Italians in Fiume

On 4 November 1918 a squadron of the Italian Regia Marina entered the port of Fiume, today’s Rijeka. It was led by the old battleship Emanuele Filiberto, flying the flag of Rear Admiral Guglielmo Rainer, accompanied by destroyers including Francesco Stocco, Giuseppe Sirtori and Vincenzo Giordano Orsini. The British chronology of the war records under 5 November that Fiume was occupied by an Italian naval division. Italian and Croatian studies agree that the ships arrived a day earlier, and that their presence did not yet mean the occupation of the city.

The ships came at the call of the local Italians. Since 30 October Fiume had had two authorities: the commissioner of the Zagreb National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, who had taken over the palace of the former Hungarian governor, and the Italian National Council, which had proclaimed the city’s union with Italy. The Italian Council sent a delegation to Venice asking the naval command to protect the Italian population. Rainer’s squadron left Venice on the morning of 3 or 4 November, as accounts differ on the day. The voyage across the Kvarner gulf was hampered by fog and drifting mines, and the pilots advised against a night passage through the narrow straits between the islands. On the way news arrived of the signing of the Armistice of Villa Giusti. One of the destroyers detached itself from the squadron and on 4 November occupied the port on the island of Lošinj.

In Fiume itself the sailors did not go ashore for the time being. The city and neighbouring Sušak were held by the Croats. Lieutenant-Colonel Petar Teslić commanded battalions of the former Austro-Hungarian 79th Infantry Regiment from Otočac, supported by volunteers of the National Guard, many of them grammar-school pupils. The legal situation was also unclear. The Treaty of London of 1915 had not awarded Fiume to Italy, but the armistice allowed the Allies to occupy strategic points, which Rome invoked when it reached beyond the promised line. According to Croatian studies, two French destroyers, Touareg and Sakalave, also arrived in Fiume on 5 November.

On that same 5 November the Allied Naval Council decided to set up an inter-Allied naval commission for the Adriatic. It was to coordinate the fleets’ operations off the eastern coast, keep order and deal with the fate of the ships of the former Austro-Hungarian fleet, handed over in the last days of October to the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The commission later divided the coast into occupation zones. Fiume and the Kvarner were to go to the British, but by then the Italians had firmly established themselves in the city.

The dual power lasted less than two more weeks. In mid-November a battalion of the Serbian army arrived from Zagreb, and on 17 November units of the Italian Third Army entered Fiume. The Croatian authority was removed, and the city was governed by the Italian National Council under the protection of Italian troops. The dispute over Fiume became one of the most bitter issues at the Paris Peace Conference.