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SOTIRIOS MANDRA : 1937 - 1943 ORIGINAL ARCHIVE OF LETTERS, NOTEBOOKS, DOCUMENTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS REVEALING THE SERVICE OF A SAILOR IN THE GREEK ROYAL NAVY PRIOR TO AND DURING WORLD WAR II

8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. On offer is an interesting group of letters, journals, note books and documents relating to Greek Royal Navy sailor Sotirios Mandra [b.1905], son of Isidoros and Maria. He started from Chios Island but his background seems to be from Mikrassiatis. The group deals with his naval career from 1937 through 1943 but we learn from the materials that he began serving in the Greek Navy in 1920 and that he served on SS Theofano Livanos and the "William H. Point". The group includes: handwritten notes on the ship SS Theofano Livanos from random observations and personal comments, notes from various reading materials, some rules from the sea and cargo expenditures; a book of Mathematics, Geometry, Trigonometry notes relating to navigation; technical notes for the "William H. Point" including tonnage, fuel consumption, sizes of masts, hatches, no. of lifeboats, etc.; nautical information for learning about sailing, navigating by the stars and sun, geographical symbols in Greek and English; his Greek passport; GENERAL INFORMATION for Officers on Warships; General Calendar of distances and trip observations; photographs of William H. Point and others. HISTORICAL NOTES: WIKI: In 1938, Greece ordered four modern Greyhound class destroyers in English shipyards, making a serious step towards modernization. The outbreak of war in Europe, however, allowed only two to be delivered. Greece entered World War II with a weak navy consisting of 10 destroyers, two outdated battleships, two light cruisers and six submarines. On the eve of the Italian invasion in 1940, the RHN consisted of 34 ships and 6,500 men. The Hellenic Navy suffered its first loss of the war on 15 August 1940 (two months before the formal outbreak of hostilities) when the cruiser Helli was sunk, apparently by an Italian submarine. During the Greco-Italian War, the Navy took over convoy escort missions in the Aegean and the Ionian Sea and undertook three raids against the Italian supply convoys in the Strait of Otranto. The most important role was given to the submarines, which although obsolete, managed to sink several Italian cargo ships in the Adriatic. When Nazi Germany attacked Greece, the RHN was decimated by the Luftwaffe, suffered the loss of 25 ships within a few days during April 1941. It was then decided to shift the remaining fleet (one cruiser - the famous Averof -, six destroyers, five submarines, 3 torpedo boats and a number of auxiliary vessels) to Alexandria in Egypt. Here the ships were repaired and equipped with modern anti-aircraft weapons. For the remainder of the war, the RHN fought alongside the Allies from bases in the Middle East. As the war progressed, the number of Hellenic Royal Navy vessels increased after the concession of several destroyers and submarines by the British Royal Navy, reaching a peak of 44 ships and 8,500 men in early 1944. The most notable aspects of the Hellenic Royal Navy's participation in World War II include the operations of the destroyer Vassilissa Olga which, until sunk in Leros on September 23, 1943, was the most successful Allied destroyer in the Mediterranean Sea; the participation of two destroyers in Operation Overlord; and the story of the destroyer Adrias, which while operating close to the coast of Kalymnos in October 1943 hit a mine, resulting in the loss of the vessel's prow, while blowing the two-gun forward turret over the bridge. After some minor repairs at Gümüslük Bay in Turkey the Adrias managed to return to Alexandria in a 400-mile trip, even though all the forepart of the ship, up to the bridge, was missing. Six Greek warships participated in the Sicilian landings and in the subsequent Italian campaign. In April, 1944, a mutiny arising from political causes broke out on 5 Greek warships berthed in Alexandria and spread to a number of other Greek naval and merchant vessels. It was put down by Greek Marines, who suffered 50 casualties.. Manuscript. Book Condition: Good+

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