To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander

Eight. Poor Austrians!

tions of Pola are ancient and would be no serious hindrance to the enemy; they could be overrun in the first assault. So there is a danger that the central headquarters of the navy with its arsenals, resources, equipment, and coal could be lost. If that happened, the activity of the whole fleet could be undermined . At this point the fleet itself makes a move. At 4:00 p.m. on the twenty-third of May, Italy’s declaration of war is known in Pola and three hours later the entire Austrian fleet leaves port. In groups they spread out along the east coast of Italy, from Ravenna down to Barletta, and they shoot at the railway and at whatever military installations they can find. In a fight between destroyers, the Italian Turbine is sunk. The surprise attack has the desired effect: the Italians’ advance toward the Isonzo is delayed.1 Perhaps a landing maneuver is expected on the other side. At any rate, time is gained, the Isonzo front is established, and the danger for Pola is dispelled. For now the U-boats are held back and are used only on the home coast. Two lie in Trieste, one in Pola, one in Lissa, and the rest in the Bocche. Everyone awaits an offensive action from the Italians and wants to have the U-boats on hand. Naturally, with these few the whole coast cannot be defended and so around and among the islands, enemy U-boats make themselves apparent. Otherwise, at present, the enemy is not noticeable. Eight.Poor Austrians! Meanwhile, the German U-boats conduct economic warfare in the Mediterranean and sink freighters. One after the other! And it is so simple: they lie on a steamship route and do not have to look long. The ships come on the shortest route between the harbors. Each alone, one after the other! 36 POOR AUSTRIANS! As soon as a freighter draws near, the U-boat surfaces and flies the signal: “Stop immediately!” Then the captain is called down below with his papers. Most transports have contraband goods—and then the demolition squad goes on board. Our route first leads us to the supply compartments, since the ships always bring the most delicious things home: canned food, caviar, wines, cognac, whole sides of bacon, but also chronometers and sextants. It would be a pity to sink all these lovely goods. Then blasting cartridges are let down on the ship’s hull, detonated , and the ship has made her last voyage. Sometimes these ships follow one another so quickly that the first has not yet sunk before the next in line appears. Many stop even without summons and the crew rushes into the lifeboats, their respect for the U-boats is so great. However, should one attempt to escape, the 8.8-centimeter cannon quickly brings her surrender. Some good-natured commanders are willing to tow the lifeboats with the shipwrecked sailors to the coast and then move on to the next cargo vessel. Now and then the Germans bring home another variety of loot. One comes with a small cannon, one with a lot of copper that was really needed for the production of ammunition, and one brings a black man. They had fished him out of a sinking cargo ship where the man had been abandoned. Later he answers to the name, “Wilhelm,” and is quite a skillful fellow. When tobacco is scarcest, he sells his masters good cigarettes that he had stolen from them the week before. Max Valentiner even brings back a camel from the North African coast, a gift from the Senussi. He had brought Turkish officers there who, equipped with money and medals, were to agitate the different clans against the English and the Italians. According to the German officers’ story, these emissaries decorated one another with the highest medals of distinction and POOR AUSTRIANS! 37 divided the money amongst themselves until Valentiner intervened strongly. The K.u.K. U-boats have similar, although shorter, expeditions to carry out. Again and again an Albanian chieftain comes on board who, furnished with coffers of gold and weapons, should be deposited in the Drin Gulf on land. You retreat instinctively before them. Unshaved and unwashed, with matted hair, they look like the last survivors of a polar expedition. They just don’t look like chiefs at all. Instead, they reek from a...