Greek destroyer Aetos

Aetos

Career
Ordered:	1912
Laid down:	1911
Launched:	September 19, 1912
Commissioned:	1912
Decommissioned:	1945
Fate:	broken up
Current position:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	standard displacement 880 tonnes tons
Length:	89.4 m
Beam:	8.3 m
Draft:	3 m
Speed:	Maximum Speed 31 kts., 32 after 1925 knots
Complement:	58
Armament:	(1912) 4 Bethlehem 10.2 cm guns, one 75 mm A/A gun, six 21 inch T/T and 3 electric search lights.In 1925 the 75 mm gun was removed and a 37 mm A/A gun was installed, along with a four barrel 40 mm gun and 2 mortars.She was modified for laying 40 mines.In 1942 the 3rd and 4th guns of the stern torpedo tubes were removed and one 3-inch A/A gun, one 20 mm Oerlikon gun and an A/S type 123A detection device were added.
Powerplant:	Foster Wheeler 4 coal burning and 1 fuel boiler, 5 funnels combined Parsons and Curtis turbines.In 1925 they were replaced by a Yarrow oil fired ones.
Armour:	unknown

Aetos (Greek: Α/Τ Άετός "Eagle") served in the Hellenic Royal Navy from 1912 - 1945.

The ship, along with her three sister ships of Wild Beast Class destroyers Ierax, Panthir and Leon, was ordered from England. They were purchased ready for delivery, each for the sum of 148,000 pounds, from the English shipyards Camell Laird in Liverpool, when the Balkan Wars seemed likely. These ships had originally been ordered by Argentina; Aetos was originally named San Luis. The four ships were sailing with a non-Greek crew to Algiers, to meet the requisitioned personnel transport ship Ionia which contained the Greek crews for the ships. When Aetos entered the Mediterranean she went adrift due to a serious engine breakdown. By pure coincidence one of the other destroyers passed nearby and towed Aetos to Algiers.

During the Balkan Wars, only the essential ammunitions were purchased (3,000 rounds). Torpedoes were not available and for this reason these ships were initially named 'scouts' rather than 'destroyers'. She was under the command of Commander A. Douroutis, RHN.

During World War I, Greece belatedly entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente and, due to Greece's neutrality the four Beast Class ships were seized by the Allies in October, 1916, taken over by the French in November and served in the French Navy from 1917-18. By 1918, they were back on escort duty under Greek colors, mainly in the Aegean Sea.

Aetos participated in the evacuation of Greeks from Russia during the Russian Revolution in 1918 and saw action in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) in the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean Sea.

After the war, Aetos was refurbished from 1925-1927. She also participated in the Second World War, after surviving the German invasion of April, 1941, Aetos served in conjunction with the Royal Navy based in the Indian Ocean, where despite her age she served with distinction. After the end of World War II, Aetos was stricken in 1945.

Aetos, Processed image some artefacts removed based on a copyrighted image from http://www.hellenicnavy.gr/aetos12_46.asp

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