The HMS Trooper was seemingly sunk by a German naval mine in October 1943, killing all 64 crew members on board.
Kostas ThoctaridesThe torpedo loading hatch of the HMS Trooper.
On a fall day in 1943, the British submarine HMS Trooper dove into the water off the coast of Kalamos, a Greek island. It was never seen again, and the fate of the 64 men on board became a tragic mystery.
But now — after more than a dozen unsuccessful expeditions over the past two decades — a Greek underwater recovery company has pinpointed the location of the HMS Trooper. What’s more, they’ve determined what happened to the doomed submarine during its final moments.
How The HMS Trooper Was Lost — And Found
The Royal Navy Submarine MuseumThe HMS Trooper and its crew in an undated photo.
The story of the HMS Trooper began in 1943 during a crucial moment in World War II. After Italy’s surrender that September, the Germans moved to take control of a number of Greek islands. The HMS Trooper, commanded by Lieutenant John S. Wraith, sailed to the island of Kalamos with three secret agents on board. At 3 a.m. on Oct. 1, 1943, the submarine successfully delivered the agents to the island — and they were the last people to see the submarine and its crew before the vessel failed to arrive in Beirut as scheduled.
But because of a false sighting of the submarine on Oct. 14, researchers have spent decades looking in the wrong place. According to a Facebook post by Kostas Thoctarides, the founder of the underwater recovery company Planet Blue, which discovered the wreck, the first search took place in 2000. Roughly a dozen unsuccessful attempts to locate the submarine followed, all because the searchers were focusing on an area too far east.
That changed on Oct. 3, 2024, almost exactly 81 years after the HMS Trooper vanished. During the course of the company’s 15th and final search expedition, the submarine was located via sonar technology north of the island of Donousa at a depth of 830 feet.
Kostas ThoctaridesThe hatch of the submarine’s conning tower is visible in this photo.
“[P]erseverance finally paid off,” Thoctarides wrote on Facebook. “Eighty-one years after the loss, the first images of HMS Trooper from -253 meters (830 feet) in the Aegean Sea were awe inspiring.”
What’s more, Thoctarides and his team were able to determine exactly what had happened to the doomed submarine.
A “Violent Sinking”: Inside The Loss Of The HMS Trooper
As the HMS Trooper sailed on its final mission, a German minelayer had a mission all its own. Around the same time that the British submarine dropped off its secret agents on Kalamos, the minelayer Drache placed a number of naval mines between the islands of Ikaria and Donousa.
In early October 1943, the submarine sailed into this minefield — and was destroyed.
Kostas ThoctaridesThe crew cabin of the HMS Trooper.
The HMS Trooper, Thoctarides wrote, “is broken into three distinct sections: bow section, midships section, and the stern section, which confirms a very violent sinking, due to a catastrophic mine explosion. The German EMF type mine contained 350 kg [770 pounds] of hexane explosive. The result of the explosion was the immediate and rapid sinking, with the submarine breaking into three separate pieces: First the bow went down, then the stern and lastly the midship section, which had remained on the surface for a few minutes.”
All 64 men on board were killed.
But though the story of the HMS Trooper had a tragic end, the discovery of the submarine has brought peace to the family members of its crew.
“I have been aware for many years of the strenuous effort by the Greek research team to locate the wreck of the submarine and am now very pleased and excited that their endeavours have been rewarded,” Richard Wraith, the son of the submarine’s commander, commented.
He continued: “I hope that any family members of those lost with my father may be able to use the definitive location of Trooper as a focal point to help lay to rest any memories of their loved ones.”
After reading about how the lost British submarine HMS Trooper was discovered 81 years after it mysteriously vanished at sea, discover the strange story of the USS Scorpion, the nuclear submarine that disappeared during World War II. Then, see how popular actor Fred Gwynne got his start as a World War II submarine chaser.
