Sea battle at al-Qunfudha

Sea battle at al-Qunfudha

Part of: Italo-Turkish War

Piedmont

date	January 7, 1912
place	Bay of al-Qunfudha , Red Sea Coordinates: 19 ° 8 ′ 9 "  N , 41 ° 3 ′ 54"  E
output	Italian victory

Parties to the conflict
Kingdom of Italy	Ottoman Empire
Troop strength
a protected cruiser two destroyers	six gunboats a tug a yacht
losses
no	six gunboats destroyed a tug sunk a yacht hijacked

The naval battle of al-Qunfudha took place on January 7, 1912 during the Italo -Turkish War between squadrons of the Italian and Ottoman navies. The Italian protected cruiser Piemonte and the Soldati-class destroyers Artigliere and Garibaldino discovered six Ottoman gunboats , a tug and a yacht in the port of al-Qunfudha on the Red Sea coast . The battle raged for more than three hours. Five Ottoman ships sank and four dhows were captured. Three gunboats were so badly damaged that they were landed on the beach to prevent them from sinking. The following morning the Italian ships returned to destroy the remaining Ottoman ships. The yacht that sank was later salvaged and taken over by the Italians. After the battle, the Italian Navy became the ruling naval force in the Red Sea.

background

After the outbreak of the Italo-Turkish War in September 1911, the Italian Regia Marina sent a squadron of cruisers and destroyers to the Red Sea to protect the Italian colony of Eritrea from an attack by the Ottoman Navy from the Arabian Peninsula. In late 1911, Italian warships attacked Ottoman ports in an attempt to destroy any ship large enough to ferry Ottoman forces into Eritrea. At the end of the year, the Italians had assembled a squadron of protected cruisers, a torpedo cruiser , four destroyers and two gunboats, along with other ships . This flotilla was under the command of Captain Giovanni Cerrina Feroni .

The only Ottoman ship in the region was the torpedo cruiser Peyk-i Şevket . After a brief battle with the Italian torpedo cruiser Aretusa and the gunboat Volturno off al-Hudaida , the Peyk-i Şevket fled and was later interned by the British in the Suez Canal. The rest of the Ottoman fleet was concentrated in the Mediterranean Sea and resided in the safer Sea of ​​Marmara , where the Dardanelles defended the coast . Six gunboats lying in the Persian Gulf were called into the Mediterranean, but had to stop in the Mediterranean because the coal ran out. The steamer Kaiseri was supposed to help out with coal, but was previously captured by the Italians.

course

The Italians had learned of the presence of the gunboats in early January. The protected cruiser Piemonte and the destroyers Artigliere and Garibaldino searched for the gunboats, while the cruisers Calabria and Puglia conducted a diversionary maneuver with the attacks of Jebbel Tahr and al-Luhayya . The Piemonte and the destroyer localized Ottoman flotilla on January 7 before al-Qunfudha. The Ottoman forces consisted of the gunboats Ordu , Bafra , Refahiye , Gökçedağ , Kastamonu and Ayintag , the armed tug Muha and the armed yacht Şipka .

When the Italians got within 4,100 meters, they opened fire. In three hours they sank four gunboats. The remaining gunboats ran aground to prevent them from sinking. The next morning the Italian ships returned and deployed landing forces to destroy the remaining ships and take over their armament. The Italian ships then attacked the port and captured four dhows. The Şipka was later also taken over under the prize law .

consequences

With the destruction of the Ottoman naval flotilla in the region, the Italians enforced a blockade of the coast and began to bring more ships under their control. Nevertheless, Muslims were allowed to cross the Red Sea on pilgrimage to Mecca. For the remainder of the war, Italian cruisers operated in the region and bombed Ottoman positions. After further heavy defeats in the course of 1912, the Ottomans finally agreed to surrender and ended the war on October 18, 1912 with the Peace of Ouchy .

literature

• William Henry Beehler: The History of the Italian-Turkish War: September 29, 1911, to October 18, 1912 . United States Naval Institute, Annapolis 1913 ( digitized version )
• Bernd Langensiepen, Ahmet Güleryüz: The Ottoman Steam Navy 1828–1923 . Conway Maritime Press, London 1995, ISBN 978-0-85177-610-1
• Charles Stephenson: A Box of Sand: The Italo-Ottoman War 1911–1912 . Tattered Flag Press, Ticehurst 2014, ISBN 978-0957689220

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Beehler (1913), pp. 10–11, 47–48, 51
2. ↑ ^{a b} Stephenson (2014), p. 62
3. ↑ Langensiepen, Güleryüz (1995), p. 25
4. ↑ Beehler (1913), pp. 11 f., 45
5. ↑ ^{a b} Beehler (1913), p. 51
6. ↑ Langensiepen, Güleryüz (1995), p. 15 f.
7. ↑ Langensiepen, Güleryüz (1995), p. 16
8. ↑ Beehler (1913), pp. 51-52, 70, 90-93
9. ↑ Beehler (1913), p. 95