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

Forty. Durazzo

and have it all, then you are drawn back to the sea, so you are at home everywhere and nowhere. That is the fate of the Austrian naval officer. . . . But tomorrow is another day. Shall we shoot pistols again?” “Yes, splendid! Those loafing Komitadschis should see that we can hit the target, too!”5 “Good night!” Forty.Durazzo The Austrians at the Albanian Front have to retreat because Bulgaria refuses to help and the Austrian army, decimated by malaria , can no longer hold the Front. On the 28th of September, they get the order to evacuate within two weeks. The first evacuation transports leave from Durazzo. The available steamers bring the sick and wounded as well as supplies to the Bocche, and destroyers as well as torpedo boats escort the ships. They barely have two weeks’ time; it all must happen as quickly as possible. The vessels are immediately rushed out again, and hardly have time to replenish their coal. The flotilla gives her all to help her land-based comrades. It is like the last exertion of our strength. Durazzo lies on the northern end of a five-mile wide bay that is open to the sea. In front of the city three steamers are moored at the dock and are loading. Two old destroyers, Dinara and Sharpshooter ride at anchor there with torpedo boat 87, ready to escort the ships to the Bocche. Suddenly twenty enemy planes approach from the sea. More and more, one after the other, they head for the ships. Enraged, the shore battery and the vessels defend themselves. A sailing ship is hit by bombs and burns. It is loaded with precious aircraft bombs, and the destroyers dispatch firefighting detachments over to save the precious cargo. Suddenly smoke clouds rise from the horizon. In the north, west, and south, there is a forest of masts. There must be countless ships that the Allies summoned up to take pathetic Durazzo. 180 DURAZZO Every means of escape is blocked; our ships cannot leave the bay. Only a hospital ship weighs her anchor and steers out of the harbor, clearly distinguishable by the red stripes on the ship’s side and the red cross. Soon the enemy ships have approached. Three armored cruisers , four light cruisers, fifteen destroyers, fifteen motorboats, and more than thirty planes are approaching, while outside a battleship with destroyer protection gives them security toward the sea. Facing them are the land batteries with their small caliber cannons and their three little K.u.K. vessels. The light cruisers fire at the city, hangers, and dock simultaneously with the oncoming planes, and immediately afterward the armored cruisers fire their heaviest at the steamers, while the enemy destroyers break through and attack the three vessels. These succeed in outmaneuvering the torpedoes and, together with the land batteries, they fend off the storm. DURAZZO 181 Fig. 33. S.M.U. 5 sunk by an encounter with mines The cruisers form two lines, and, crossing back and forth in front of the bay, they concentrate a hail of shells on our vessels. These vessels travel wildly and independently, back and forth in the large bay, steering in a zigzag pattern to impede the enemy ’s aim, stopping off and on, then going again at full speed, warding off with their guns the mass attacks from motorboats that keep breaking out between the enemy ships. The attackers practice another method of eluding strikes. Every artilleryman corrects his calculations by observing the splash of his shells striking the water. If these fall too short, he increases the distance ; if they fall too wide, he decreases it. The destroyers base their evasion on this principle [called salvo chase1 ]. They steer into the shell splashes and, after the correction of aim, the next salvos fly either over them or they fall short. It requires cool 182 DURAZZO Fig. 34. Thanks to her design, a German U-boat that ran into a mine could reach home in this condition blood to execute this maneuver in the face of a rain of shells and, simultaneously firing, to avoid the torpedoes. They have already given up hope for their boats, which are riddled with shrapnel. Dead and wounded lie everywhere on deck; it cannot continue this way much longer. In the middle of the bombardment, there is an immense explosion on the stern of an English cruiser! What happened...