Battle of Tripoli (1911)

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Battle of Tripoli
Italian landing on Tripoli beach
Italian landing on Tripoli beach
date October 3, 1911 to October 10, 1911
place Tripoli , Tripolitania , today Libya Coordinates: 32 ° 53 ′ 42 ″  N , 13 ° 11 ′ 20 ″  EWorld icon
output Italian victory
Parties to the conflict

Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Kingdom of Italy

Ottoman Empire 1844Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire

Commander

Luigi Faravelli
Umberto Cagni

Neşat Bey

Troop strength
1,700 soldiers
4 battleships
4 armored cruisers
1 protected cruiser 		3,000 soldiers
1 gunboat

The Siege of Tripoli took place in October 1911 as part of the Italian-Turkish war in Tripoli instead. With it began the first Italian campaign in what is now Libya, which ended with the smashing of the Ottoman Vilâyet Tripolitanie and the subsequent Italian colonization .

background

The Kingdom of Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire on September 29, 1911 in order to conquer the Tripolitania region, which was under Ottoman rule . After the declaration of war, an Italian naval squadron led by Admiral Luigi Faravelli was sent to the Libyan coast off Tripoli to enforce a blockade. The Italian government wanted the fleet to attack the fortresses of Tripoli. However, Faravelli initially decided against doing so, fearing it would lead to retaliation by the local Arab population against the 2000 Europeans living in the city. Faravelli offered to take foreign citizens on board his ships, but the consuls of the neutral states said they felt they felt adequately protected by the Ottoman authorities. Only Italian citizens went on board, including many journalists who had rushed to Libya to cover the events.

Between 29 and 30 September an attempt was made to shoot down a torpedo on the Turkish steamer Derna , which was now in port and had broken the Italian blockade in the previous days and brought a load of weapons to Tripoli. However, the rough sea prevented the torpedo from being loaded and shot down.

course

Italian landing forces
Italian soldiers near Tripoli

On October 2, 1911, the Italian squadron was positioned in front of the port of Tripoli, awaiting the arrival of an expeditionary force from Italy to land in Libya. The ships also had the task of preventing supplies and supplies from the Ottoman Empire. Faravelli was ordered to demand the surrender of the Ottoman garrison and, if refused, to open hostilities. The admiral complained that the landing forces were not ready and outnumbered, but another telegram ordered the action to begin immediately. Faravelli then invited the Turkish Defterdar Ahmed Bessim Bey on board his flagship and demanded that the city be surrendered. Bessim Bey refused and tried to buy time by claiming he could not currently contact Constantinople and ask for instructions. During this encounter, Colonel Neşat Bey ordered the Ottoman forces in Tripoli to leave the city and settle at al-ʿAzīzīya , about ten kilometers from Tripoli.

Tripoli was defended by two fortresses: Hamidiye in the east of the city and Sultaniye in the west. There were also three smaller positions in the port area. However, on the orders of Colonel Neşat Bey, these fortifications were only partially occupied. On October 3rd at 3:30 p.m., the Italian squadron opened fire on the fortresses: the Italian battleship Benedetto Brin fired first, followed soon after by the battleship Emanuele Filiberto , the cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi and the cruiser Carlo Alberto . The ships began their bombardments from a distance of 8,500 to 9,500 meters outside the range of the guns of the fortresses and slowly approached. The forts answered the heavy gunfire, but the ships were out of range. At 4:15 p.m., when the distance had been reduced to 6,500 meters, the ships' 152 mm guns also opened fire. At 5:15 p.m. the ships stopped firing: all Ottoman fortresses had been badly damaged, civil buildings were not significantly damaged except for the governor's palace and the lighthouses. The only Ottoman warship in Tripoli, the gunboat Seyyad , was sunk by the crew during the bombing. The steamer Derna suffered the same fate and was later put into service as an auxiliary ship for the Italian Navy.

The following day, the Italian squadron bombed the Ottoman fortresses again. Only Sultaniye returned fire and shot occasionally. An Italian patrol was sent ashore and found that Hamidiye had been abandoned. The German consul Adrian Tilger informed the members of the patrol that the Ottoman forces had left Tripoli and asked them to occupy the city to prevent looting.

Landing of Italian troops on October 5, 1911

On October 5, the Italian command decided to deploy the landing force of the Italian Navy under Umberto Cagni . These forces consisted of two regiments of three battalions each . One of the battalions came from Sardegna , the other two from Re Umberto . The operation began on October 5, 1911 at 7:30 a.m. The soldiers from the Sicilia landed first , followed by the units of the Sardegna and an artillery unit. There was no response. The men occupied the Sultaniye position and prepared the defense. Then the soldiers of the Re Umberto landed and brought four artillery pieces with them. At noon the Italian flag was hoisted. At the same time, a sapper unit occupied the Hamidiye fortress at the other end of the port. At 4.30 p.m. the complete second regiment was deposited on the coast and shortly afterwards reached the market square of Tripoli, where the first regiment was encountered.

Captain Cagni immediately organized a line of defense to secure the coastline of the landing zone. With the landing force being the only available force to hold the city, the situation was very dangerous for the Italians, as the Ottoman forces outside the city outnumbered the Italians by far. The convoy of the Italian army had not yet set sail from Naples and Palermo and would take a few days to cross. However, Cagni managed to deceive the Ottomans by constantly marching his troops from place to place within the city. With this ruse it was possible to delay the Ottoman counter-attacks by a week. In the meantime, Admiral Raffaele Borea Ricci d'Olmo , who had been appointed provisional governor of Tripolitania, tried to forge good relations with the city's Arab leaders, who accepted the occupation without much resistance. The Mayor of Tripoli, Hassan Karamanli, appointed by the Ottoman authorities, was confirmed in his post and also appointed Deputy Governor of Tripoli by the Italian authorities.

Troop reinforcements from Italy

On the night of October 9-10, the Ottoman troops, supported by Libyan militias, attacked the Italian positions in the area around the Bu Meliana fountain south of Tripoli, which was the city's main source of water. The attack was repulsed with the help of the warships. But the attack caused the Italian high command to speed up the transport of army troops to Tripoli in order to bolster the scarce naval forces that held the city. The armored cruiser Varese and the troop transporters America and Verona broke away from the approaching convoy of troops from Italy and drove at higher speed towards Tripoli. They reached the city on October 11th and deposed the 84th Infantry Regiment, two battalions of the 40th Infantry Regiment and one battalion of the 11th Bersaglieri Regiment . Around 4,800 soldiers were landed. The following day the other ships also reached the port of Tripoli. Overall, the troop strength grew to 35,000 men under the command of General Carlo Caneva . After the arrival of the army, Captain Cagni's landing forces were allowed back on their ships.

However, most of the Turkish garrison remained intact. After retreating into the desert, they established bases out of range of the warships and recruited Arab volunteers. A few weeks later, the Ottoman and Arab forces attempted to take Tripoli at the Battle of Sciara Sciatas , but failed.

literature

  • Bruce Vandervort: Verso la quarta sponda la guerra italiana per la Libia (1911-1912) , Stato maggiore dell'esercito, Rome 2012
  • Mariano Gabriele: La Marina nella guerra Italo-Turca . Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare, Rome 1998
  • Franco Bandini: Gli italiani in Africa. Storia delle guerre coloniali 1882-1943 . Longanesi & C., Milan 1971

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franco Bandini: Gli italiani in Africa. Storia delle guerre coloniali 1882-1943 (1971), p. 267
  2. ^ Franco Bandini: Gli italiani in Africa. Storia delle guerre coloniali 1882-1943 (1971), pp. 214-267
  3. ^ Franco Bandini: Gli italiani in Africa. Storia delle guerre coloniali 1882-1943 (1971), p. 215
  4. ^ Bruce Vandervort: Verso la quarta sponda la guerra italiana per la Libia (1911–1912) . P. 261 f.
  5. ^ Mariano Gabriele: La Marina nella guerra Italo-Turca . P. 50 f.
  6. ^ Bruce Vandervort: Verso la quarta sponda. La guerra italiana per la Libia (1911-1912) . P. 261 f.
  7. ^ A b William Henry Beehler: The History of the Italian-Turkish War: September 29, 1911, to October 18, 1912 . United States Naval Institute, Annapolis 1913, p. 19 ( digitized version )
  8. ^ Enrico Cernuschi: La guerra italo-turca sul mare . In: Storia Militare , No. 229 (October 2012), p. 59
  9. ^ Bruce Vandervort: Verso la quarta sponda. La guerra italiana per la Libia (1911-1912) . P. 262
  10. ↑ Bruce Vandervort: Verso la quarta sponda la guerra italiana per la Libia (1911–1912) , p. 264.
  11. ^ Franco Bandini: Gli italiani in Africa storia delle guerre coloniali 1882-1943 . P. 215
  12. ^ A b William Henry Beehler: The History of the Italian-Turkish War: September 29, 1911, to October 18, 1912 . United States Naval Institute, Annapolis 1913, p. 20
  13. ^ Mariano Gabriele: La Marina nella guerra Italo-Turca . P. 54
  14. ^ Mariano Gabriele: La Marina nella guerra Italo-Turca , p. 54
  15. ^ Bruce Vandervort: Verso la quarta sponda. La guerra italiana per la Libia (1911-1912) . P. 264
  16. ^ Bruce Vandervort: Verso la quarta sponda. La guerra italiana per la Libia (1911-1912) . P. 266
  17. ^ Bruce Vandervort: Verso la quarta sponda. La guerra italiana per la Libia (1911-1912) . P. 267