The Levant Schooner Flotilla was an Allied naval organisation during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

that facilitated covert and irregular military operations in the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...

from 1942–1945. It was primarily organised by the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

and consisted of a series of commandeered

caïque A caïque ( el, καΐκι, ''kaiki'', from tr, kayık) is a traditional fishing boat usually found among the waters of the Ionian Sea, Ionian or Aegean Sea, and also a light skiff used on the Bosporus. It is traditionally a small wooden trading ...

s, or local schooners, manned by British sailors, special forces, and Greek volunteers.

World War II in the Aegean

The Levant Schooner Flotilla (LSF) was formed by the

from requisitioned or abandoned

s to supplement its handful of motor and high-speed launches opposing German forces in the Nazi-occupied

.P.C. Smith, "War in the Aegean," Stackpole Books 2008. The LSF was led by Lt. Cmdr. Adrian C. C. Seligman, who had circumnavigated the globe in a

windjammer A windjammer is a commercial sailing ship with multiple masts that may be square rigged, or fore-and-aft rigged, or a combination of the two. The informal term "windjammer" arose during the transition from the Age of Sail to the Age of Steam ...

before the war.Allen, H. S. "Classical Spies: American Archaeologists with the OSS in World War II Greece," University of Michigan Press, 2011. The Flotilla numbered about ten ships in September 1943,Holland, J., "The Aegean Mission: Allied Operations in the Dodecanese, 1943 (Contributions in Military Studies)" Greenwood Press, 1988. though at various points it was able to field only a handful.Koburger, C. "Wine-Dark, Blood Red Sea: Naval Warfare in the Aegean, 1941–1946," Praeger, 1999.

Caïque A caïque ( el, καΐκι, ''kaiki'', from tr, kayık) is a traditional fishing boat usually found among the waters of the Ionian Sea, Ionian or Aegean Sea, and also a light skiff used on the Bosporus. It is traditionally a small wooden trading ...

s typically had 5–6 man crews and were heavily armed with 20mm cannons,

Browning machine gun Browning machine guns are a family of machine gun designs by John Browning, a prolific weapon designer. These include: *M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun, based on a design dating to 1889, was the first successful gas-operated machine gun to ent ...

s and Vickers aircraft machine guns. The caïques often operated under cover of darkness, landing or picking up commandos, rescuing partisans, and intercepting or raiding small German forces. Many of the ships were powered by Matilda tank engines and used long-range radios taken from Kittyhawk (P-40) fighter aircraft.British Small Boat Operations in World War 2
The LSF facilitated raids by the British

Long Range Desert Group The Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) was a reconnaissance and raiding unit of the British Army during the Second World War. Originally called the Long Range Patrol (LRP), the unit was founded in Egypt in June 1940 by Major Ralph Alger Bagnold, acti ...

against German forces on the Islands of

Kithnos Kythnos ( el, Κύθνος), commonly called Thermia ( el, Θερμιά), is a Greek island and municipality in the Western Cyclades between Kea and Serifos. It is from the Athenian harbor of Piraeus. The municipality Kythnos is in area and has a ...

and

Levitha Levitha ( el, Λέβιθα), known in classical antiquity as Lebinthus or Lebinthos ( grc, Λέβινθος) is a small Greek island located in the east of the Aegean Sea, between Kinaros and Kalymnos, part of the Dodecanese islands. It is part of ...

during the Dodecanese Campaign in the autumn of 1943, and was heavily involved in fighting over Leros shortly thereafter. Among those who served in the LSF are Roger Durnford and British scholar

Geoffrey Kirk Geoffrey Stephen Kirk, () was a British classicist who served as the 35th Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge. He published widely on pre-Socratic philosophy and the work of the Greek poet Homer, culminating in a six-volu ...

External links

Allied Special Forces History: Levant Schooner Flotilla

Notes

{{reflist 1940s in Greece Mediterranean theatre of World War II Military history of Greece during World War II Dodecanese campaign Military units and formations of the Royal Navy in World War II History of the Hellenic Navy

World War II in the Aegean

See also

External links

Notes