Otranto Barrage
The Otranto Barrage was an
Blockade attempt
The Adriatic is 72
The ease with which German and Austrian submarines continued out of the Austro-Hungarian ports in spite of the barrage (and the success they had in disrupting shipping in the whole of the Mediterranean) strongly embarrassed the Allies, the system being called "a large sieve through which U-boats could pass with impunity".[3] In 1917–1918, reinforcements from the Australian and American navies brought the blockading force up to 35 destroyers, 52 drifters and more than 100 other vessels.[citation needed] Nevertheless, submarines continued to slip through until the end of the war; the introduction of the convoy system and better coordination amongst the Allies only helped to cut the losses they were causing after escaping the blockade.[3]
By contrast, the presence of Allied capital ships involved in the blockade was generally successful in its mission of keeping enemy surface vessels from leaving the Adriatic Sea.[2]
Raids and battles
The Austrians mounted nighttime raids against the barrage, five in 1915, nine in 1916 and ten in 1917. After a raid by four
Skipper
In June 1918, Horthy—by now commander-in-chief of the Austro-Hungarian Navy—decided to launch an attack on the barrage employing the four Tegetthoff-class battleships based at Pola, the most modern in the fleet. While en route down the Adriatic, the battleship SMS Szent István was torpedoed and sunk by an Italian torpedo boat at dawn on 10 June, resulting in the attack being cancelled.
Notes
- ISBN 978-0-231-13242-8. Archivedfrom the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
- ^ a b "Otranto Barrage". Anzac Memorial.
- ^ Dorling Kindersley, 2003, Page 186–187
- ^ a b "The Otranto Barrage". Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers Journal. russellphillipsbooks. Archived from the original on 6 December 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ^ Otranto Barrage article Archived 13 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine from firstworldwar.com
References
- Millholland, Ray, "The Splinter Fleet of Otranto Barrage" The Readers League of America, New York, NY, 1936
Further reading
- Halpern, Paul, The Battle of the Otranto Straits: Controlling the Gateway to the Adriatic in World War I. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-253-34379-8. A comprehensive account of the battle.
- (IT) Carlo Stasi, Otranto e l'Inghilterra (episodi bellici in Puglia e nel Salento), in "Note di Storia e Cultura Salentina", anno XV, (Argo, Lecce 2003)
- (IT) Carlo Stasi, Otranto nel Mondo. Dal "Castello" di Walpole al "Barone" di Voltaire (Editrice Salentina, Galatina 2018) ISBN 978-88-31964-06-7