Page 155 - Il Mediterraneo quale elemento del Potere Marittimo - Atti 16-18 settembre 1996

GEIU.IAN NAV.AL STRATEGY IN .. THE MEDITEB.R.&"!EAN-1914-1918 141

some. harsh reactions of che British off the Dardanelles h ad not che desired results,
he carne co the conclusion that the Turkish officials and the public might only be
aroused by coming to grips with the old enemy, the Russians.
While che Turkish government was stili negotiating with Berlin for a loan of
2 million Turkish pounds, Enver Pasha and che navy minister Djemal Pasha agreed
on 25 October co cover admiral Souchon, when he on his own responsibility un-
dertook to attack the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Having fulfilled his training aims
and che necessary strengthening of the defences of the Narrows. On 27 October
the Turkish Fleet departed the Boshopus and on the next morning che ships attac-
ked Odessa, Sevastopol, Feodosiya, and Novorossijsk. So Souchon moscly on his
own initiative pushed Turkey. into the war on che German side.
The Allies, Great Britain and France, wanted to counter this devolopment by
forcing the Turkish Narrows to open the way to the Russian harbours in the Black
Sea again. Long discussions took piace, which we can not describe in detail bere.
Finally the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, who had tried to win
over the British generals, the F rench and the Russians for his idea of an attack
against the Narrows, succeeded. The British and French assembled a big fleet espe-
cially of mostly old battleships to fighe down the Turkish batteries at the Dardanel-
les and then to land on Gallipoli fora breakthrough to Constantinople. After some
small skirmishes, on 18 March 1915 the British-French fleet tried in strength to
force the Narrows of the Dardanelles, but was forced back by the German-Turkish
mobile howitzer batteries in the hills, after loosing 3 battleships and heavy damage
to a battlecruiser from a mine barrage cleverly laid only 10 days ago by che small
Turkish minelayer Nusret. Notwithstanding this failure on 25 Aprii the British and
French landed at Gallipoli, starting a months long heavy and bloody battle.
To support che Turkish and German defenders, which were heavily bombar-
ded by the British and French battleships, on l March 1915 admiral Souchon asked
che German Admiralty co send U-boats. The Austrian Navy was unable to help,
because she had then only 6 more or less experimental submarines, an d che surface
fleet had no chance to break out of che Adriatic Sea against che greatly superior
French and British ships, blocking the Otranto.Street. So the German Admiralty
asked the C-in-C of the "Hochseeflotte" to send a ocean-going U-boat. From 20
March two new small UB-U-boats went by rail to Pola for re-assembling them there.
From 25 April.to-.13: May U 2.l unter Lt. Cdr. Hersing went from W.ilhelm,.
shaven through the Strait of Gibraltar to the Austrian port Cattaro, and after short
repairs left on 20 May for che Dardanelles. Only a few days after a German led
Turkish torpedoboat Muavenet had sunk the British batdeship goliath, Hersing on
25 and 27 May achieved his great success with the sinking of the two British battle-
ships Triumph and Majestic, forcing the Allies to retreat with their heavy ships from
their bombardment positions dose co che coast. From March co July two more VB
and 4 UC-boats carne by rail to Pola and some of them started their transfer to
Turkish ports in May. On 30 May one of them, UB 8 under Lt. Voigt, assumed