Ships hit by U-boats


Ioannis Fafalios

Greek Steam merchant



Ioannis Fafalios under her former name Muntropic. Photo Courtesy of Library of Contemporary History, Stuttgart

NameIoannis Fafalios
Type:Steam merchant
Tonnage5,670 tons
Completed1919 - Merchant Shipbuilding Corp, Chester PA 
OwnerStamatios and Demitios Fafalios, Chios 
HomeportChios 
Date of attack5 Sep 1944Nationality:      Greek
 
FateSunk by U-861 (Jürgen Oesten)
Position4° 20'S, 43° 57'E - Grid LJ 9243
Complement33 (8 dead and 25 survivors).
Convoy
RouteDurban (26 Aug) - Aden - Suez 
Cargo6994 tons of coal 
History Completed in November 1919 as Terre Haute for US Shipping Board (USSB). 1929 renamed Muntropic for Munson SS Lines Inc, New York. 1937 sold to Greece and renamed Ioannis Fafalios. Since 1940 used as collier for the Admiralty. 
Notes on event

At 18.15 hours on 5 Sep 1944 the unescorted Ioannis Fafalios (Master Pantelis Palios) was hit on the starboard side amidships and in #4 hold by two torpedoes from U-861 while steaming on a non-evasive course at 8.75 knots in bad visibility about 250 miles east of Mombasa, Kenya. The engines of the ship stopped immediately and the crew began to abandon ship in rough seas without sending distress signals because the radio cabin had been destroyed. The U-boat was seen to surface on the starboard quarter about 250 yards away, passed on a parallel course and disappeared without questioning the survivors. The ship settled quickly and sank by the stern within four minutes. Seven of 29 crew members and one of four gunners (the ship was armed with one 6pdr, four 20mm and two machine guns) were lost. During the morning on 9 September, the lifeboat reached the uninhabited coast of Somalia and eventually made landfall near Kismayo at 22.30 hours on 10 September.

 
On boardWe have details of 2 people who were on board


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