A British submarine that disappeared in October 1943 with the loss of 64 men following a secret mission in the Aegean Sea has been found 253m deep by an underwater research team led by Greek wreck-hunter Kostas Thoctarides. HMS Trooper is the eighth submarine wreck his team has discovered.
The finding came on their 15th expedition in search of the wreck – and only after a long-held assumption contained in an old book had finally been abandoned.
When Italy surrendered in September, 1943, the Germans aimed to deny the Allies control of the Dodecanese Islands.It was at this time that the British sent Trooper, commanded by Lt John S Wraith, from Beirut to the Aegean Sea on her eighth war patrol.
The 84m T-class submarine was armed with a 4in and a .303 gun, eleven 21in torpedo tubes and 17 torpedoes.
Her initial task, and last known action, was to land three secret agents at Kalamos of Evia.In the early hours of 1 October she dropped them ashore with 400kg of supplies. One of them, Major Georgios ‘Toby’ Diamantopoulos of the Greek intelligence service, later entered occupied Athens to carry out a mission called Operation Eruption.
On 5 October, based on intelligence that the Germand could be landing on the island of Leros, Trooper was ordered to patrol between Naxos and Ikaria. Nothing further was heard from the submarine.
Loud voice
At daybreak on 14 October the British manned caique LS8, of the Levant Schooner Flotilla, reported encountering a British T-class submarine that surfaced alongside it in Alinda Bay, Leros.
The caique’s captain Lt-Cdr Adrian Seligman believed he had heard Lt Wraith's distinctively loud voice, so took it that that the submarine was Trooper, as he later explained in his book War In The Islands.
His assumption was accepted as correct because it coincided with an order from the 1st Submarine Squadron’s commander for Trooper to proceed to the area, where mine-laying was later found to have taken place. But after the submarine had failed to return to Beirut by 17 October, she was declared lost.
Accepting Lt-Cdr Seligman’s evidence, the Greek wreck-researchers had been seeking Trooper since 1998, says Thoctarides, trawling through British archives and carrying outunderwater searches. Fourteen unsuccessful expeditions to the Dodecanese had focused on 10 minefields around Leros and later Kalymnos and Kos.
It was during their latest investigation that Thoctarides and fellow-researcher Spyros Vougidis realised that Lt-Cdr Seligman had been mistaken. Studying logs and reports from other British submarines, they found that one commander had recorded an encounter with a caique just as Seligman had described it – but it had been HMS Torbay he had seen, not HMS Trooper.
The researchers had been misled for years, and as a result of the new information the search area was switched in 2023 from the Dodecanese to minefields laid in the Aegean Sea.
15th expedition
The German minelayer Drache had finished laying 287 mines in five fields north of Donoussa on 26 September, the very day Trooper had sailed from Beirut. This was the area she had been ordered to patrol between 6-9 October before moving on to Leros.
The team’s 15th expedition now concentrated on sites in the Icarian Sea, a difficult area to search because of strong winds and currents. The wreck was discovered in international territorial waters north of Donoussa on one of Drache’s five minefields, using CHIRP sonar technology. A Super Achille ROV was then sent to collect images.
Trooper is now known to have sunk there early on 7 October, and lies broken in three. No intervention or disturbance was made to what is a war grave, says Thoctarides, and comparison with the submarine’s original plans was enough to provide positive identification of the wreck.
“This confirms a very violent sinking, due to a catastrophic mine explosion,” says the wreck-hunter. “The German EMF-type mine contained 350kg of hexane explosive. The result of the explosion was the immediate and rapid sinking, with the submarine breaking into three separate pieces.
“First the bow went down, then the stern and lastly the midship section, which had remained on the surface for a few minutes. The bow and stern lie on the seabed in close proximity, while the submarine’s conning tower has broken away and is located a little further away. The scene is quite eerie.”
The bow lies at an angle of 5° forwards, the break having occurred where the crew accommodation compartment was located.
“The fore planes are folded in, an indication that, in combination with the lowered periscopes, the engine-room telegraph on the bridge is in the ‘halfway ahead’ position, and the open hatch in the conning-tower leads to the conclusion that the submarine was sailing on the surface at the time of the explosion,” says Thoctarides.
The midship section has a 7° starboard list, and the periscope standards and radar antenna are lowered. “The conning-tower hatch is open and the upper deck telegraphs are in the half-ahead position. The inner door leading to the engine-room is open. The midship section has broken off where the engine-room watertight door is located.
“The sight of the accommodation compartment, which has been completely swept away by the explosion, is shocking. The hatches leading to the gun are closed, and the entire gun is missing from its position on the deck.”
The stern section had suffered the least damage, says Thoctarides, and shows a heavy starboard list of 43°. “The direction-finder antenna is visible on the deck, in excellent condition. The after hydroplanes are in the normal position.”
Strenuous effort
Thoctarides started out as a commercial diver in 1987, and runs the companies ROV Services and thePlanet Bluedive-centre at Lavrio near Athens.
The son of Trooper’s commander, Captain Richard S Wraith CBE, followed in his footsteps to become a Royal Navy officer. “I have been aware for many years of the strenuous effort by the Greek research team to locate the wreck of the submarine and am now very pleased and excited that their endeavours have been rewarded,” he commented.
“I hope that any family-members of those lost with my father may be able to use the definitive location of Trooper as a focal point to help lay to rest any memories of their loved ones.”
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