Vienna (ship, 1911)
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The Wien (III) was a passenger ship of the Austrian Lloyd put into service in 1911 . Up until then she was the largest and most powerful ship in Austria. Sunk in the port of Pola in 1918 , the ship was lifted and was in service for many years. On March 14, 1941, the steamer was sunk by British torpedo bombers under the name Po in the port city of Valona in use as a hospital ship.
Passenger ship
The 7,357 GRT steamship Vienna was laid down on November 25, 1909 at the Lloyd Austriaco shipyard in the port city of Trieste, which was then still part of Austria , and completed on August 28, 1911. The steamer was 134.9 meters long, 16.2 meters wide and had a draft of 6.91 meters. The ship was powered by two propellers driven. The machines made 10,000 hp.
The Wien had a sister ship , the Helouan (7,367 GRT), which was completed on January 19, 1912. She sank on August 12, 1937 near Naples after a fire on board. During the First World War , the Wien and the Helouan served as hospital ships for the Red Cross .
The Austrian Lloyd used the two ships as express steamer on the route to Alexandria , the most profitable transport connection in the Mediterranean at the time . The shipping company succeeded in establishing the fastest connection from the continent to Alexandria. The travel time was reduced by one day and Alexandria could be reached from Trieste in just three days. Furthermore, when equipping the ship, great importance was attached to the comfort and well-being of the passengers. As a result of these measures, the position of Österreichischer Lloyd in the Alexandria service was expanded. Lloyd gained in importance and was able to successfully assert its position against international competition.
First World War and subsequent years
The beginning of the First World War brought massive restrictions on international shipping. The Vienna as previously requested already other ships of the Austrian Lloyd from the Navy as a hospital ship. Her service as such began on February 16, 1916. As early as June 29, 1916, the Wien was released from service after having sustained a defective propeller after hitting the ground.
On December 7, 1917, the military requested the steamer again and used it as a barge for the crews of the imperial German submarines in Pola . Furthermore, the German radio reconnaissance set up observation and deciphering stations on the Vienna to monitor the central and western Mediterranean .
At the end of the war, on the night of November 1, 1918, when the fleet flagship SMS Viribus Unitis was sunk in the port of Pola by the Italian combat swimmers Raffaele Rossetti and Raffaele Paolucci , the Wien sank to the bottom of the port after an explosion . This was triggered by the ownerless manned torpedo called Mignatta , with which the two officers carried out the attack on the Viribus Unitis. Before the two could be captured in the attack, they managed to trigger the torpedo's self-timer. The abandoned small weaponry got stuck in the seabed under the Vienna and exploded.
After the end of the war, the ship was lifted by Italy and restored. In 1921 Lloyd Triestino , the Italian successor company of Austrian Lloyd, put the ship into operation and changed the name to Vienna . The Vienna traveled on the long-distance route to Asia. In 1935 the name of the ship was changed to Po .
After Italy entered the Second World War on June 10, 1940, the steamer Po was requisitioned again by the army and, as in the First World War, was used as a hospital ship from November 21, 1940. In the course of 14 mission trips, it transported and cared for 6,600 Italian soldiers who had been wounded in the fighting in Greece and Libya .
Sinking
In March 1941, on the occasion of the Italian campaign in Albania and Greece, the ship was anchored together with other ships of the Italian fleet in the bay of Valona . At that time, Edda Ciano , the daughter of Benito Mussolini and wife of the Italian Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano , was working as a nurse on the ship.
According to international regulations, hospital ships were to be identified by a conspicuous white-red paint, painted large red crosses and the lighting of the ship at night. However, since the other warships in the bay were also illuminated, the naval command in Valona ordered the captain of the hospital ship not to turn on the lights during the night.
On the night of March 14, 1941 there was an air raid by British Swordfish torpedo bombers . This was the same type of aircraft that the German warship Bismarck had suffered from a hit in the steering gear . The destination was ships of the Italian fleet lying in the bay of Valona. The attacking aircraft belonged to the 815 Naval Air Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) and were stationed at RAF Airfield in Paramythia . To this day, it can only be speculated whether the ship, which is darkened in the bay, was recognized by the attackers as a hospital ship or not.
There were no wounded on board at the time of the attack. The people on board jumped overboard and flew ashore by swimming, including Edda Ciano. Nevertheless, three people were killed in the attack, the Italian nurses Maria Federici, Vanda Sechi and Ennia Tramontani.
The lead of the attack was taken over by Lieutenant Charles Lamb. When approaching the target, he dipped the undercarriage into the water. He managed to maintain control of his aircraft, to continue the attack against the dark hull of the ship he described and to drop the torpedo . The Lt. Michael Torrens-Spence recognized a large, unlit passenger ship in the dark, which he was attacking with his torpedo. The other torpedo bombers found no worthwhile targets and returned with the torpedoes. Lt. Charles Lamb safely led the bandage back to Paramythia. It later emerged that the hospital ship Po (position 40.22N / 19.28E) and the 3539 GRT steamer Santa Maria had been sunk in the attack. The sinking of the Po was instrumentalized by Italian propaganda .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ The sinking of the Viribus Unitis on the Italian Navy page (Italian) accessed on February 28, 2018