World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseOriginally laid down by New York Shipbuilding in the United States for Qing Dynasty China under the name of Feihong as the third of the Zhaohe-class protected cruisers, by the time she was finished, Qing had been overthrown by the Republic of China, which only took delivery of the two ships built in Britain. As the result, the ship was sold to the Greek Navy in 1914, which renamed her Elli. Elli served in the 1919-1922 Greco-Turkish War. In 1920, she had her armament upgraded in France. In Aug 1940, while she was at anchor in the harbor of Tinos island in Greece, celebrating the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, she was attacked and sunk by Italian submarine Delfino. At the time, Greece and Italy were not yet at war, thus making this a potentially explosive international political situation, but the government of Greece decided to announce this attack as conducted by an unknown attacker in the hope that peace could still be attained. After the European War, Italy would give Greece cruiser Eugenio di Savoia as compensation for the sinking of Elli; Eugenio di Savoia would be commissioned into the Royal Hellenic Navy in 1950 as the new Elli.

Protected Cruiser Elli Interactive Map

Photographs

Elli Operational Timeline