Protefs-class submarine explained

The Protefs class (referred to as the Proteus class in some sources) was a group of submarines built for the Hellenic Navy in the late 1920s. The boats were built to a Loire-Simonot design in France and were larger than the preceding Katsonis class built by a different French company.

Four boats were built, all were named after sea gods from Greek mythology.

Ship	Builder	Launched	Fate
Protefs (Y3) Πρωτεύς	AC de la Loire	24 October 1927	sunk 19 December 1940, rammed by off Valona, Albania
Nirefs (Y4) Νηρεύς	AC de la Loire	December 1927	Decommissioned 1945
Triton (Y5) Τρίτων)	AC de la Loire	4 April 1928	sunk 16 November 1942 by German patrol boat UJ2102 near Euboea
Glafkos (Y6) Γλαύκος	Chantiers Navales Français Blainville	1928	Lost 4 April 1942

The three boats which survived the fall of Greece in 1941 served under overall Royal Navy control in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Bibliography

• Caruana. Joseph. 2012 . Emergency Victualling of Malta During WWII. Warship International. LXIX . 4 . 357–364 . 0043-0374.
• Mühlthaler. Erich. 1998 . Question 51/97. Warship International. XXXV . 4 . 419–420 . 0043-0374.