LOKFÄHRE

[Dido]

Some years ago Theo was asking what happened to those landing crafts:

Hat ggf. auch Jemand etwas Neues zur LOKFÄHRE ex TLC1   oder    TLC 16 ??

Actually the two LOKFÄHRE were the former TLC-1 and TLC-19. But the most interesting piece in their story is that one of them is still around today.
Taking things from the start, the British report ADM 267/129 (attachment 1) mentions that TLC-1 was bombed on 24.4.41 at Megara and sunk. TLC-19 was scuttled at Megara on 26.4 when her engine went out of action.

Both ships are mentioned in a German report of salvaged ships as of 15.10.41 (attachment 2), TLC-1 as under repair and TLC-19 as in Perama (shipyards near Piraeus).

As also mentioned in P.Schenk's book "War in the Aegean" that the German forces repaired the ships, fitted new German engines and used them under the name(s) LOKFÄHRE to carry locomotives from Piraeus to Salonica. In September 1944 at least one of them was used in the evacuation of the Cyclades.
In the diaries of Admiral Ägäis (attachments 3 and 4), it is clearly understood that both vessels were being operated as LOKFÄHRE, without any differentiating number, which must have been somewhat confusing if accurate. Admiral Ägäis mentions that one LOKFÄHRE was hit during the bombarding of Syros on 29.9.44 by the British cruiser BLACK PRINCE and destroyer TUMULT. The stricken LOKFÄHRE was under tow when an air strike took place which sunk her tug. That night, the apparently invalid vessel, was disarmed and scuttled in Syros.

Her sister is also mentioned by Admiral Ägäis, on 8.10.44 (attachment 5) when she was sunk by British aircraft while trying to move around Attika. Her wreck was recently discovered in a depth of 100 meters by diver A.Grafas.
However the scuttled LOKFÄHRE at Syros had more life to give. On 1.3.1946 she was raised by the salvage ship KYKLOPS of the Wreck Salvage Committee (O.A.N.) and taken to Piraeus where she is seen in the 6th attachment next to KYKLOPS.

In August 1946 O.A.N. sold the ship to KYDEP (a state organization managing agricaltural products of cooperatives) and she was renamed SOCRATES IASEMIDIS. She entered service between Patras - Kryoneri and was then serving the line Rio-Antirrio for decades. In these period she received at least four major reconstructions that totally altered her appearance plus she was lengthened. She was sold in 1982 and renamed EVGENIA P. serving thereafter as a cargo ferry to the Greek islands. In 2011 she was laid up at Eleusis port awaiting a potential sale for scrapping, however this past July a fire broke out that destroyed her superstructure and caused a leak leading to her third sinking during her long career (attachment 7).

Concerning TLC.16, I don't think that she ever became a LOKFÄHRE. The reason for which she was scuttled in Suda Bay was her faulty engines. Those probably remained a problem and following her salvage by the German forces she was taken to Heraklion where she was fitted out with a salvage equipment removed from a sunken Greek craft. At the end of the war the ex-TLC.16 was seized by the Greek state as a war booty and was named Z-14. In 1946 she was being used by the O.A.N. to salvage wrecks in the vicinity of Heraklion (attachment .

Notes: The research of the ADM files in the British Kew Archives was conducted by prof.diver and researcher Kostas Thoktaridis who also offered access to the Admiral Ägäis diaries. The verification of the identity of S.IASEMIDIS as the former LOKFÄHRE was the end result of a 2.5 year research conducted in the Greek maritime forum nautilia.gr

[Peter K.]

... tolle Recherche! 

[Karsten]

Toll! 

[TD]

Hallo Dido,

Glückwunsch zu dieser genauen Gegenüberstellung der vorhandeneren Daten.

Ich glaube dass nun kaum noch Zweifel bestehen dürften dass es zwei LOKFÄHREN ab wie ich immer geglaubt habe.

Seltsam ist ja dass immer in den KTBs zu lesen ist LOKFÄHRE.

Nicht LOKFÄHRE I und LOKFÄHRE II wie doch anzunehmen wäre.

Vielleicht wird sich dazu ja auch eines Tages etwas finde,

Auf jeden Fall geht die Forschung immer weiter.

Nochmals Dank

Theo

[Seelöwe]

Ein sehr guter Beitrag, danke!
Wer hätte gedacht, dass eine der Lokfähren noch existiert! Unsere Kenntnis der einen Lokfähre die in Syros versenkt wurde stammt von einem Soldaten der Bordflakabteilung, der uns sein Tagebuch zur Verfügung gestellt hat. Sicher war "Lokfähre" eine inoffizielle Bezeichnung.
Ein Foto von TLC 16 beim Hafenbau in Iraklion 1942.
Peter

[Dido]

Dear all, thank you for your kind words.
Peter, the two vessels must have been differentiated somehow (a number or something else), but I imagine that it is now difficult to find survivors that could help us. The war diaries unfortunately do not help in this issue.
I also think it will be almost impossible to find out which of the two Lokfahre was TLC.1 and which was TLC.19...

Here is another photo of S.IASEMIDES in her early years after the war

[TW]

Ich möchte noch auf eine gut gestaltete Website hinweisen:

GRAFAS DIVING:
http://www.grafasdiving.gr/en/shipwrecks/lokfahre-former-british-tlc-mark1/