Phaethon (patrol boat)

Phaethon (Greek: ακταιωρός "Φαέθων", named after the mythical hero Phaethon) was a patrol boat of the Cypriot Navy which took part in the battle of Tillyria on 8 August 1964. It was under the command of Greek second lieutenant Dimitrios Mitsatsos and was manned by a crew of the Greek Navy in a top-secret mission to help patrol the Cypriot coastline. The boat also fought against the Turkish Cypriot forces during the battle at Tillyria. The losses sustained by the crew were the first battle casualties of the Hellenic Navy after World War II. Due to the top-secret nature of the mission, the commander and crew of the boat, including the fallen, received recognition from Greece and Cyprus on 19 January 2016, more than 50 years after the battle.

In 1964, the government of Georgios Papandreou sent a Greek army division to Cyprus to help establish the Cypriot National Guard. As part of the same policy, two patrol boats, the Phaethon and the Arion were sent to Cyprus in a top-secret mission to assist in the naval operations which were taking place at Tillyria. Upon arrival to Cyprus, the two boats raised the Cypriot flag, installed guns on the boats, started patrolling the island and became the only two vessels serving in the Cypriot Navy at the time.

Phaethon and Arion were donated by Anastasios Levendis to Cyprus in 1964 to patrol its coast and bolster the defences of the island against possible Turkish invasions and other attacks. The vessels were originally built in Germany in 1935 and their condition was poor when they were sent to Cyprus after undergoing incomplete repairs in Greece. The two boats left Greece without documentation or raising a flag and the crew were given fake identities and were not carrying identification documents. Dimitrios Mitsatsos, the commander of Phaedon, was a graduate of the Hellenic Naval Academy and there were also two commissioned officers while the rest of the crew were conscripts. Mitsatsos was also the commanding officer of the Arion.

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