Vasilefs Georgios (Greek: ΒΠ Βασιλεύς Γεώργιος) (King George) was the lead ship of her class of two destroyers built for the Royal Hellenic Navy before the Second World War.

Flagship of the navy's Destroyer Flotilla, she participated in the Greco-Italian War in 1940–1941, escorting convoys and unsuccessfully attacking Italian shipping in the Adriatic Sea.

While under repair during the Axis invasion of Greece in 1941, Vasilefs Georgios sank when the floating drydock that she was in was either scuttled or sunk by German aircraft.

After Hermes was transferred to the Central Mediterranean, she sank a British submarine about a week before she was crippled by Allied aircraft in late April 1943.

The Vasilefs Georgios-class ships were derived from the British G-class destroyers, modified with German guns and fire-control systems.

During her sea trials on 30 October 1938, Vasilefs Georgios reached a speed of 36.6 knots (67.8 km/h; 42.1 mph) from 35,109 shp (26,181 kW), although her armament was not yet installed.

[8] Pending the completion of the light cruiser, the ship served as the flagship of the Destroyer Flotilla,[6] under Commander (Antiploiarchos) Pyrros Lappas.

[2] During the Greco-Italian War she escorted convoys and participated in raids against Italian lines of communication in the Strait of Otranto on the nights of 14/15 November 1940 and 4/5 January 1941 that failed to locate any ships.

While anchored in Sofiko Bay in the Saronic Gulf on 12–13 April, Vasilefs Georgios was attacked by German aircraft and badly damaged by near-misses that caused extensive flooding.

On 24–25 June, she helped to escort a small troop convoy to Souda Bay, Crete, returning to Piraeus, Greece, two days later.

Her next convoy to Tobruk, Libya, was interrupted by the British Operation Pedestal to Malta in the middle of the month and she then towed the damaged submarine U-83 to Salamis on 19–20 August.

[13] Over the next several months, the ship escorted convoys between Greece, Crete and Tobruk, interrupted by occasional missions to cover a minefield being laid.