How the naval battle of the frigate "Lemnos" with the "Kemal Reis" took place - All the details
REVEALED: How the naval battle of the frigate "Lemnos" with the "Kemal Reis" took place - All the details
The story of the “interference” of the frigate “Lemnos” with the Turkish frigate “Kemal Reis” is completely different from how it was presented in Turkey, but also in Greece. And it has nothing to do with the “Oruc Reis”. The case begins much earlier, when the Greek frigate was patrolling in Libya and was the one that caused the Turks to provoke the French warship, angering President Macron. “Lemnos” had received a lot of provocations there, which were not made public. Due to a malfunction, the frigate returned to Greece for repairs, but quickly returned to active service.
Two days before the naval battle that we will describe below, events occurred, which were kept out of the limelight. The Greek fleet has seaworthy ships in its ranks, with the oldest being the “Admiral Votsis” – it is almost half a century old. It has frequent breakdowns and the fact that it is still active is due to the seamanship of its crew. The previous day, the Turks, after the “Votsis” had been out of repair, tried to sink it. And for this reason, they used much newer ships with much more modern engines.
The “Votsis” managed to masterfully but with great difficulty avoid the aggressive actions of the Turks. And immediately the alarm was raised, due to the intention of the Turks to record a “victory” at sea! I remind you that during the Tsipras government they had attempted to ram the unarmed Coast Guard vessel “Gavdos” in Imia, and even at night. Just as a week before, they had unsuccessfully tried to ram our gunboat. The Coast Guard vessel, which does not even have a cannon, escaped the worst, because the Greek captain reacted and although the Turk hit it, the damage was minor.
The Turks had concluded that the Greeks had orders not to react to provocations. In other words, not to retaliate according to what their military code and training dictated. Angered by their failure to prevent the equipping of Cyprus with French coastal defense systems, they were looking for an easy “victory” against a Greek ship.
"Lemnos" changes course
Last Wednesday, the Turkish provocations had reached their peak, with the “Oruch Reis” 100 miles south of Kastellorizo. It was accompanied by Turkish warships. That morning, the “Lemnos” was patrolling near Kastellorizo where the Turks once again had it under naval blockade with five of their warships firing mock shots at the island and dangerously harassing the “Votsis”.
When the Turks noticed that the “Lemnos” from Kastellorizo had set its bow to the south, the flagship and pride of the Turkish fleet, the frigate “Kemal Reis”, which was near the Greek frigate, carried out a ramming attack. It should be noted that the Turkish frigate is newer, the last one built in their shipyards. Before sunrise, the “Kemal Reis” approached the “Lemnos” about 40 nautical miles from Kastellorizo – the “Oruc Reis” was 80 miles further south.
According to reliable sources, the “Lemnos” was going to replace the frigate “Nikiforos Fokas”, which was monitoring the Turkish research vessel. What was written about an attempt to split the Turkish fleet so that the “Lemnos” could go to see if the Turks had laid cables is not true. The “Lemnos” was traveling alone that morning.
The naval battle of the two frigates
The Turkish captain, who is considered the best in the Turkish navy, was confident that he would intimidate the commander of the “Lemnos”. Initially, he sailed very close to him, but without provoking him. The commander of the Greek frigate continued his course at a speed of 12 miles, when the “Kemal Reis” made a left turn and, developing maximum speed, tried to ram the “Lemnos”.
The Greek captain had suspected the Turkish intention and was on alert. He slowed down and shortly before the collision he went into full reverse at full speed, avoiding the ramming. However, the Turk did not stop there. Seeing the Greek in full reverse, he attempted a maneuver coming from the right with the aim of ramming.
The Greek vice-captain, captain of the “Lemnos”, reacted decisively. And from astern he went full speed ahead at full speed. Something that a ship from the 1980s is very difficult to achieve. However, good maintenance allowed the “Lemnos” to respond and ram the “Kemal Reis” vertically, resulting in almost destroying its starboard side. This is a masterful maneuver that few captains in the world can attempt with vessels of this age.
The capable commander of the frigate “Lemnos”, Lieutenant Commander Ioannis Saliaris.
He believed that he would not dare
The Turkish captain probably believed that the Greek would not dare, due to the relevant history of similar Turkish provocations. The Greek frigate managed to inflict a crushing blow on the Turkish one on its starboard side. This is what the Turks are hiding. The “Lemnos” suffered almost nothing, because the strongest part of a ship is the so-called “crow”.
The frigate “Lemnos” after the incident.
The Turkish frigate received a huge crack in the middle part, more than a meter long and at least 4 meters high. And while the Turks claimed for so many days that the “Lemnos” was damaged and had injured people, a photo published by the Hellenic National Defense General Staff clearly shows that it was not damaged at all. On the contrary, the Turkish frigate has essentially been put out of combat service.
The strange thing was that no one published a photo of the “Kemal Reis”. Only President Macron had warned Ankara that he had the video and that there would be consequences for its pirate actions. The attempted emplacement was purely of a military nature and if we are not mourning victims today it is due first and foremost to the seamanship of the captain of the “Lemnos” and to our engineers who maintain it.
The damages of “Kemal Reis”
Erdogan's psychological warfare and Akar's threats have been canceled. In the photo of "Kemal Reis" it is clearly visible that she has been essentially rendered useless. According to Greek and American shipbuilders, whose assessment we asked, "Kemal Reis" should normally have gone for Total Loss, commonly for scrap metal, since it appears that the hole has advanced at least 2,5-3 meters into the ship, which appears to be floundering since it had a large influx of water.
The balancing done by the Turkish captain allowed him not to sink and to sail. Those in the know, however, believe that the “Kemal Reis” has acquired structural stability problems. And it needs a shipyard immediately to put in new steel blocks. It is almost certain that one or all of its electric motors need to be replaced and probably a new shaft that will be difficult to install.
The breach caused by the "Lemnos" in the Turkish frigate "Kemal Reis".
To prevent his ship from sinking, the Turkish captain filled the left side of the ship with water to balance it and sail. But with the force with which he pulled the ship with so many miles of sailing filled with water in the ballast, it is a given that the ship has tilted and now the stern is one place and the bow is another. The total damage may well exceed 10 million dollars, according to experts.
If one or more electric motors are damaged, then the cost will increase by 4,5 million for each electric motor if they decide to install a used one. If they install new ones, each one costs 6-7 million. And of course, the electric motors are enclosed in the steamer before it is “built,” which means that it must be completely opened from the sides, so there will be an additional large cost in labor hours.
A painful lesson for the Turks
If the “Kemal Reis” has also suffered damage to the axles, which is very likely, then an additional cost of another 2 million will arise. If small oil spills were observed in the area, then the Kemal Reis means that it has also been hit from below. If the inner bottom plating of the ship was punctured, the total damage will skyrocket to 50 million.
However, we do not know this with the information so far. In any case, if it were another ship, the Turks would have scrapped it. However, because it is their pride and their prestige is being affected, they will attempt to repair it by any means and at any cost. After all, that is why they took it to a private shipyard and not to a state-owned one.
“Lemnos” taught the Turks a lesson. And its leading officers should be immediately decorated. Because the Turks only know the language of force, they understood that in the next naval battle they might lose another ship. So, they will probably try to take revenge by ramming an old Greek warship, as they did with the long-range shooting down of the old Russian bomber in Syria. Unless they escalate and use a missile.
Source:Slpress.gr