The Loss of SMS Szent István

SMS Szent István, Austro-Hungary's newest battleship

By May 1918 the Austro-Hungarian surface fleet was in crisis. Four years of relative inaction had led to severe unrest amongst the crews and on some of the ships they had already risen in open revolt. At the base at Cattaro on the 1^st February 1918 the Red flag was raised over the Armoured cruiser SMS Sankt Georg and was joined by other ships including pre-dreadnought Monarch and cruiser Kaiser Karl IV as well as other ships in port whether they agreed with the mutiny or to avoid being shelled by the larger ships. Demands were handed to the shore commander Kontreadmiral Hansa demanding better conditions for sailors, a democratic style government, freedom from Germany and above all Peace. Most of these demands were beyond the ability of Hansa to permit and the Army Garrison commander threatened to bring artillery out to shell the mutineers. The light cruisers SMS Helgoland and Novaro, with a flotilla of loyal torpedo boats, moved out of range of the mutineers then raised the Imperial flag and were joined by U-boats from the German U-boat station but the senior officer Linienschiffskapitän Heyssler aboard Helgoland was loathed to sink very valuable ships and waste lives. On the 3^rd February the Third Battle fleet consisting of the Pre-dreadnought’s SMS  Erzherog Karl, Erzherog Franz Ferdinand and Zrinyi arrived and the rebellion rapidly petered out and Hansa and all the officers were freed. Order was restored with the arrest of some 800 mutineers and the execution of four ringleaders including Franz Rasch.

   Elsewhere sailors were sabotaging the war effort with a force of sixty Italian speaking sailors under Fregattenleutnant Veith being captured at Ancona after being betrayed to the Carabinieri by some of their own number before they could sabotage the sugar refinery and MAS (Motoscafi Antisommgibil – Motor Torpedo boats) in the harbour on the night of 5-6 April. Elsewhere Linienschiffeleutnant Nikos Horthy reported his crew refused meals and duties until he personally inspected the vessel and brought charges to the ring leaders.

   As a reaction to these events the Austrian High Command forcibly retired older Admirals and officers or redistributed them to shore commands whilst promoting younger officers, a move that saw a reluctant Horthy promoted to Commander of the Adriatic fleet and a promotion to Kontreadmiral. After taking command another incident occurred with two crewmen of a destroyer that was due to escort a convoy to Albania, plotting to overthrow the officers and defect to the enemy. The plot never gained ground and Horthy signed the orders to execute the two men.
   Horthy believed that there could be only one recourse to quell the mutinies and sedition recording in his memoirs that the:

Best way to restore discipline in the Navy would be to put the ships into action, a view that was shared by our colleagues of the German Navy. The men who had not yet heard a shot fired in anger must be shaken out of their lethargy. (1)

When he was stationed on a cruiser inactive he had observed that:

This particular command gave me no joy. Inactive, we were moored to a buoy, and had to watch cruisers, destroyers, torpedo-boats and U-boats sail away and return, happily engrossed in their heavy duties. Among those who were gay after days, endangering their lives, traitors were not found. (2)

The German Naval mission to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was growing alarmed at the events unfolding at the mouth of the Adriatic as well. Since the attack on the Otranto Barrage the Allies had strengthened their defences with a total of forty Royal Navy destroyers (including six Australians) and twelve French destroyers which operated in patrols of 6-10 vessels day and night whilst the fleet of thirty-five trawlers with hydrophones sat north of the barrage listening for submarines in passage covered by a growing aerial patrol. To the south lay eighteen American wooden submarine chasers whilst mines lay at 60 feet below the surface near Otranto and others were connected to nets that would pull them up into submerged U-boats making the transit a very tricky affair. The German officers were keen to protect the exceptionally valuable U-boats and during April five had been attacked trying to cross the barrage and eight in May with SMS UB-52 being sunk by the British submarine HMS H4. They wanted the Austrians to act in support of the U-boats and after a raid on the barrage by Austrian destroyers in April was successfully repulsed by Allied destroyers without loss, a grander scheme had to be undertaken.

There was also a much bigger issue that was concerning the German Admiralstab and it went far beyond the Adriatic.  With the collapse of the Russian war effort there was a move for Germany and her Allies to take control of the vessels of the Black Sea fleet including powerful dreadnoughts and submarines before linking with the Turkish fleet and heading down the Bospherous and into the Mediterranean seriously affecting the balance of power which may cause to call for reinforcements from the Grand Fleet which would in turn affect the blockade of Germany and the balance of power with the  High Sea’s fleet. Having an active Austro-Hungarian fleet would further spread the Allies’ ships. As it was the Allied Naval council wanted to redistribute the fleets to meet a possible threat from the Black sea with the French dreadnoughts and the Danton class pre-Dreadnoughts to the Aegean and the five Italian dreadnoughts, the pride of their fleet, to be placed under French command at Corfu where they could simultaneously be used to check the Austrians and be in reserve should the new threat materialise. The Allied Council were concerned, however that the Italian force was not large enough to hold the four Tegetthof dreadnoughts and the four pre-dreadnoughts should the Austrians sail en-masse.



The Allies were also far from pleased with the strength of the Barrage estimating that in both April and May it had been breached fifty times by submarines going in or out and that shipping was still being sunk at the same rate as it had the previous year including the troop transport SS Leasowe Castle which was sunk 104 miles WNW of Alexandria carrying 3000 soldiers to Marseille. The troop ship was part of convoy of six troopships escorted by Japanese and British destroyers and was intercepted by SM Ub-51 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Ernst Kraft at 12:25 a.m.. The ship was operating a blackout with some of soldiers sleeping on deck at their action stations but the convoy was well lit by the full moon. The torpedo struck amidships under the funnel on the starboard side. Disaster was avoided with the ship coming to a halt and sinking slowly whilst the troops were paraded and put into lifeboats in an orderly fashion with the IJN destroyer Katsura and the sloop HMS Lily taking soldiers out of the boats and sending them back for more from the stricken vessel. In all only 101 of the ship’s company and troops went down with the ship including her master, Captain E. J. Holt.

The Austrian plan took into account the experiences of the previous year’s attack on the Barrage combining a powerful attack on the light forces that constituted it with overwhelming force combined with supporting vessels to cover the withdrawal who would ensnare any pursuers including, as Horthy was predicting battle-cruisers. The attack was timed to coincide with General Boroevič's offensive across the Piave river with the main attack would be carried out by the four Tegetthof dreadnoughts working in pairs before withdrawing towards Pola having done enough damage before the Allied Navy responded. The Austro-Hungarian fleet was hoping to ensnare and sink the predicted battle-cruisers and any pursuing Allied vessels in a way that they almost managed the previous year. Twelve Austro-Hungarian U-boats were placed at favourable points through the Adriatic to catch the Allies unawares whilst the three Erzherzog class pre-dreadnoughts were arranged in a line running north to south level with Durazio whilst a rapid reaction force of four Novara class cruisers and eight Tatra class destroyers were assembled at Cattaro ready to respond.  

The Szent István was the newest of the Tegetthof class dreadnoughts, having come into service in 1915. The Tegetthof class were broadly similar to the Nassau class battleships and were considered fairly compact and well armoured and were armed with four turrets housing three 30.5cm guns as the primary weapons, the first battleships to be armed like this. Unlike her sisters, the Szent István had two shafts and propellers but had a top speed of 20 knots with coal soaked in oil to increase its burn rate. The Szent István was also the only Tegetthof to be built at a Hungarian dockyard, by the Ganz and Company’s Danubius yard at Flume in Croatia and was the first major warship built at the yard with the yard itself having to be refitted to carry out the work. The ship was laid down on the 29^th January 1912 following the Hungarian government ratifying the 1910 and 1911 Naval budgets, something that the land locked nation was often loathed to do.

   The early life of the Szent István was marked with disaster and complications. On the day that she was launched, 17^th January 1914, an anchor chain fell killing a dock worker and injuring another/ The vessel was also the only major warship in the fleet that did not have the Emperor present at the launch as Franz Josef I was ill and Archduke Franz Ferdinand was so anti-Hungarian that he refused to go. After the rocky start the Szent István’s career was somewhat unglamorous with her construction being halted by the start of the First World War with her final completion date being 13^th December 1915. Unlike her sisters she never left Pola except for routine gunnery training until she received her orders for the Operation against the Barrage and only fired her anti-aircraft guns in anger as the Italians launched some eighty air raids on the Austro-Hungarian fleet between 1915 and 1917.

   On the 8^th June Admiral Horthy lead the 1^st Division consisting of the Szent István’s sisters SMS Viribus Unitis and Prinz Eugen out of Pola at dusk and arriving at Slano by dawn and waited for the 2^nd Division to get into position. Captain Seitz led SMS Tegetthof and the Szent István out of port on the night of 9^th June and after an initial delay caused by Tegetthof suffering engine difficulties and by the defensive boom across the Pola harbour not being retracted, the force of two dreadnoughts and their escorting destroyers and torpedo boats headed through the Dalmatian archipelago for Isoa Grossa where they would wait for the allotted time to begin a coordinated attack on the Barrage.

   The 2^nd Division were not the only vessels who were delayed that night. The Italian torpedo boats MAS 15 and MAS 21 were floating off the island of Lutostrak with one of the two suffering its own engine problems at 3:15 a.m. on the morning of 10^th June having been dispatched from Ancona by the base commander Calleani for a routine patrol of the Dalmatian coast under the command of Capitino di Corvetta Luigi Rizzo. Lookouts reported heavy smoke coming south and soon the two Austro-Hungarian battleships were sighed. Rizzo made the decision to attack as he could not out run the Austrians and there was a chance that they could do some damage and escape.

Orders were passed and the two MAS slowed their engines so that no white wash would betray their position and they managed to pass between two of the Austrian destroyer escorts and close to the two dreadnoughts at 3:35 a.m. and quickly powered up their engines approaching to 300 yards of the towering Austrian vessels. Capoltimoniere Armando Gori’s MAS 15 targeted the Szent István whilst Guardiamarina di complemento Giuseppe Aonzo’s MAS 21 attacked the Tegetthof both firing two torpedoes. With two torpedoes passing the SMS Tegetthof she immediately took avoiding action and believing that an Allied submarine was in the area began to zig-zag and fired upon phantom periscopes. The two Italian vessels turned for home pursued by the Austrian escorts with the Huszár class destroyer SMS Velebit  being forced to give up the pursuit after a depth charge was dropped by one of the MAS and exploded underneath it!  

The Szent István was not so fortunate and was struck by two torpedoes abreast of her boiler rooms penetrating both boiler rooms with the hole made worse by poor quality riveting.

The Situation aboard was somewhat bleak with severe flooding occurring in the aft boiler rooms and the dreadnought began to list to starboard by 10°. Action was quickly taken with the magazines flooded which reduced the list to 7° whilst collision nets were deployed to try and cover the torpedo holes but to no avail. The decision was made to turn the vessel and aim for nearby Bay of Beguije on the Isle of Molat at low speed but with the unimpaired flooding dousing the fires in the boiler rooms and the loss of electricity the ship’s fate was sealed.

   Following the Tegetthof’s return at 4:45 a.m. she attempted to tow her wounded sister but all attempts were fruitless as was turning the guns to port to redistribute the weight and counter the list as well as jettisoning all of the ready ammunition. Slowly the vessel began to capsize and at 6:05 a.m. on the 10^th June she slipped beneath the waves taking 89 sailors with her out of a crew of 1041 with the rest of the Austrian vessels picking up the survivors. Concern spread as to the cause of the sinking and a belief that they had been betrayed rather than poor luck and lack of anti torpedo defences filled the fleet, Admiral Horthy later commented in his Memoirs that the Sinking;

Meant that the enemy could no longer be taken by surprise, for the Italian would have given the alar and we would have to face forces far superior in the neighbourhood of the Otranto Barrage that we had contemplated. With heavy heart, I decided to call of the attack and gave the order for the ships to return to Pola. (3)

For the Austro-Hungarian Navy it had been a last roll of the dice and for the surface fleet it was the end of the war though Szent István was not the last Tegetthoff to be sunk with Viribus Unitis being sunk later that year by Italian frogmen.

For the Allies it was a lucky escape and news of the Austrian vessel’s fate was reported the next day before anyone knew that the four Tegetthofs had left port. Rumours began to circulate that two of the Austro-Hungarian battleships had been sunk and a third heavily damaged which the Naval council did not readily believe but it gave the Allies freedom of movement as it was now felt the Italian fleet now held the balance in the Adriatic allowing the French ships to be ready to deploy against the German threat that may appear from the Black Sea.





End Notes
1 - Horthy, M. "Memoirs" Hutchinson & Co, London, P.89
2 - Ibid. P.88
3 - Ibid p. 90

The Battle of Otranto Barrage May 1917

Since the outbreak of the First World War the surface units of the Austro-Hungarian fleet had seen little action beyond coastal bombardment of the Italian coast and although the force lacked battle cruisers and only had four dreadnoughts it was sizable enough to cause concern. Should the vessels breakout into the Mediterranean they could do damage to trade and troop transports and force a fleet action. The Austro-Hungarian ports at Pola and Cattaro were also home to a small U-boat flotilla that had begun preying on warships and trade vessels alike with the Royal Navy losing several larger vessels including the pre-dreadnoughts HMS Cornwallis and HMS Triumph as well as the hospital ship HMHS Britannic, the Titanic’s sister.  

The Etente powers established a blockade of drifters and trawlers across the mouth of the Adriatic Sea over the forty five miles of the Otranto strait between Brindisi and Corfu. The drifters were armed with 6 pounder guns, depth charges and anti-submarine nets and were supported by torpedo boats, destroyers and a cruiser force based at Brindisi with the aim of interdicting any enemy submarines that should try and break out.

Trawlers leaving Taranto for Barrage duties (IWM  Q 63041)



The Barrage was somewhat ineffective at stopping German and Austro-Hungarian U-boats who were passing through with ease and harassing Allied shipping but things were changing with the U-6 being caught and sunk by HMT Calistoga and the Dulcie Doris with Linenschiffsleutnant von Falkhausen and his crew being taken prisoner.

   Following the loss of U-6 and a further seven intercepted by Motor launces and aircraft patrols Admiral Njegovan decided serious steps had to be taken but that his vessels needed to operate in a manner that would see their safe return. The surface vessels had already begun gently probing with a French submarine reporting a force of four Austrian destroyers observing the drifters at night on the 11 March with a further sortie on the 21 April which saw an Italian steamer sunk outsider Valona. Further sorties were carried out on the 25 April and 5 May.

Mikos Horthy commanded the Austro-Hungarian cruisers

   Njegovan had to plan exceptionally carefully so as to preserve his vessels and escape the superior Allied numbers before they could respond. To this end a two pronged assault designed to confuse and draw off the Allies was implemented. At 8 p.m. on 14 May the Tatra class destroyers SMS Csepel and SMS Balaton under the command of Prinz Johann of Liechtenstein left Cattaro harbour and slipped down the Albanian coast passing Valona just after midnight without being seen by any of the searchlights. The destroyers began searching for a convoy or merchant ship to attack at the allotted hour when the second force would be in position.

   The second force consisted of three light Cruisers of the modified Spauna class, SMS Helgoland under the command of Captain Neyesler, SMS Saida commanded by Captain Pinschka and the SMS Novara acting as Linienschiffeleutnant Nikos Horthy's flag ship. The three cruisers were amongst Austria's newest and most modern ships with a top speed of 27 knots but with a relatively weak battery of nine 3.1" guns. The three cruisers struck out of Cattaro at 10 p.m. and headed south. Admiral Njegovan had also dispatched several U-boats out into the Adriatic to sew confusion and watch for Allied response with the U-4 watching Valona harbour, the UC-35 to mine the main naval base at Brindisi whilst the U-27 patrolled between Brindisi and Cattaro with aerial reconnaissance flights prepared for the morning and a taskforce of torpedo boats led by the armoured Cruiser SMS Sankt Georg to act as support.

 

 Admiral Alfredo Acton, the Italian Naval Commander of the area had either received specific information or was deeply suspicious that the Austrian fleet may try another raid and had deployed a force of French and Italian destroyers led by the light cruiser Mirabello on a patrol with orders to sail south-east until midnight when they should cross the strait before turning north towards Cape Boni and then on to Valona. Orders were also given to ready the dispatch of the cruisers in Brindisi with HMS Bristol and HMS Dartmouth brought to readiness.

   Acton was hit by the dilemma of where the Austrian attack would fall and if he were to deploy his vessels to defend the barrage then he would be leaving Brindisi and the vital rail hub or the Italian coastline undefended. He would have to play a reactionary role.

   At 3:30 a.m. a telegram from Fano arrived: The Austrians had been positively sighted in the strait and orders were issued immediately for the Bristol to be brought to half an hour's readiness, the Dartmouth to three hours and HMS Liverpool to six hours. Acton moved his flag to Dartmouth bringing her to half an hour's readiness at 5 a.m. HMS Bristol steamed out of harbour with two destroyers half an hour later with Dartmouth following with another two destroyers five minutes later with the Italian cruiser Aquilla bringing up the rear but Acton was already reacting to the Austrian's first attack.

   The Italian destroyer Borea and it's charge of three vessels had left Gallipoli at 10 a.m. on the 14 May for Valona and had had such an uneventful journey that they had arrived in good time at the Strade Bianche at 3 a.m. with the destroyer at the head of the formation. It was a calm still night with little wind. The moon hung over the mountains in their starboard quarter but the landward side remained very dark and shadowy. One of the Borea's lookouts reported a lot of smoke off to starboard and Commander Franceschi ordered a challenge flashed to the vessel. The pitch blackness suddenly drowned out by the bright illumination of floodlights from SMS Csepel and SMS Balatan moments before they opened fire.



SMS Csepel

   The action was swift and brutal with the Borea turning to starboard to get between the convoy and the Austrian destroyers but to no avail as the Csepel's first salvo had ruptured her main steam pipe leaving her unable to complete her manoeuvre and at the mercy of the enemy. As the Borea sank beneath the waves the Austrians concentrated on the helpless convoy with the munitions ship, SS Caraccio, exploding spectacularly under their barrage and a second vessel was left sinking whilst the third was badly damaged. Having done enough to distract the Allies the two destroyers put the convoy to their rudder and headed for Cattaro leaving the remnants of the convoy to limp or be towed to port. Both the SS Verita and the Bersaliere  made it into port.

   At the Eastern most point of the Barrage the crews of the drifters heard the gunfire and explosions but continued as if nothing was different casting their anti-submarine nets and maintaining a visual in case any action came close but Acton had not alerted them of any threat so whatever was going on was not their concern. At 3:30 a.m. Horthy's vessels arrived at the Barrage and divided with the Novarro heading east, the Helgoland heading west and the Saida concentrating on the centre. On the receipt of a message from the Csepel that the convoy had been disrupted the operation began. Each Austrian cruiser would approach one of the drifters and signal them to surrender and abandon ship before sinking the vessel and taking the crew prisoner.

   SMS Helgoland approached the trawler Gowan Lea at a thousand yards and signalled her to surrender but Kapitän Neyesler was most surprised when his opposite number, Captain Joseph Watt a Scottish veteran of the action the previous December, ordered his small trawler to engage the cruiser at full speed. The crew quickly manned the tiny 6 pounder guns and fired on their larger opponent which encouraged other trawlers in the area to follow suit. The Austrian Commander now caught in an unexpected action dealt with the situation calmly bringing his guns to bear with the first salvo damaging the Gowan Lea's gun and as the crew struggled to unjam it the Helgoland turned its attention upon the other vessels quickly decimating their attack leaving several vessels sinking and the Gowan Lea heavily damaged. Watt ordered his vessel to pick up any British sailor in the water they could and from the sinking trawlers.

Admiral Mark Kerr, the British Commander of the Adriatic force wrote in his dispatch that:

Undoubtedly the Austro-Hungarian cruisers behaved most chivalrously. Whenever a drifter put up a fight and refused to surrender, it was noticeable the most of the guns of the broadside were directed not to hit the fishing-boat, and the shots went wide and they left their plucky little adversary afloat and passed on. It was keeping up the ancient tradition of chivalry at sea. (1)

   With the Drifter line successfully decimated and distress flares and wireless messages being sent by the tiny vessels Horthy gave the order for his cruisers to withdraw to home waters before they attracted too much Allied attention. In their wake they left fourteen drifters sinking.

   Acton soon received reports of what had been happening at the Barrage and a wireless message from the French destroyer Commandant Bory reported sing the Austrians at 4:30 a.m. but had been unable to shadow or transmit until 5:30 a.m. as she was chasing the U-4. Now his forces had to intercept two separate forces.

   At 6:45 a.m. the Mirabello and her four destroyers (Boutefou, Commandant Rivière, Cimeterre and Bisson) positively sighted Horthy’s cruisers and at 7:00 a.m. at a range of 9300 yards they opened fire with their first salvo but the returning heavy fire from the Austrian ships proved too much for the smaller Allied ships and they fell back into a shadowing position in an action that took no more than seven minutes.

   Acton’s force was sailing at 24 knots towards the gulf of Drin and were approximately 245 miles north west of the Csepel and the Belaton and 46 miles North-north west of Horthy’s retreating vessels. Unsure of the Austrian’s exact position Acton detached the Aquilla and Balston to reconnoitre towards Cape Mendes heading off at 35 knots. By 8 a.m. the Italian vessels engaged the two Austrian destroyers at 12,500 yards but within half an hour the Aquilla had been disabled with her boilers hit by Csepel. With the enemy disabled the two Austro-Hungarian vessels moved into the relative safety of home waters under the guns of the shore batteries around Cattaro.

   Acton sent a request to Brindisi for assistance from HMS Liverpool the Marsela and Bacchiawhilst he took position around the damaged Aquilla

   In Brindisi harbour Captain G. H. Vivian of HMS Liverpool, the senior British Naval Officer was losing his patients behind a cool exterior. The Liverpool had raised steam and been ready for action for an hour but Admiral Bollo, Commander of the Pisa division informed him it was “not necessary” and on his second petition at 9 a.m. the freshly arrived Admiral Revel refused to allow the Liverpool beyond the harbour’s outer walls.
   Vivian had been receiving regular updates of the fleet action and was well aware of the situation faced by Acton’s vessels.

I had then in my mind the probability of our cruisers getting fairly close to Cattaro, being crippled or damaged after a running fight, and then being attacked by heavy ships from Cattaro. I therefore asked if the ‘Pisa’ Division or any of them were going out. Admiral Revel, who had arrived signalled to Admiral Acton at sea to ask if he wanted ‘Pisa’ Division, but by this time the action was practically finished and the reply was “no”. (2)

   Vivian felt this was a mistake that the three Armoured cruisers ( the Pisa, San Giorgio and the San Marco) under Contrammiraglio Bollo could not only assist in sinking the already damaged light cruisers or provide covering fire against the perceived threat of the SMS Sankt Georg or a Hapsburg class pre-dreadnought which would be moving to cover Horthy’s withdrawal. At 10:38 a signal was received from the Dartmouth calling for vessels to “Rendezvous on Dartmouth” and Vivian argued this was a call for assistance and once more implored Admiral Revel that the Pisa Division, who stood ready to leave port, should leave and that the Dartmouth must be in difficulties but again, to no avail, A fear of submarines waiting for a relief force outside of Brindisis harbour concerned Vivian and his Italian counterparts and with only a few destroyers available to escort and screen the larger vessels even Vivian admitted in his report that it may have been for the best that they did not leave especially in light of what was to come.

   The lookouts on HMS Bristol spotted the smoke of Horthy’s vessels at 9:00 a.m. arriving from the south and at 9:30 fire was exchanged at 13,000 yards with the Dartmouth leading the Allied forces into a parallel course. Acton’s forces were superior to Horthy’s in speed and firepower with the Dartmouth sporting eight 6” gns and the Bristol two 6” and ten 4” guns whilst Horthy’s three cruisers had nine 3.9” guns. In a straight fight the Allied ships would easily be victorious.

   Horthy claims in his memoirs that his position was not as bad as it seemed on paper. As the Allies approached he was already a step a head of them. Prinz Liechtenstein had already sent a message outlining his combat with the Mirabello group and Horthy had made the conscious decision to draw the Allies away from the smaller destroyers. He had also received a message from Cattaro offering support from the warships present which Horthy saw as a great opportunity to catch the Allies out but he needed to play for time.
  
   As the first British shells landed in the Novara’s course Horthy ordered a smoke screen deployed to envelope his vessels from sight in the hope the Allies would get closer and fall within the range of his guns and torpedoes. As the smoke cleared the Austrians headed north firing on the Allied destroyers that had got close and also the Mirabello which had arrived on their port side.



HMS Dartmouth

   The ensuing gun battle at between 5000 and 8400 yards was intense with the Bristol and the Dartmouth firing accurately at SMS Novara’s chartroom was destroyed, a gun put out of action and fires started on deck. Horthy was struck by shrapnel that shredded his hat, singed his uniform down to his flesh and embedded five chunks into his leg. He was brought back to consciousness by a blast of cold water thrown over him to extinguish his burning clothes and moved to a stretcher on the foredeck to watch proceedings. He was lucky as the ship’s First Officer, Lieutenant Szuborits, was killed and so control of the ship passed to Gunnery Lieutenant Witkowski who commanded from exposed upper bridge directing the vessels guns personally.

   The Allies were not faring well either with the Commandant Rivière  halted by condenser issues and the Mirabello with water in her oil. Both vessels were guarded by the destroyers Cimeterre and the Bisson in case of U-boat attack. HMS Dartmouth was carrying the battle on her own as the Bristol’s filthy bottom slowed her down leaving her unable to keep up but it was a task that the Dartmouth was able to do with ease. With the Novara  disabled by a direct hit on the turbine chamber destroying the condenser pipe line meaning the boilers had to be extinguished the cruiser began to slow and the Dartmouth was free to attack the Saida but soon turned to meet the Italian protected cruiser  Marsale as she approached to assist.

   As the fighting subsided the Saida came along side her wounded sister to take her in tow whilst the Helgoland stood guard over the vulnerable cruisers. Acton ordered the Allied vessels to withdraw at the sight of smoke from Cattaro as the Sankt Georg under Admiral von Nensa supported by the coastal defence ship SMS Budapest. The Austro-Hungarian fleet had escaped.

   The battle was far from over however as one Italian destroyer, Acerbi, attempting a torpedo run only to be dissuaded by the Austro-Hungarian fire. Acton, realising too late that he had missed a golden opportunity, withdrew for Brindisi with his damaged vessels in tow.

   All was not plain sailing however as the force cruised through the Adriatic Kapitänleutnant

KptLt Johannes Feldkirchner

Johannes Feldkirchner’s mine laying SM U-125 fired a torpedo into HMS Dartmouth’s port side. The damage was quite extensive and whilst damage control crews battled to control the flooding two destroyers chased off the predatory U-boat as the other warships moved towards Brindisi.

Following receiving news that the action was over from HMS Dartmouth at midday Vivian would have begun to calm down with the emergency passed although the language of his reports to the Admiralty show that his frustration was not far from the surface. At 2 p.m. news came to Brindisi from HMS Bristol that the Dartmouth had been torpedoed.
  
Vivian's first reaction was to get to the Dartmouth as quickly as possible and to the British vessel as well as save British lives but again he was refused permission to leave port. The French destroyer Boutefeu had been forced to return to Brindisi earlier that morning due to a condenser issue but was now ready to depart. Vivian went to petition his Italian counterparts for permission to accompany the French only to see the destroyer leave port. Vivian's growing frustration must have been tempered by horror and a certain amount of relief as a large explosion filled the air as the Boutefeu struck one of Feldkirchner's mines just beyond the boon defence. The destroyer quickly sank in a matter of seconds.
 
With the situation worsening on the Dartmouth, her captain, Addison, ordered the crew aboard the escorting destroyers but remained with a volunteer party who tried to save the ship. With their attempts successful and with the aid of a tug the cruiser limped into harbour by 3:00 a.m. the following morning. The fore of the cruiser was completely wrecked and only her armoured deck had kept the vessel together and it was sometime before she was operational again costing the Allies one of their more powerful cruisers.
 
Following the battle of Otranto barrage the Allies took stock of the situation and of the losses that had occurred. A very British response came from Admiral Mark Kerr, the Royal Navy's C-in-C of the Adriatic fleet based on HMS Queen in Taranto harbour;
 
It is quite certain that until some British destroyers are attached to the barrage for purposes of defence and 'E' type submarines for purposes of offence; that the Barrage can be raided by the Austrians same manner as here to fore. (3)
 
He went on to criticise the Allied naval forces.
 
The temperament of our Allies, who at present supply the destroyers and submarines for the barrage, is not suited for patrol work. Even their fast cruisers take some time as a rule to get to sea when the alarm is raised. A proper British force under a British Admiral would put n end to these raids (4)
 
Kerr's report acknowledged the bravery of the trawler forces but noted that the Austrian raid was the biggest they had seen so far. Steps were taken to only deploy the drifters by day for their protection and increase the standing patrols but these measures meant the Central Powers were free to move their U-boats and surface ships by night.
 
Another observation came from the frustrated Captain Vivian who pointed out that the Italian Navy had neglected to share codes with their Allies. This in itself was not an issue and to be expected if they did not want their Allies to understand certain aspects but on a shared frequency it is some what problematic. As Vivian stated in his report to Kerr, he head the following Communique:-
 
UX to FU "Ships in sight Otranto strait." - I had no idea who "UX" was nor "FU" was.

One other inconsistency that could easily be rectified was that some of the vessels were using local time an others, like the Liverpool, followed Admiralty directives and set their chronometers to Central European time.
 
A further complication was the use of maps and radio usage with the Mirabello's square map being numbered poorly or her radio signals poorly coded which led to confusion as to her actual position and when the Aquilla reported that she as disabled and in need of a tow they did not give a position so only Acton on the Dartmouth knew what was going on.
 
For the Austro-Hungarians it was a well received victory having suffered no losses and sweeping away enough trawlers to open the barrage at night as well as sinking two destroyers and damaging the Allies' cruisers. The whole operation proved the Austro-Hungarian navy was still a force that needed to be dealt with in the strategic situation in the Mediterranean.

End Notes:
 
1 – Horthy, M. “Memoirs”, Hutchinson & Co, London, 1956 p. 85)
2 -  The Navy Record society, "The War in the Mediterranean1915-1918", Temple Smith, Aldershot, 1987  p.251
3 -  Ibid p.257
4 -  Ibid p.258
5-  Ibid p. 256