Seventy two years ago today, the Greek hospital ship Attica was sunk by an Axis Powers air raid on the night between April 11th and 13th. The requisited ship had 362 beds and was sailing that night by the promontory on the southeastern tip of the island of Euboea in the Aegean Sea known as Cape Cafireas or Cavo D’ oro.
Despite being fully lit and bearing the Red Cross credentials, the Nazi air strike resulted in 28 people getting killed and 22 being drowned.
Cavo D’oro back at the time became a refuge for many people who fled the cities after the Nazi invasion. The remote and less accessible region reached its high peak in population in the decade from 1940 to 1950. The important straits formed between the Cape and the nearby island of Andros turned it into a crucially important nautical passage for the fighting powers of the time. Stories with ships, submarines and aircraft are connected with Cavo D’oro. Some were made known for patrolling the area, others for completing deployment missions and others for sinking or falling from the sky respectively.
The Attica ship had sailed from the port city of Kavala and the island of Thassos to transfer 11 wounded soldiers, 28 nurses, 17 military physicians and a crew of 110 men including officers, non commissioned officers and sailors. The air raid is still considered to be among the many atrocities committed by the Nazis not only in Greece but in other European countries too, given the fact that it served no particular military purpose but rather aimed against human life.
The captain of the ship Captain Dimitrios Meletopoulos was among the people killed by the raid. The ships’ crew and medical staff proved quintessential in saving the lives of many passengers.
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