A British submarine that vanished without a trace during World War 2 has been found in Greece.
It was during a secret mission when the vessel disappeared with 64 crew members onboard.
The Submarine Family wrote: “HMS Trooper sailed from Beirut on 26 September 1943 to patrol west of the Dodecanese in the Eastern Mediterranean and later to the east of the island of Leros.
“No messages were received from her, and she failed to arrive back on 17 October. Her loss was considered to be due to striking an enemy mine. There were no survivors.”
Prior to the submarine’s disappearance, HMS Trooper was involved in rescuing military soldiers trapped in Alexandria and Egypt and helped with the landing of agents of British intelligence missions.
The demise of this submarine was shrouded in mystery until it was discovered 830ft underwater by research team, Planet Blue which was led by Kostas Thoktaridis.
Deep in the Icarian Sea lay the 275 ft vessel which according to Thoktaridis, had been cut into three sections including the stern, the bow, and the middle section.
Speaking to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, Thoktaridis said this could have indicated the vessel’s violent sinking due to a mine explosion.
Thoctarides called his quest to retrieve this submarine “the hardest mission I have ever undertaken in my life”.
Efforts to locate HMS Trooper began in 2000 with more than 14 failed missions thereafter until it was finally located between Ikaria and Kos.
Speaking on a Facebook post, Thoctarides wrote: “The history of the submarine Triumph is multidimensional and unique in maritime history, and is inseparable to national resistance and the secret services that acted in the dark days of occupation.
Former Director of Archives of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, George Malcolmson said: “It is with great emotion that I learn that the distinguished Greek researcher Kostas Thoktaridis and his team have solved an 81-year-old mystery and discovered the location of the wreck of the British submarine HMS Trooper.”
HMS Trooper (N91) was a Royal Navy T-class submarine launched in 1942. The vessel spent most of its career in the Mediterranean and sailed on September, 26 1943 to cover the Dodecanese islands.
It went missing after it was ordered to patrol between Donousa and Ikaria. The vessel failed to return to Beirut on October 17.
The discovery of the wreck will inevitably bring closure to the families of HMS Trooper’s crew.
That included British submariners and Australian volunteer, Lt. John Stuart Ryder, 22.