The Bombardment of Ancona was a naval engagement of the

Adriatic Campaign of World War I The Adriatic Campaign of World War I was a naval campaign fought between the Central Powers and the Mediterranean squadrons of the Allies, specifically the United Kingdom, France, the Kingdom of Italy, Australia, and the United States. Characte ...

between the navies of

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

. Forces of the Imperial and Royal Navy attacked and bombarded military and civilian targets all across

Ancona Ancona (, also ; ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region of central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona, homonymous province and of the region. The city is located northeast of Ro ...

central Italy Central Italy ( or ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first-level NUTS region with code ITI, and a European Parliament constituency. It has 11,704,312 inhabita ...

and several other nearby islands and communities in response to Italy's declaration of war on Austria-Hungary.

Prelude

When Italy declared war against Austria-Hungary on 23 May 1915, the Austrian fleet was quick to react; the navy launched several attacks on the

Marche Marche ( ; ), in English sometimes referred to as the Marches ( ) from the Italian name of the region (Le Marche), is one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. The region is located in the Central Italy, central area of the country, ...

region of Italy. That day, the

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

and

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

'' Tb 53T'' bombarded the port of Ancona. The destroyer , on a

reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...

mission between

Palagruža Palagruža (; ) is a small Croatian archipelago in the middle of the Adriatic Sea. It is uninhabited, except by lighthouse staff and occasional summer tourists. Palagruža can be reached only by a chartered motorboat, requiring a journey of seve ...

and Cape Gargano, shelled the

semaphore Semaphore (; ) is the use of an apparatus to create a visual signal transmitted over distance. A semaphore can be performed with devices including: fire, lights, flags, sunlight, and moving arms. Semaphores can be used for telegraphy when arra ...

and radio station at

Vieste Vieste (; ) is a town, ''comune'' and former Catholic bishopric in the province of Foggia, in the Apulia region of southeast Italy. A marine resort in Gargano, Vieste has received Blue Flags for the purity of its waters from the Foundation fo ...

. Defending those waters at the time was the Italian destroyer . A small duel commenced with ''Lika'' coming out as the victor, damaging the enemy destroyer.

Raid

The next day, 24 May, the majority of the Austrian fleet at Pola steamed for the

Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

coast of Italy. This included the

dreadnought The dreadnought was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an effect when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", ...

s , , and eight

pre-dreadnought Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built from the mid- to late- 1880s to the early 1900s. Their designs were conceived before the appearance of in 1906 and their classification as "pre-dreadnought" is retrospectively appl ...

s. Other Austro-Hungarian ships were already in enemy waters or proceeding to the Ancona coast themselves. The fleet bombarded several of the Italian coastal cities and other targets in and around the Province of Ancona, especially damaging the city of Ancona. SMS ''Tegetthoff'' and the destroyer shelled the Italian

airship An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the ...

''Città di Ferrara'' off Ancona. The pre-dreadnought and two torpedo boats bombarded

Potenza Picena Potenza Picena is a comune (municipality) in central Italy, situated in the Province of Macerata, in the Marche region. It has residents. Until 1862, it was called Monte Santo. The river Potenza flows nearby. Geography Territory The borde ...

, then returned to Pola naval base. The pre-dreadnought —along with two more torpedo boats—bombarded

Senigallia Senigallia (or Sinigaglia in Old Italian; ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) and port town on Italy's Adriatic Sea, Adriatic coast. It is situated in the province of Ancona, in the Italian region of Marche, and lies approximately 30 kilometres nor ...

, destroying a

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

and damaging a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

and a bridge, before returning to Pola. The torpedo boat was unsuccessfully bombed by an Italian

flying boat A flying boat is a type of seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in having a fuselage that is purpose-designed for flotation, while floatplanes rely on fuselage-mounted floats for buoyancy. Though ...

. Austrian

scout cruiser A scout cruiser was a type of warship of the early 20th century, which were smaller, faster, more lightly armed and armoured than protected cruisers or light cruisers, but larger than contemporary destroyers. Intended for fleet scouting duties a ...

bombarded the Italian

signal station A signal station is a form of Navigational aid, Aids to Navigation that is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization, IHO simply as "A signal station is a place on shore from which signals are made to ships at sea". While this broad de ...

at Cretaccio Island, while —with two torpedo boats—shelled

Rimini Rimini ( , ; or ; ) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. Sprawling along the Adriatic Sea, Rimini is situated at a strategically-important north-south passage along the coast at the southern tip of the Po Valley. It is ...

, damaging a

freight train A freight train, also called a goods train or cargo train, is a railway train that is used to carry cargo, as opposed to passengers. Freight trains are made up of one or more locomotives which provide propulsion, along with one or more railroad ...

. The destroyer attacked the signal station near

Torre di Mileto ''Torre'' (plurals ''torri'' and ''torres'') means ''tower'' in seven Romance languages ( Portuguese, Spanish, Galician, Catalan, Italian, Occitan and Corsican) and may refer to: Biology * Muir-Torre syndrome, the inherited cancer syndrome * ...

. The light cruiser , a destroyer and two torpedo boats entered

Corsini Channel Corsini is an Italian surname. The Corsini family is a princely Florence, Florentine family. The emperor Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV created the head of the house a count palatine in 1371; the marquess, marquisate of Sismano was conf ...

and shelled an Italian torpedo boat station, another semaphore station, and few batteries of

coastal artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of ...

. The scout cruiser —supported by four destroyers—ran into the Italian destroyer ''Turbine'', in a

pitched battle A pitched battle or set-piece battle is a battle in which opposing forces each anticipate the setting of the battle, and each chooses to commit to it. Either side may have the option to disengage before the battle starts or shortly thereafter. A ...

south of Pelagosa. The destroyer shelled the railway embankment near

Manfredonia Manfredonia () is a town and Comune, commune of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Foggia, from which it is northeast by rail. Manfredonia is situated on the coast, facing east, to the south of Monte Gargano, and gives its name to the Gulf of Manf ...

while the destroyer shelled the Manfredonia railway station. Finally Austro-Hungarian flying boats dropped ordnance on

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

and seaplane

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

s at Chiaravalle.¨ The Italian protected cruiser Libia briefly saw combat during the latter stage of the raid on the morning of 24 May; she and the armed merchant cruiser SS Cittá di Siracusa engaged the Austro-Hungarian scout cruiser SMS Helgoland as she and the destroyers Tátra and Csepel were withdrawing from the area. The ships exchanged gunfire between 07:10 and 07:19, and Libia struck Helgoland with one shell before the faster Austro-Hungarians were able to disengage from the slower Italian ships.

Aftermath

Heavy damage was inflicted by the Austrian navy, and 63 people, both Italian military and civilian personnel, died in Ancona alone.''Grga Novak, Jadransko more u sukobima i borbama kroz stoljeća'', book 2, Split, 2004 The dome of

Ancona Cathedral Ancona Cathedral (, ''Basilica Cattedrale Metropolitana di San Ciriaco'') is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Ancona, central Italy, dedicated to Saint Judas Cyriacus, Cyriacus. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Ancona. The building is an example o ...

was damaged, too. Austrian casualties were light. The war in the Adriatic Sea continued, culminating in a large Allied

blockade A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force. A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are ...

to prevent the Austro-Hungarian fleet from leaving the Adriatic. The "

Otranto Barrage The Otranto Barrage was an Allied naval blockade of the Strait of Otranto between Brindisi in Italy and Corfu on the Greek side of the Adriatic Sea in the First World War. The operation consisted of over 200 vessels at the height of the block ...

" would be raided by the Austro-Hungarians several times throughout the war, but major Austro-Hungarian warships rarely left the bases after this raid.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

Serbia, Balkans & Macedonia 1914–18

* ttp://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyAustrian.htm Austro-Hungarian Navy {{DEFAULTSORT:Ancona, Bombardment of Naval battles of World War I involving Austria-Hungary Naval battles of World War I involving Italy Mediterranean naval operations of World War I Conflicts in 1915 World War I raids May 1915 in Europe

Bombardment A bombardment is an attack by artillery fire or by dropping bombs from aircraft on fortifications, combatants, or cities and buildings. Prior to World War I, the term was only applied to the bombardment of defenseless or undefended obje ...

Naval bombing operations and battles of World War I Attacks on naval bases Building bombings in Italy Attacks on railway stations in Europe Railway accidents and incidents in Italy Transport disasters in 1915 Attacks on military installations in the 1910s Church bombings Attacks on churches in Europe 1915 in Christianity Military history of Marche