The shocking wreck with the 4,000 Italian prisoners near the islet of Patroklos. The Germans let them drown helpless.

For the history:

Descriptions of local residents are among the toughest ever recorded.

Specifically, they reported the next morning spectacle of the dead soldiers on Harakas beach and in the surrounding bays, that they looked like sardines that have washed the shore on the coast. So many were the dead soldiers lying on the shore on top of each other.

The history and rare meteorological elements of that day.

Patroklos islet today.

Saronic, February 12, 1944: one of the longest wrecks in naval history.

The Norwegian ship “Oria” that had been enforced by the German occupiers of the Dodecanese was used to transport 4,155 Italian prisoners from Rhodes to Piraeus, but never reached its destination. The bad weather, an attack on British warships and the construction problems of the “Oria” have led to one of the biggest (in victims) wrecks in naval history. At a time when “detention” was not issued by a responsible service, and the means available to predict the weather were scarce, shipwrecks due to weather conditions were often. Watch the video prepared by Up Drones for “Oria”, with shots from the wreck area.

Harakas coast.

Analysis of meteorological conditions

On February 11, 1944, when the ship commenced from Rhodes to the port of Piraeus, the weather in the South Aegean continually deteriorated, with stormy winds and high waves, accompanied by rainfall. In this case, due to the presence of a low barometric that moved from southern Italy towards Greece.

At the National Observatory of Athens / meteo.gr we analyzed the available data for the brief conditions prevailing on the day of the shipwreck on the islet of Patroklos south of Sounio on 12 February 1944. It is noted that this analysis is based on much less available measurements than we have today, therefore the analysis is not absolutely accurate. The following map shows the position of the low barometric above Western Greece with the minimum barometric pressure in the center of the system estimated at 995 hPa (black curves). Shades of yellow and red show the wind speed in km / h and arrows the direction of the wind. Stormy southern winds lived throughout the Aegean Sea. The ship “Oria” sank with all its crew and prisoners into the rock “Medina” of the island of Patroklos in the Saronic Gulf on the first night hours of the 12th of February, leading to the death approximately 4,000 people.