WesWorld

Q3 Q4 1935

July 1 1935

This month sees a flurry of activity in the shipyards. The cruiser Astrides and frigates Nestor, Psyche, Iphigenia, Cassiopeia and Orion have all gone to yards for extensive refits. The navy is tight lipped about the refits but it may be linked to recent trials of the rebuilt special frigate Akhilleus and the increased construction of small drydocks at several naval bases.


Akhilleus in rebuild earlier this year.

The seaplane carriers Ouranos and Thaumas have entered the Attica yard to occupy Docks A and B for six months during an extensive refit. The two seplane carriers were built in the mid 1920's in parallel with Greece's first purpose built carrier, Anatolia, sharing much of the design, machinery and layout. When asked about the destails of the refit a flustered Naval Ministry Official stated, 'If I'm not telling you about the frigates what makes you think I'll tell you about the carriers'.

July 3 1935

Work has stopped on the conversion the battlecruiser Kypris to a target ship. It seems there is great interest in foreign powers buying the ship. Only preliminary work and some stripping has begun. The ship will lie at Souda Bay while negotiations continue. Her sister Makedonia is also in Souda Bay, laid up pending conversion to a training ship. Both ships were removed from service once the Megas Alexandros joined the fleet in accordance with the Clieto Naval Treaty.

July 12 1935

The battle squadron is in port following a week of intensive training an exercises. The core of the greek fleet now musters three battleships following the recent reentry into service of the 31,000ton Battleship Navarino in June and the 40,000ton Megas Alexandros that entered service at the start of July. The modern Megas Alexandros is one of the largest battleships in the world and carries a 12 gun main armament.

The battleship Megas Alexandros on exercise in July.

The Greek Battle and Scouting fleets will return to Pireas for the visit of the Turkish Foreign Minister Oghuz Osman Suleiman on the 16th of August. The Turkish and Greek diplomats discussed mutual naval limitations. A Greek Navy ministry official commented that 'We agreed that Greece can build more ships than they can, but nothing more substantive than that. The Turks know that Greece has to maintain a measure of security against Italy and Russia who are already regarding the Clieto Treaty as a dead letter. Unfortunately that leaves little room for a bilateral agreement with Turkey'.

August 18 1935

In a deal with the Romanian Goverment, Greece will exchange six Cerberus class light destroyers for the Romanian destroyers Smeul and Sborul. The destroyers were built in 1927 in Greece from hulls diverted from the Epsilom Program of multi-pupose escorts. Smeul and Sborul will revert to their original names; Narcissus D-61 (ex F-11) and Europa D-62 (ex F-12) respectively. The Romanian navy has options on purchasing the remaining 3 ships of the Cerberus class. It is reported that the Narcissus and Europa will join the 'Special Frigate' Akhilleus in extensive trials testing new machinery and weapons.


Cerberus class light destroyers


Destroyer Europa (D-62)

August 19 1935

The Special Transport Pallas is beginning acceptance trials. The third of the Atlas class ships have been optimised for troop transport after trials of the earlier Okeanos submarine transports revealed that they made idean carriers for loaded x-lighter landing craft. The Pallas has extra accomodation and facilities for embarked troops.

September 9 1935

The Greek navy has sold the Kanaris class Destroyers to the Phillipines. The four ships of the Kanaris class were completed in 1920-21 and were built with Thornycrofts assitance to a modified Royal Navy V&W type destroyer. They have served as a model for all future destroyers built for the Greek Navy and have given many years of faithful service.

November 7 1935

The former target ship Thermopylae (ex B-4) has completed her conversion to a base ship and now rests along side the pier at the Souda Bay naval base where her turbo electric plant generates 112,000 kilowatts of power for the expanding base and workshops. Thermopylae, an improved Salamis class ship was converted to a target ship under the terms of the Clieto Treaty by not fitting the the bulk of her boilers to limit her speed to 18 knots.

The freshly painted hull is now jokingly refered to as 'Building 4'.

November 20 1935

The newly completed cruiser Lefkosia has commenced her acceptance trials.



The third ship of the Psara class, Lefkosia leaves only 5000 tons of Greece's cruiser allotment under the Clieto Treaty. Long lead items for cruiser C-34 have been ordered so it is possible that the Greek Navy may sell one of the Eurybiades class scouts or a Leon class leader. Another possibility is the sale of the aging although rebuilt Helle and Kriti 1937 or 1938.

Pretty good news bits and wonderful "photos".

Say, what original ship is the picture of Lefkosia based on?

HMS Suffolk

http://www.warshipsww2.eu/lode.php?langu…iod=&idtrida=50

Cheers,

The Kanaris were sold to the Philippines, not Siam.

Just to clarify; I take it with the public admission of 42k tons for Megas Alexandros (and similar news items), Greece is no longer paying lipservice to the Cleito Treaty.

Love the silhouette of Megas Alexandros. Just bristles with menace.

Quoted

Originally posted by ShinRa_Inc
Just to clarify; I take it with the public admission of 42k tons for Megas Alexandros (and similar news items), Greece is no longer paying lipservice to the Cleito Treaty.

42,000 tons = 5% over = Gentlemen's agreement (but on the limit!!)

if you don't announce it to the world.

Quoted

The Kanaris were sold to the Philippines, not Siam.

Oops, fixed.

Sorry.

Quoted

I take it with the public admission of 42k tons for Megas Alexandros (and similar news items), Greece is no longer paying lipservice to the Cleito Treaty.

Fixed. There are some parts of the CT the Greeks are regarding as 'core' and others 'non-core'. ; )

Cheers,

Quoted

Originally posted by Commodore Green
42,000 tons = 5% over = Gentlemen's agreement (but on the limit!!)

Quoted

Originally posted by AdmKuznetsov
That's what you can get away with...
if you don't announce it to the world.

That's what I was getting towards. My own battlewagons are similarly 42000 tons actual, but still listed as 40k in a vauge attempt to placate the Crown and other Cleito signatories....not that it mattered much either way.

With various 45-50k designs either being considered or built, it's an acedemic matter, but it's interesting to keep track of who's just skirting the last year(s) of the treaty in favor of diplomatic legitimacy, and who's taking the more blunt and practical routes.

After waiting a year, the Dutch did that blunt and practical thing. But they are still making article K announcements.

Right about now they regret scrapping the Ijelsijks 2 months before pulling out, and are envious of the Megas Alexandros

Hmm a bunch of beads bought Manhatten, wonder what the Greeks would take for the Megas

Quoted

Love the silhouette of Megas Alexandros. Just bristles with menace.

I should make a movie of it with Holst's Mars, the bringer fo war for music. ; )

It could bristle less with twin 16.5" guns inplace of the 14" triples.

OOC
I'd consider fudging on tonnage the least of my treaty infractions compared to long standing plans against Part 3 Chapter G Article Ib Item 4 and Part 3 Chapter G Article Ic. Akhilleus has 43 other sisters of which 2 are already destroyers.

'Building 4' would be capable of 32 knots if I took it to sea.

Quoted

Right about now they regret scrapping the Ijelsijks 2 months before pulling out

The Kypris and Makedonia are still lingering...

Cheers,

Quoted

It could bristle less with twin 16.5" guns inplace of the 14" triples.

Obukhoff Works are quite busy making the guns for the Soyuz Nerushimy andImperator Petr Veliki classes, but perhaps when Megas Alexandros needs a refit they could provide the guns and turrets to Greek specifications.

Hmm, Atlantis plans on begining production on its own 16.5". Perhaps if the Russians can't meet the demand Atlantis could supply them, both designs are not surprisingly similar.

...and Roger, I'm still VERY interested in the Kypris and Makedonia!

Bulgaria would also be interested but don't have enough funds free (I've literally planned out a use for 99% of my tonnage until 1943) nor do I have anything that would be worth a trade. In my plan I get an armoured cruiser in 1942, and while not as impressive as these vessels would probably serve my navy better and longer.