Bombardment of Durrës

On 2 October 1918 a force of Italian, British, American and Australian warships bombarded Durrës, Albania’s main port, which since February 1916 had been a supply base for the Austro-Hungarian forces. The operation had been requested by the Allied commander-in-chief in Macedonia, General Louis Franchet d’Espèrey. After the armistice with Bulgaria he wanted to hinder the enemy’s evacuation of troops and equipment through the Albanian port. The French government asked Rome for its consent, and the Italians stipulated that their admiral would command the operation. The chief of the Italian navy, Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, agreed to it on 26 September and entrusted it to Admiral Osvaldo Paladini. The Austrians had in fact been emptying Durrës since 28 September, and only two destroyers, a torpedo boat and two submarines remained in the port.

The bombardment

According to the Italian history of the war at sea (Favre), the ships left Brindisi at seven in the morning. The port was shelled by two groups: an Italian one, with the armoured cruisers San Giorgio, Pisa and San Marco, and a British one, with the light cruisers Lowestoft, Dartmouth and Weymouth. They were screened by British destroyers, Italian torpedo boats, eleven American submarine chasers and four Italian MAS motor torpedo boats (PL). Further north waited three covering groups, including the Italian battleship Dante Alighieri and two Australian destroyers, Swan and Warrego. They were to intercept the Austro-Hungarian fleet should it come out of Cattaro. In the morning Italian and British aircraft from Apulia bombed the coastal batteries in several waves.

At 12.10 p.m. the Italian cruisers opened fire from a range of about 12 km. The Austro-Hungarian hospital ship Baron Call sailed out of the port. British destroyers and American submarine chasers stopped her, inspected her and let her go to Cattaro. At about 12.20 p.m. the destroyers Dinara and Scharfschütze and torpedo boat 87 slipped out of the port. The MAS boats attacked them, and one torpedo hit the torpedo boat but failed to explode. Scharfschütze, also fired on by British destroyers, was damaged and lost two killed, but all three ships escaped to Cattaro.

At about 12.40 p.m. the British cruisers joined the bombardment. Soon afterwards Weymouth was hit by a torpedo from the Austro-Hungarian submarine U-31, which together with U-29 was trying to slip out of the port submerged. The explosion wrecked the cruiser’s stern and killed four sailors, but the ship stayed afloat and returned to base with the help of destroyers. The American submarine chasers depth-charged both submarines for a long time. They damaged them but did not sink them.

Consequences

The bombardment ended at about 12.55 p.m. The Italians judged that the port and military installations had been seriously damaged, although the Austrian command considered the losses slight. The steamer Stambul sank, and two others, Graz and Herzegowina, were damaged. Shells also hit the old town, which lay right by the port. Many public buildings were destroyed, and the palace in which Prince Wilhelm of Wied had resided in 1914 was so badly damaged that it was never rebuilt. According to Albanian accounts the civilian population also suffered, and began fleeing the town at the first shots.

It was not the first time Durrës had come under naval fire. In December 1915 it was the Austrians who shelled the port, from which the Italians were then evacuating the Serbian army, and at the end of that month the first battle of Durazzo was fought here. The bombardment hastened the evacuation. According to Italian studies, the last Austro-Hungarian units left Durrës on 10 October. A few days later Italian troops entered the town.