Naval Battle of Beirut

Naval Battle of Beirut

Part of: Italo-Turkish War

The burning Avnillah in the port of Beirut

date	February 24, 1912
place	in front of Beirut coordinates: 33 ° 55 ′ 19 ″  N , 35 ° 31 ′ 1 ″  E
output	Italian victory

Parties to the conflict
Kingdom of Italy	Ottoman Empire
Commander
Paolo Thaon di Revel	unknown
Troop strength
two armored cruisers	a corvette , a torpedo boat
losses
no	a corvette , six lighters , a torpedo boat , 55 dead
Civil losses: 66 dead

The naval battle of Beirut took place off the coast of Beirut on February 24, 1912 during the Italo-Turkish War . Italy's fears that the Ottoman naval forces in Beirut could be used to close access to the Suez Canal prompted the Italian military to attack the Ottoman navy in the region. On February 24, 1912, two Italian armored cruisers sank an Ottoman corvette , retreated, and then sank an Ottoman torpedo boat .

The Ottoman naval forces in the region were destroyed and the Italians' access to the Suez Canal remained open. In addition to the ship losses, the city of Beirut was badly damaged by the Italian warships.

background

The Italian armored cruiser Garibaldi

During the Italo-Turkish War, the Italian military command feared that the Ottoman Navy would attack the Mediterranean Sea on supplies and troop transports for Italian East Africa . In order to forestall such raids, Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel should attack the port of Beirut and destroy the Ottoman ships located there. Revel had two armored cruisers : the Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Francesco Ferruccio . Both cruisers belonged to the Giuseppe Garibaldi class and were equipped with two 254-mm turret guns, ten 152-mm guns, six 119-mm guns, ten 6-pounders, ten 1-pounders, 2 Maxim machine guns and five torpedo tubes equipped.

The Ottoman armed forces had the casemate corvette Avnillah and the torpedo boat Ankara . The Ankara was a relatively new ship that entered service in 1906 and was equipped with two 37mm cannons and two double torpedo tubes. The Avnillah , however, was a very old ship from 1869. After a conversion in 1907, she was equipped with four 760 mm guns and eight 6 pounders. She also had a torpedo tube. The Ottoman ships were clearly inferior to the Italian flotilla.

battle

Drawing of the course of the battle by Ralph Earle

The two Italian ships reached the port of Beirut at dawn on February 24, 1912 and fired warning shots at the Ottoman ships. The Avnillah's commander then raised the white flag to negotiate with the enemy. During the discussions, the Ankara's commander ordered the ship to be positioned in front of the pier. At 7:30 a.m., Admiral Revel ended the negotiations with an ultimatum to the Wālī of Beirut to hand over the two Ottoman ships by 9:00 a.m. The provincial governor received the message around 8:30 a.m. and immediately wrote a message about the abandonment of the ships, but this did not reach the Italians in time. At 9:00 a.m., the Italians began attacking the two Ottoman ships.

At a distance of 6000 meters, Admiral Revel opened fire on the Ottoman corvette. The Ottomans returned fire until the Avnillah caught fire at 9.35. After serious damage and run out of ammunition, the flags were painted and the crew left the ship. The Garibaldi now approached and fired at the Ankara at a distance of 600 meters, but could not damage the ship. In order to finally sink the Avnillah , the Garibaldi then shot a torpedo, which missed its target and hit a few lighters, six of which sank. Undeterred, the Italian cruiser unleashed a second torpedo, which hit the Ottoman corvette amidships. By 11 a.m. the corvette had sunk in shallow water and the Italian cruisers were withdrawing northwards. Around 1:45 p.m., the Italians returned and attacked again. The Ankara was still in port and so the Ferruccio approached and fired at the torpedo boat for three minutes until it sank too. The Italian flotilla then left to the west.

consequences

With the preemptive strike, the Ottoman Navy in Beirut had been destroyed and the danger for the Italians averted. In the southern Mediterranean the Regia Marina then dominated until the end of the war . The losses on the Ottoman side were severe. Both Ottoman warships had been sunk, with the sinking of the Avnillah alone causing 58 dead and 108 wounded. In contrast, the Italian ships not only suffered no losses, but also no direct hits from the Ottoman warships. The damage was not limited to the Ottoman naval ships. The city also suffered severe damage. Several projectiles hit city buildings and fire broke out. Several banks and part of the city's customs house and other buildings were destroyed. 66 civilians were killed and hundreds injured.

In retaliation for the Italian actions in Beirut, the Ottoman government ordered the Vilayets of Beirut, Aleppo and Damascus four days after the battle to expel all Italian citizens. More than 60,000 Italians had to leave the region. The battle gave the Italian troops the full superiority of the naval forces on the Suez Canal. The Italian troops in Eritrea could now be reinforced without delay, since the Ottoman threat in the region was largely eliminated. In this respect, the Battle of Beirut was both a tactical and a strategic success for the Regia Marina

literature

• William Beehler: The history of the Italian-Turkish War, September 29, 1911, to October 18, 1912 . The Advertiser Republican, Annapolis 1913 ( digitized version )
• Ralph Earle: Naval Institute proceedings , Volume 38, United States Naval Institute, 1912
• Robert Gardiner: Conway's all the world's fighting ships, 1906-1921 . Conway Maritime Press, London 1985, ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Earle (1912), p. 1092
2. ^ TA Brassey: Naval Annual 1898 . J. Griffin and Co., Portsmouth 1898, p. 36
3. ↑ Beehler (1913), p. 54
4. ↑ Gardiner (1985), p. 392
5. ↑ Gardiner (1985), p. 389
6. ↑ Newspaper report on the incidents , New York Times, February 26, 1912 (PDF)
7. ↑ Beehler (1913), p. 55
8. ↑ Andrew W. Hidden: The Ottoman Dynasty . Nicholas Hidden, New York City 1912, p. 456
9. ↑ Beehler (1913), p. 97
10. ↑ Beehler (1913), p. 55
11. ↑ ^{a b c} Earle 1912, p. 1094
12. ↑ Beehler (1913), p. 106