MS Sinfra

Sinfra was a cargo ship, built in 1929 as Fernglen by Akers Mekaniske Verksted in Oslo, Norway for a Norwegian shipping company. The ship was sold to Swedish owners in 1934 and to a French company in 1939, on the last occasion having her name changed to Sinfra. Sinfra was confiscated by German authorities in 1942 and used by them in the Mediterranean. On 19 October 1943 Sinfra was bombed and sunk by Allied aircraft at Suda Bay, Crete, killing some 2,098 people, the majority Italian POWs.

Description
The vessel was a cargo ship, built in 1929 by Akers Mekaniske Verksted in Oslo, Norway, as Fernglen. She had yard number 434.

The ship was 117.4 m long, with a beam of 16.7 m. She was propelled by two diesel engines, which gave her a top speed of 12.5 kn.

History
Fernglen was launched on 15 May 1929, and completed in July of the same year. She was built for A/S Glittre of Oslo, Norway.

In 1934 she was sold to the Stockholm, Sweden-based company Rederi A/B Jamaica and renamed Sandhamn. Five years later she was sold on to Cie Generale de Nav a Vapeur Cyprien Fabre of Marseille, France. The new French owners renamed her Sinfra.

In 1942, the German occupiers of France confiscated the ship. The Germans retained the French name of the vessel.

Transporting prisoners of war
The Greek island of Crete had been captured by the Germans in the Battle of Crete in May 1941, and was occupied by a mixed German-Italian force. The Italian garrison unit was the 51st Siena Infantry Division, consisting of 21,700 men, which occupied the easternmost prefecture of Lasithi.

On 8 September 1943 the Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces was signed, and the Italians in Crete and elsewhere were disarmed by the Germans without major problems. As elsewhere, they were given the choice to continue the war alongside Germany, or to be sent to the Reich to perform forced labor.

A minority chose to continue the fight and formed the Legione Italiana Volontaria Creta.

The disaster
On 19 October 1943, 2,460 prisoners (2,389 Italians, 71 Greek) were crammed in the cargo hold of the ship to be transported to the Greek mainland. There were also 204 Germans on board. At Suda Bay, the ship was attacked by USAAF B-25s and RAF Beaufighters and sunk. 2,098 people drowned in the sinking, most of them Italian POWs.