Chapter 651: Hatred as Deep as the Sea

It is impossible for the Greeks to do nothing and rely entirely on relief from Western Europe. After all, Greece is a capitalist country that has developed for hundreds of years. Greece is quite famous in certain fields around the world, such as the shipping industry.

As the birthplace of ancient civilization, Greece began to explore the ocean very early. The seafaring gene runs in the blood of its people. Some of these people became shipowners. Greek shipowners have always maintained their position as the world's largest shipowner country. They own about 18% of the world's fleet, and the number of ships in operation has reached 333 million deadweight tons. Athens/Piraeus has the world's largest shipowner cluster. The main force of Greek shipowners is concentrated in the field of bulk carriers and oil tankers. Bulk carriers account for 47% of the Greek fleet, and oil tankers account for 35%.

Greece's huge civilian fleet allowed them to mobilize their troops very quickly. This time, the 1st Army was sent over on a civilian transport ship.

However, they never expected that the Turks would be so cruel and cruel as to attack their transport ships!

Maybe the Turks were afraid of something, so they did not blatantly send planes to drop bombs, but their behavior was even more abominable. They actually used submarines to sink a Greek transport ship!

Rhodes, located east of Crete, is very close to the Turkish coastline. The hydrological conditions below are complex. This underwater area is the best hiding place for submarines!

Although the Greek transport fleet was escorted by warships, they were still unable to detect the underwater submarine, so they were hit and one of their transport ships was sunk!

If it was a transport ship built according to military specifications, it might be able to withstand a torpedo without sinking. But now, the sinking resistance of ordinary civilian ships cannot be compared with that of military ships!

On the sea, the Kotrod transport ship was slowly sinking. The stern had completely submerged below the sea surface, leaving only the bow raised high. Countless soldiers densely covered the entire sea surface.

It was considered lucky to be able to jump into the water before the ship sank. However, not everyone could swim, and some lives were taken away forever by a wave!

The nearby ships were doing their best to rescue the compatriots who fell into the water. At the same time, the nearby escorting destroyer launched a helicopter to try to find the Turkish submarine.

The Kriezis, which belongs to the American Gearing class, is a general-purpose destroyer built during World War II. More than a hundred were built, but many did not catch up with World War II. Like the current one, it was painted with the hull number DD-817 in an American shipyard and named Corry. It was not commissioned until 45 years ago.

After more than 20 years in the U.S. Navy, it was sold to Greece this year and renamed Kriezis.

When it was first built, this type of destroyer was just a gun destroyer, with its main weapon being three Mk.32 twin 5-inch dual-purpose guns. However, in this era, it is impossible to fight naval battles in the style of battleships, so the Gearing class has also been improved and equipped with new sonar and radar, as well as Sea Sparrow air defense missiles and helicopter hangars.

Captain Papasta of the Kriezis had a face full of anger. As an escort warship, they had a great responsibility! Now, they had to find the Turkish submarine and destroy it!

Although it is the latest destroyer sold by the United States to Greece, the performance of its electronic equipment is not advanced. It can be said to be American technology from the 1970s. It is quite difficult to use ship-borne sonar to detect submarines in the complex water flow conditions on the seabed. Therefore, at this time, they rely more on ship-borne helicopters.

Compared with the Seahawk helicopter, which was the main force of the US Navy in later generations, the 500MD anti-submarine helicopter is simply pocket-sized.

This small helicopter was developed from a civilian model. It has a skid landing gear, a total length of only seven meters, four propellers, and an operating radius of only one hundred kilometers.

However, a distance of one hundred kilometers is enough. It is less than one hundred kilometers away from the Turkish coastline!

Helicopter pilot Lazarus flies this small helicopter over the sea, releasing sonar buoys from time to time. As an anti-submarine helicopter, their mission is to find underwater enemies!

This undeclared war is extremely shameful! The hatred between Greece and Turkey makes them both indignant.

"No underwater movement detected," said the sonar operator.

Keep flying north. The Turkish submarine must want to return to their territorial waters! Lazarus pushed the joystick and the helicopter continued to fly north!

"Kriezis calling 500MD, Kriezis calling 500MD, two fighter jets are spotted flying from the direction of Türkiye, be careful not to enter the airspace over Turkish territorial waters." At this moment, the sound of a warship came through the headset.

The warship's radar detected the Turkish fighter planes flying over. Obviously, they were trying to interfere with their anti-submarine operations and cover their submarines' escape! The Turks are really shameless!

At this time, the Greek naval soldiers were very angry. They overlooked a detail: the Turkish Air Force would definitely not help cover the naval submarines!

Because the Turkish Air Force and Navy have an absolute deep-seated hatred for each other. Among all the military equipments in the world, only the three armed forces of Türkiye are so weird.

In 1974, Turkey and Greece had a fierce conflict over Cyprus. In July of that year, the Turkish Air Force discovered a destroyer fleet of the "Greek Navy" off the coast of Cyprus. Turkey immediately dispatched F-100 and F-104 fighter jets with bombs. They fought one after another and fought passionately. The combat efficiency of the Turkish Air Force was indeed not low, and it killed three destroyers of the Greek Navy!

The Turkish Air Force was very proud and asked the Ministry of Defense for credit. It was not until this time that they realized what a great feat they had done! They sank the destroyer "Kakadepe" and severely damaged the destroyers "Adadepe" and "Marshal Fevci Cakmak", all of which were the property of the Turkish Navy. A total of 232 naval soldiers were killed, accounting for a quarter of the total number of Turkish military casualties in this war!

At the same time, the Turkish warships also used anti-aircraft guns to fight their own fighter planes until the last moment, and shot down a Turkish Air Force F-104 fighter jet.

Now, not only Türkiye and Greece are at odds with each other, but there is also hatred between the Turkish Air Force and Navy.

In later times, in 2006, two Greek and Turkish F-16 fighter jets collided in the Aegean Sea. After ejection, the Turkish Air Force F-16 pilot refused the Turkish Navy's request to send him back to shore, and returned to Turkey on his own in a small boat on a Panama-class cargo ship. When the war was about to break out, the Air Force and the Navy did not trust each other and had deep resentment.

The fighter planes flying over are genuine ones from the Turkish Air Force, and the submarine under the sea is definitely not from the Turkish Navy!