ιωάννη Μυλωνά και Νίκου Χριστοφίλη Πολλά συμβάντα της περιόδου του Β’ Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου, περιβεβλημένα με την αχλύ του μύθου, τις αντιφατικές και σε αρκετές περιπτώσεις ατεκμηρίωτες πληροφορίες, δημιουργούν ένα πλαίσιο μέσα στο οποίο η πραγματικότητα συσκοτίζεται, συντείνοντας έτσι στην εξαγωγή αυθαίρετων, αν όχι εσφαλμένων συμπερασμάτων. Μια τέτοια […]

My grandmother: The Greek Jews of WW2, by Benjamin Bensoua

By Pierre Kosmidis By Benjamin Bensoua* ** My grandmother, Eleanor Isaac, knew something was very wrong when her cousins burst into their small home in Volos, Greece, and warned them to leave because the Germans were going to register the Jews. This was in late 1943 and Eleanor was a young, happy, newly married Greek […]