Cyprus Pocket Navy – Photos

News from “http://www.cyprusweekly.com.cy/default.aspx?articleID=11569&heading=“

Patrol boats sent back to manufacturer
By Menelaos Hadjicostis
FOUR patrol boats intended for police and military use have been sent back to their Italian manufacturer for a performance improvement after failing to reach the required standards short in speed trials a year their delivery.
The Θ10m boats are back at the Cantiere Navale Vittoria Spa dry docks for a refit after experts found their top speed of 39.5 knots was 3.5 knots less than what was specified in the contract.
The discovery was made in May when Auditor General Chrystalla Georgadji commissioned a Greek naval expert to put one patrol boat through its paces and see if it was up to the job.
But the boat proved a woeful disappointment, prompting authorities to send them all back.
The speed test was conducted on only one boat, but its low speed is considered to apply to all four as they are identical.
Daily paper Politis uncovered the debacle which police, in a statement, later confirmed.

Crucial
Politis reported that, according to the contract, the boats should have achieved a speed of no less than 43 knots. Anything less than 41 knots would be a negate the deal.
High speed is crucial for patrol boats because of the nature of their tasks. Two boats would have been assigned to coastal patrol duty, primarily to search for illegal migrants trying to make their way to Cypriot shores.
Illegal migration is an important matter for Brussels and Nicosia has been under pressure to act as Cyprus is seen as a vulnerable backdoor to the EU.
Moreover, the boats’ army duty requires high speeds so that the craft can evade hostile fire and either outrun or intercept other hostile vessels.
In the statement, police said the boats passed all requisite speed performance tests prior to the delivery.
But Georgadji’s hunch for a post-delivery check proved correct as the boats did not live up to expectations.
“As a result, following instructions from the Auditor General, police demanded that the manufacturer repair the flaw,” the police statement said.
Moreover, ‘interceptor flaps’ were installed on all four boats to boost performance.
But Politis reported the test boat failed to reach 43 knots with and without the flaps.
The statement said that if the boats fail to pass muster despite the refit, police can claim the Italian company’s Θ1m performance guarantee that expires on September 30, 2005.

Compensation
It is understood Cypriot authorities could also seek compensation for breach of contract.
“Police followed and completed all procedures foreseen under current law for the purchase of the craft and the matter is now in the hands of the Auditor General’s office,” said the statement.
Politis reported the botch-up caught the attention of President Tassos Papadopoulos who is following developments closely.

Try www.photobucket.com, it’s free, but you must sign up for it! (this is what I use)

Cheers,
Alepou 340MB

New pictures. These have come from a temporary source. Could someone help me upload them to a permament internet source so they don’t expire?

Thanks

Some information about Cyprus Navy you can find here: http://www.geocities.com/tan_h_epi_tas/ef.html – but it’s in Greek. As I understood it’s: 2xESTEREL type PB, 3xSHALDAG type FPB, 10x fast boats…
For info about SHALDAG boats: http://www.israel-shipyards.com/products.asp?d=n4

To Stormeagle – 🙂 it’s ok… 🙂 No problem… 🙂

Best regards…

Sorry Ristan, I misunderstood you! My deepest apologies 🙁

Found this picture of a “Cyprus Navy” patrol craft on the webiste of Greek naval contractors Kaminco.

Can’t ID it, possibly an Israeli Shaldag / Kingfisher or a Italian Pattugliatore. Anyone want to try an ID on that, or see if it is indeed Cypriot?

Stormeagle 🙂 You understood me wrong… It’s not bad for the greeks… 🙂 I mean that this site (castle by itself) wasn’t military station as considered Twilight2005. And my “unfortunately” was for Twilight2005’s consideration… Hope this point is clear now …:)

I check acig.org for info about photo, posted on the first page (patrol craft attacked by a THK F-100). Information given at acig.org is not correct. Serials T1, T3 & etc.. were given only to P-6 type MTBs but not to patrol crafts (T-torpedoboat). As I understood patrol crafts had names but not serials.
Here is some information from hellas.org:
“Friday July 19, 1974
20:30 Cyprus -The two torpedo boats T1 and T3 are ordered to be ready for combat.
Saturday July 20, 1974
01:30 Cyprus -The 11 Turkish ships are now detected only 35NM away from Kyrenia.
02:00 Cyprus -6 ships are detected heading toward Ammochostos. Later on it will be known that these ships were merchant ships sent there to confuse the defending Hellenic forces.
04:30 Cyprus -The 11 ships are now only 10-12 miles from the coast of Cyprus. There is no immediate response from the Hellenic side.
05:00 Cyprus -The two torpedo boats T1 and T3 are ordered to depart the port of Kyrenia and to engage the invading fleet.
05:15 Cyprus -Torpedo boat T1 sinks after being severely damaged by Turkish aircraft fire.
05:23 Cyprus -The T3 torpedo boat is struck by both destroyers and aircraft and sinks. 9 of the 10 crew members of T3 are killed.”

Best regards…

The photo is from 1973 so I don’t understand the “unfortunately” part of your message. Why is it bad for the Greek flag to be over a Greek naval installation? And the truck seems to be an old Mercedes Navy truck (Dark Blue Camouflage–I never understood the logic behind this color selection for hellenic navy vehicles………)

best regards

Those antique Ventian (?) fortifications should really be a National Heritage site by now, certainly not an AA position. I do not know if Kyrenia castle was damaged in 1974.

Twilight2005 🙂 Unfortunaly it’s not “communications antennae” on the background of photo, it’s Greek flag. But military vehicle is really strange, because as I know at that time Kyrenia castle wasn’t used in military proposes, but was converted to museum. Last year I personally visited castle, and the only “military” thing I found was basement of turret of 12.5mm (???) antiaircraft (????) machinegun on the top of big round tower (front one on the photo). Most probably naval station storages and supply centre was somewhere in neighborhood.

Best regards…

Further to Ristans very helpful post, here is the picutre, showing the naval station at Kyrenia, with two P-6 tropedo craft seen at the far left of the photo (note SKINHEAD radar domes), communications antennae and military vehicle in the background.

Photo is copyrighted.

Thank you both for your help.

Fantasma, I agree, the picture looks somewhat odd, though I have no way to prove or disprove it in context. The source was a BBC archive page, which would be a somewhat bizzare setting for a mislabelled (or otherwise) image. As far as I can tell, AP denotes Associated Press, but I could be wrong.

From what I have been able to gather at acig, the Phaethon packed either or both 40mm / 20mm, though no photos seem to exist on the internet, nor on any publication I known of to confirm that. I cannot verify the exact circumstances of the downed F-100 (s), but I will certainly work on it.

Thanks.

We know the “Phaethon” was German, we also know that its engine was disabled and it was sitting duck for 3 hours it shot down at least one and most likely 2 THK F-100s. The AP photograph is very small to establish anything… IMHO the mast is unusually high for a patrol boat, the cranes on the right are not to scale and the bow’s angle is <90’… It looks like a 1940’s movie if you ask me. A larger version and the rest of the film would be useful in order to determine what we see… :confused:

The 2 Esterels were delivered according to what I remember although the Hellenic Navy page still has them in the inventory:

http://hafcphotos.cs.net/photo_viewer_detail.cfm?photoid=160619

PS the link works ok

This source indicates the type ID for the Phaethon, and additional details:

In the book “ Conway´s all the world´s fighting ships 1947-1995” you can find the next info about this topic:

EX-GERMAN R41 GROUP MOTOR MINESWEEPERS (PATROL CRAFT),
Three units (launched 1943), Cypriot and ex-German names unknown. Were taken up 1962-63 from mercantile use and rearmed as patrol boats with 1-40mm and/or 2-20mm. One destroyed by Turkish air attack on 8 august 1964 at Xeros (beached near Xeros harbour). One (with radar) had pennant no 15 early 1970s. Further fates of two ships unknown – probably lost during the Turkish operations of July 1974 (one stricken 1973?)

Established from the AP image of the air attack that the Cypriot craft was the “Phaethon”, which was sunk in a raid. Supposedly a THK aircraft F-100 was lost in the raid, I will try to get a source on that, as Fantasma’s link isn’t working.

I also have a verified type for the Phaethon, which was sunk, will post shortly:

The following photos are posted on the CNG website, and appear to show a SAR operation or exercise. Feel free to provide ID’s. Photos are assumed copyright.

The vessel looks like the Italian “P-190”, actual type as yet unverified

A major result! I have found the following rare file photo, labelled AP source, showing 1964 Turkish air raid on a Cypriot patrol boat. The file photo is from the following BBC web
page:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/europe/04/cyprus/html/independence.stm

and is very small. Can someone help me find a larger version?

Here is the tag:

Turkish aircraft conducted air raids on Greek Cypriot positions in northern Cyprus in 1964

Diopos Antoniou P-286 1975

Can anyone confirm that the Kelefstis Stamou class, two vessels, P-286,
P-287 were among those donated by Greece. I am as yet unable to get photographic confirmation, except that the CNG official website clearly shows a picture of one as part of a collage. I am hoping for more consculsive material.

October 1st 2001

Exocet MM40 Block-II Aerospatiale

Nautimar HD-7/9 assault craft and transport

Link here for Cyprus police picture of patrol craft. Can you ID? Either the new Italian type “P-190” or the Israeli-made Shaldag. Think its the former judging by the mast, but may be wrong. (c) Cyprus Police

if your browser fails to load the photo, right click the link, select properties and copy and paste the address to your address bar at the top of your browser page.