Kissamos, Crete, Greece

USS Eisenhower Remnants

In Kissamos Bay on the western tip of Crete, divers can visit a scattered debris field of wartime aircraft and equipment remnants from the Battle of Crete in May 1941, locally associated with US-supplied or US-built airframes used by Commonwealth forces during the campaign. The remains include twisted aluminium aircraft fragments, undercarriage parts and miscellaneous metal structure spread across a soft-bottom plain at depths between 22 and 30 metres. Because the materials are formally classified as antiquities of the period of war under Greek law, the site is accessible only through licensed Cretan operators who hold the appropriate permits, and removal of any artefact is strictly forbidden. The fragments form small artificial reef nodes that attract dusky grouper, Mediterranean moray, common octopus, painted comber and seasonal schools of bogue. Sandy patches around the debris host common stingray, weever fish and the occasional sole. The site is best dived in the calm summer and early autumn months, with visibility regularly exceeding 25 metres.