 Vasilefs Georgios
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Greece | |
| Name | Vasilefs Georgios (ΒΠ Βασιλεύς Γεώργιος) |
| Namesake | King George I of Greece |
| Ordered | 29 January 1937 |
| Builder | Yarrow & Company, Scotstoun |
| Laid down | February 1937 |
| Launched | 3 March 1938 |
| Commissioned | 15 February 1939 |
| Fate | Scuttled, 20 April 1941 |
 Nazi Germany | |
| Name | ZG3 |
| Commissioned | 21 March 1942 |
| Renamed | Hermes, 22 August 1942 |
| Fate | |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Class and type | G and H-class destroyer |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 97.5 m (319 ft 11 in) (o/a) |
| Beam | 9.7 m (31 ft 10 in) |
| Draft | 2.7 m (8 ft 10 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 shafts; 2 geared steam turbines |
| Speed | 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph) |
| Range | 3,760 nmi (6,960 km; 4,330 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Complement | 162 |
| Armament |
|
Vasilefs Georgios (Greek: ΒΠ Βασιλεύς Γεώργιος) (King George) was the lead ship of her class of two destroyers built for the Royal Hellenic Navy before the Second World War. Flagship of the navy's Destroyer Flotilla, she participated in the Greco-Italian War in 1940–1941, escorting convoys and unsuccessfully attacking Italian shipping in the Adriatic Sea. While under repair during the Axis invasion of Greece in 1941, Vasilefs Georgios sank when the floating drydock that she was in was either scuttled or sunk by German aircraft.
The ship was later salvaged and repaired by the Germans who commissioned her into the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) in 1942 as ZG3, later renaming her as Hermes. They generally used the ship to escort convoys to and from North Africa and islands in the Aegean Sea. In addition, the Germans occasionally used the ship to lay mines and to ferry troops and supplies. After Hermes was transferred to the Central Mediterranean, she sank a British submarine about a week before she was crippled by Allied aircraft in late April 1943. The ship was towed to Tunisia and was scuttled as a blockship shortly before the Allies occupied Tunisia in early May. They refloated the wreck and it was scrapped after the war.