The sea bed composition is sand with wreck debris scattered over a huge area 250 meters long and 38 meters wide with fuel barrels, jerry cans, motorcycles and other cargo everywhere. Because of the shallow depth the duration of each dive is typically 55 minutes to an hour depending on air consumption. The wreck has now become home to a huge variety of aquatic life offering fantastic photo opportunities
The island was largely spared the fighting, until the armistice with Italy concluded by the Allies on September 8th1943.
On 11th September, the Italian High Command sent explicit instructions to Gandin, to send his naval and merchant vessels to Brindisi immediately, that "German troops were to be viewed as hostile" and that "disarmament attempts by German forces must be resisted with weapons"
The F494 and F495 were hit, the crew set fire to fuel barrels (shown in the photo right) to create a smoke screen to avoid further hits but sunk about 10am. The F494, badly damaged picked up the crew and captain of the F495, Cptn. Paul Gottschalk and entered Lixouri harbour. 4 men lost their lives and three were injured during the attack...
This attack was the start of the siege of Argostoli, where the Italians initially enjoyed superiority, and took about 400 Germans prisoner. On the 15th September, the German Luftwaffe began bombarding the Italian positions with Stukas dive-bombers and numerous soldiers from The GebirgsJäger Division invaded. The Germans enjoyed complete air superiority and their troops had extensive combat experience, in contrast with the conscripts of Acqui who were no match for the Germans.
Gandin repeatedly requested help from the Ministry of War in Brindisi but did not get a reply. In addition 300 planes located in southern Italy and well within range of Kefalonia were ready to intervene. But the Allies would not let them go because they feared they would defect to the German side. Furthermore two Italian torpedo boats, already on their way to Kefalonia, were ordered back to port by the Allies for the same reasons.
After several days of combat, at 11:00 hours on 22nd September, the last Italians surrendered, having run out of ammunition and lost 1,315 men.
Hitler issued an order allowing the execution of the Italians who resisted surrender for "treacherous behaviour" on Kefalonia. It is believed that the bombing on the F494, F495 and the fighting that occured afterwards by their former allies outraged the GebirgsJäger soldiers so much that they massacred 9000 Italian men on Kefalonia over the week that followed.
