OXI DAY CELEBRATION
OCTOBER 28TH 2017
EVENT STARTS AT 7:15PM at
G. COSTAS HALL AT ST. BASIL THE GREAT
HELLENIC ORTHODOX CHURCH
THE CONSULATE OF GREECE
AND THE
HELLENIC CULTURAL CENTER OF THE SW
PRESENT
THE HELLENIC NAVY IN WWII
Katsonis, mortally wounded by depth charges was going down by the stern. The remaining crew was now struggling to reach out to the surface. The air inside the submarine was toxic filled by the fumes released from battery acids. Her commanding officer, Cmdr. Laskos and her gun's crew were all laying dead, next to their gun. There was only one, possibly operable escape hatch remaining... The executive officer Tsoukalas, two uncommissioned officers and a British liaison officer tried to reach the escape hatch and open it to let the remaining crew out. In the meanwhile, the German submarine destroyer was maneuvering around the submarine fiercy gunning with her machine gun the waters around the sinking vessel. Tsoukalas and the two uncommissioned officers managed to reach the only remaining escape hatch in the fore. Tsoukalas, brilliantly thought, that as the ship would be sinking by the stern, this escape hatch would clear the water.... Next, they had to give some time to the remaining crew, mostly the engineers and torpedo men, to get out. Tsoukalas, managed to reach an air pressure valve and release pressurized air in the interior of the submarine and around the escape hatch to give time for the remaining crew to get out. The command center and the engine room were already almost full of water mixed with battery fluids. Those who were trapped alive managed to reach the surface. Now it was, Tsoukalas' turn to abandon the sinking submarine through the only operable hatch.... They swim away while the Germans keep huninting them....
To learn more about Katsonis, and the other Greek submarines, the action of the Hellenic Navy in the Mediterranean during WWII, the heroic improvised escape of the Greek fleet from the German occupied mainland, join us on October 28th 2017, at the hospitable hall of St. Basil's Hellenic Orthodox Church.
The commemoration includes an original documentary production of HCC start at 7:15pm.
After the event ther will be reception with wind and light snacks.