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Time for something slightly different to my usual naval history threads in that... this is about the Austro-Hungarian Navy in #FWW rather than the Germans. Here will follow the battle of Otranto Barrage of May 14-15th 1917
The Surface units of the Austro-Hungarian Navy had had a quiet war. Much like their German Allies they kept to port (despite coastal bombardments on Italy) keeping a force of Allied ships tied down monitoring them.
The main weapon of choice was the U-boat.
The main weapon of choice was the U-boat.
U-boats, either under the command of Austrians or German crews were quite effective in the region and sank several transports including the SS Persia, HMHS Britannic and Cap Arcona as well as warships like HMS Cornwallis, Triumph and Majestic.
To combat the U-boat threat the Allies put a barrage of coastal drifters acros the strait between Corfu and Otranto manned by trawlers armed with 6 pounder guns, depth charges and submarine nets backed up by destroyer & torpedo boat patrols.
On the whole the Barrage was ineffective against the U-boats but there was a danger. On 12/5/1916 the U-6 under Linenschiffsleutnant von Falkhausen became caught in the nets and surrendered whilst under fire from the trawlers Calistoga & Dulcie Doris.
By the following year seven more had been caught by patrolling boats or aircraft and Admiral Njegovan, the c-in-c of the Austro-Hungarian Navy decided that something needed to be done. Several sorties were carried out between March & April of 1917 with growing boldness
The Austrians had to plan raids carefully to try and preserve their limited fleet numbers and so for the sortie in May a two pronged attack to draw away & mislead the Allies was put into action.
The Tatra class destroyers Balaton and Csepel (pictured) left port 14/5/17 at 8 p.m. under Prinz Johann of Liechtenstein. They passed Valona just after midnight & searched for a convoy to attack
Three Spauna class light cruisers (Helgoland, Saida and Novara) under Nikos Horthy left Cattaro at 10 p.m. and headed south for the barrage.
Several U-boats were released to provide cover with U-4 at Valona, UC-35 to mine the entrance to the Allied naval base at Brindisi & U-27 to patrol from Brindisi to Cattaro. The SMS Sankt Georg & several torpedo boats were prepped for support and air craft for spotting
The Italian Naval Commander, Alfredo Acton, was suspicious of Austrian activity & had brought his cruisers in Brindisi up to readiness and dispatched the light cruiser Mirabello & a force of destroyers to patrol down to the barrage and back again
3:30 am a telegram from Fano arrived at Brindisi announcing the Austrians had positively been sighted. Acton brought HMS Bristol to 30 min readiness, Dartmouth to 3 hrs & Liverpool to 6 hrs. At 5am Bristol left port & Acton made Dartmouth his flagship leaving at 5:30
The Italian cruiser Aquilla brought up the rear. They had recieved news as well that a convoy had been attacked.
A convoy of three ships escorted by the destroyer Borea had arrived in the Adriatic heading for Valona when they were illuminated by spot lights at 3am. Csepel and Balatan opened fire and Borea was sunk, the ammunition ship Caraccio exploded. The Austrians then left the area.
The explosion could be heard by the drifters on the barrage but they didn't think anything of it until 3:30 am when Horthy's cruisers arrived spread out along the barrage. They approached ships, signalled them to surrender/abandon ship then sank them with gunfire
SMS Helgoland came under attackl by the trawler Gowan Lea with the crew firing their 6 pounder gun at the Austrian with other trawlers following suit. Helgoland soon disabled the Gowan Lea's gun & decimated the other trawlers. In total the Austrians sank 14 drifters
With Wireless messages and distress flares going off the three Austrians withdrew. The French destroyer Commandant Bory reported at 5:30 that they had seen the Austrians an hour before but couldn't report it as they were chasing U-4
At 6:45 the Mirabello & four destroyers spotted Horthy and at 7:00 they opened fire on them at 9300 yards. The Austrians fired back and after 7 minutes the Mirabello's force fell back to a shadowing position.
Acton detached the Aquilla and destroyer Balston to try and catch Csepel and Belaton and at 8 am they attacked. The Austrians returned fire leaving the Aquilla disablled with damaged boilers and then moved on to the safety of Austrian waters.
Acton met with Aquilla and requested the Liverpool to join him along with the Bacchia and Marsela but Captain Vivian was told by Admiral Revel that Liverpool could not leave port. Further to that the armoured Pisa class cruisers sat idle.
At 10 a.m. Vivian again argued with Revel when they heard a wireless message of "all vessels rendez vous on Dartmouth!". Believing the force to be in danger he demanded to leave port but a fear of U-boats kept all of the ships in harbour
At 9am. the Bristol spotted Horthy's vessels & within 30 minutes begun firing with the Dartmouth. Acton's forces were larger in number, faster and with better guns but Horthy knew that assistance from Sankt Georg was at hand. A smoke screen was laid to draw the Allies in.
They were soon firing on the destroyers & Mirabello which had drawn too near.
Dartmouth's fire disabled one of Novara's guns & the chart room, Horthy was hit & laid out on the deck but Lt Szuborits (first officer) was killed. Gunnery officer Witkowski took direct command
Dartmouth's fire disabled one of Novara's guns & the chart room, Horthy was hit & laid out on the deck but Lt Szuborits (first officer) was killed. Gunnery officer Witkowski took direct command
The Mirabello had to stop (with water in her oil) and Commandant Riviere suffering condenser issues. Dartmouth was the only one to keep pace the whole time and her fire disabled Novara causing her engines to stop.
Dartmouth turned her fire on Saida as the cruiser pulled alongside Novara and took her into tow.
Acton called for a withdrawal on spotting Sankt Georg & coastal defence ship Budapest approaching under Admiral von Nensa.
Acton called for a withdrawal on spotting Sankt Georg & coastal defence ship Budapest approaching under Admiral von Nensa.
The Battle was far from over though. As the force sailed for home HMS Dartmouth took a torpedo strike from the UC-23 (Kapitanleutnant Johannes Feldkirchner) causing major damage.
Bristol's message arrived at Brindisi at 2pm causing Vivian to again petition to leave port.
Bristol's message arrived at Brindisi at 2pm causing Vivian to again petition to leave port.
The French destroyer Boutefeu was given permission to leave but on passing the boon defence struck one of Feldkirchner's mines and sank within minutes.
Captain Addison ordered all but a volunteer force to abandon Dartmouth whilst he tried to save the ship which, eventually they did manage to do. They limped back to Brindisi at 3 a.m. the next morning.
