The merchant ship Elliniko Vouno (Greek Mountain)

Historically prominent in commerce in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, from the start Greek shipping was likely to play a leading part in ferrying supplies to Spain. Moreover, as merchant shipping was the most important revenue-earning branch of the Greek economy, in April 1936, when he was appointed to the premiership, Ioannis Metaxas had pledged to work for its interests. According to German intelligence, Greek ships began unloading Soviet war supplies in Alicante and Barcelona as early as late October 1936. 

The files of the Greek Foreign Ministry provide detailed information on the complex operation whereby Greek merchant ships supplied the Republic. From their port of departure, they received certificates allowing them to sail to the French port of Sète, where they remained until they received a coded radiograph from small French fishing vessels which were sailing in Spanish waters under the pretext of fishing. Their real mission was to notify the cargo ships at Sète whenever there was no Spanish rebel ship in the area, and it was safe to sail. Upon receiving the ‘all clear’, the ships sailed from Sète to Barcelona to unload their cargoes. From Barcelona each ship was escorted by a Republican warship until it had left Spanish waters. The Greek government was aware that such activities were enormously profitable to the Greek merchant marine, as the value of the freight of a single trip was almost as high as the value of the ship itself. 

Furthermore, mounting difficulties in ferrying supplies through meant that the only route for the Republic’s supplies from the Soviet Union was through the Dardanelles. In 1937 the route was used extensively, which is why Franco and Mussolini decided to patrol the Straits, torpedo Spanish and Soviet ships and terrorize vessels of other nations. The results of this decision became clear in December 1937, when the Greek ambassador in Ankara reported that in the past few weeks almost no Spanish or Soviet ships carrying supplies had sailed to Spain. While some fifteen Spanish vessels were immobilized in Odessa, ‘the ships carrying cargoes to red Spain were mainly under English or Greek flag’.

By May 1938, Greek merchant ships were subjected to a ‘relentless’ persecution by the Nationalist navy. Periklis Argyropoulos, the Greek Agent at Franco’s headquarters, filed successive reports on Franco’s ‘outrage’ and ‘indignation against Greece [for] supplying the Reds’. The Nationalists specifically named Metaxas and Prodromos Bodosakis-Athanasiadis, owner of the Greek Powder and Cartridge Company, as the chief culprits.

The Francoists converted some of the Greek merchant ships they had captured into warships and never returned the rest, despite the appeal of the Greek government during and after the Civil War. The merchant ship Elliniko Vouno (Greek Mountain), shown in the photo, was seized in 1938 and renamed Castillo Mombeltran. It remained in service until 1968.

TDS