Italian POWs lost in the Aegean (1943-44)

[farmamic]

Hello,

I have recently started researching the wrecks of the ships transporting the Italian POWs from the Greek islands to the Greek mainland after the hostilities that followed September 8, 1943. I came across a tragedy I never had expected to find and I wonder why it's largely forgotten (even in Italy). Internet sources are scarce but from what I've read so far the conditions on board those ships was beyond any imagination. There were German orders to load as many POWs as possible without any concern for safety and health standards. At least in one case the German guards did not let POWs escape from the holds of a sinking ship.

I'm seriously thinking of creating a website about this men and their inglorious and agonizing death. I would like to ask your help with searching for additional information (names of the dead, military units, photos of men and ships, survivors' accounts) and especially for existing ITALIAN literature.

Here is a list of the ships of interest (with the -estimated- number of POW casualties):

-Ionian Islands:

1)Steamer ARDENA (720 dead) from Argostoli to Greek mainland.
2)Motor ship ROSSELLI (1300 dead) from Corfu to Patras.
3)Steamer MARGUERITA (544 dead) from Argostoli to Greek mainland
4)m/v ALMA (300 dead)

-Dodecanese islands (Aegean)

1)Steamer GAETANO DONIZETTI (1584 dead) from Rhodes to Greek mainland.
2) Steamer ORIA (4062 dead) from Rhodes to Pireaus. One of the worst disasters in maritime history.

- Crete
1)Steamer PETRELLA (2645 dead) from Crete to Pireaus.
2)Steamer SINFRA (1850 dead) from Crete to Pireaus(?).
3)SIFNOS (59 dead) from Crete to Milos.

As I wrote before those numbers are estimates since in most of the cases the paperwork related to each voyage was lost during the sinking.It is believed that in some cases the actual number of the dead was much higher.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Best regards,
Michail

[tigre]

Hello Michail ; interested also, did you find more data on this subject? Cheers. Raúl M .

[carlodinechi]

Read a couple of months ago that a British bomber formation sank 1 or more of those ships packed with Italian POWs, I'll have to do more research to see if I can find the relevant books and page.

[LColombo]

Unless it's a different person with the same name, Michail has created a whole site about this matter: http://invisiblegraves.weebly.com/

[tigre]

Hello LColombo ; it seems the same guy. Thanks for the link . Cheers. Raúl M .