Despite the heroic resistance of the Hellenic military units, it quickly became understood that the German invasion could not be stopped. Airline raids of the invaders were stormy, resulting in the loss of many Hellenic warships and requisitioned ships. As early as the beginning of April, the Chief of the Hellenic Navy General Staff was convinced of the need to transfer the fleet to the South. In particular, he proposed that only those ships with combat value should be transferred, especially the 10 Destroyers and the 5 Submarines. As far as the G. Averof, he suggested that the British Government should be asked whether there was the possibility of using her, otherwise she would be sunk. On April 11, 1941 a secret order was issued by Prime Minister Korizis, with in which 10 Destroyers and 5 Submarines were ordered to be standby to sail, with a destination to be determined subsequently. G. Averof and 13 torpedo boats had to be ready to sail towards Souda.
However, on April 12, 1941, the Ministry of the Navy gave an order to abandon Averof in Eleusis. This order was given because the old ship was judged to be vulnerable to enemy torpedo attacks. She was also considered with non-combatant value. It was not worth endangering the lives of the crew, in one attempt to escape the ship.
This decision caused a great blow to the morale of the crew which, after being ordered to remove the ship’s anti-aircraft guns, received course sheets for the Artillery School. The next day, however, on 13 April, a new decision was taken which negated the previous one. The crew was recalled, the anti-aircraft Guns were repositioned and the ship’s stores were refilled with supplies. The reconstruction work on the Averof had been completed by noon on the 14th
April. On April 16, Captain Vlachopoulos took over as Captain of the ship and at the same time, the order to sail was announced, an order that was almost immediately postponed, due to the general confusion prevailing in Athens as the Germans were approaching Divisions.
As in the capital, there was confusion inside the ship, at the same time, secret discussions had begun about the ship’s self-sinking. As a result of the above, an attitude was expressed by the ship’s crew which disagreed with her sinking, which was initially spearheaded by the ship’s priest,
Archimandrite Papanikolopoulos and Ensign Iliomarkakis. The crew’s request was for the Averof to sail immediately. The ship’s officers led by the senior officer, Lieutenant Commander Damilakis, declared their support for this request and finally, the ship sailed. The Chief of the Hellenic Navy General Staff sent a sign on the ship that read, “God with you. I contact allies in sailing…”. As the passage of the channels of the Naval Base and Psytalia had been mined by German planes, from the English corvette Salvia received signal that at least for the moment, the channels were mine-free. The ship, after passing the channel of the Naval Base, Perama and Psyttalia, went out into open sea. The next morning she sailed to Souda, Crete, which was the target of constant air attacks that resulted in the sinking of a large number of British and Hellenic ships.
On Easter Day, G. Averof joined a convoy accompanied by Submarines “Glafkos” and “Katsonis”, the destroyer “Kountouriotis”, the Torpedo boats “Aspis” and “Niki”, the floating crew “Hephaestus” as well as the English cruiser Carlisle. Their destination was Alexandria, Egypt where they arrived on April 23, 1941. During this voyage, the ship’s logbook writes: “We are under constant attack by JU-88 bombers and torpedo planes, which we repel with our guns”.
In conclusion, we must consider the tragic situation in which the Navy managed to descend on Alexandria, Egypt, in an organized manner, with the aim of continuing the struggle against the Axis. The euphoria of victory over Italy was quickly followed by the despair of being unable to face the overwhelming German supremacy. Most members of the Navy decided to continue the struggle in obedience to “In the best of omens, in the defense of the fatherland”.
