A British World War II submarine, HMS Trooper, which vanished during a secret mission in 1943, has been discovered off the coast of Greece, solving an 81-year mystery.
The submarine, lost with all 64 crew members, including Australian volunteer Lt. John Stuart Ryder, was found at a depth of 830 feet (252 meters) in the Ikarian Sea between Ikaria and Kos islands. The wreck, discovered by the Greek deep-sea research company Planet Blue, is broken into three sections—the bow, middle, and stern—indicating a violent sinking caused by a German mine.
HMS Trooper was on a secret mission to patrol between Donoussa islet and Ikaria after British intelligence warned of a potential German landing on the island of Leros. It failed to return to the port of Beirut on October 17, 1943, and was declared lost, with the crew presumed dead. Subsequent searches, beginning in 2000, spanned 14 missions, none of which yielded results until the recent discovery by Kostas Thoctarides and his team from Planet Blue.
Thoctarides, speaking to Live Science and Greek news agency ANA-MPA, explained that his team located the wreck on October 3, 2024, after using shipboard sonar to create a detailed map of the seafloor, followed by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to inspect the wreckage. Thoctarides noted the wreck had been missed in earlier searches because previous expeditions focused too far east. He also emphasized the challenging nature of the Ikarian Sea, known for its harsh weather conditions, strong winds, and powerful underwater currents.
Hellbound and Down 