Italians occupy Pelagosa

On 11 July 1915 a detachment of Italian sailors landed on Pelagosa, in Croatian Palagruža, a group of small rocky islands in the very middle of the Adriatic. Six Austrian lighthouse keepers, the island’s only inhabitants, were taken prisoner. The Italians set up an observation post and a signal station there. The British chronology of the war records the occupation of Pelagosa under 26 July, but the Italian navy and Italian historians agree in dating the landing to 11 July, and that is the date we use.

Pelagosa belonged to Austria-Hungary, although it lies closer to Italy than to the Dalmatian coast, roughly halfway between the Gargano peninsula and the island of Lastovo, in Italian Lagosta. On the main island, Vela Palagruža, there was only a lighthouse with a few buildings. The Italians had been there once before, on 24 May, on the first day of the war, but found no one and left after a few hours. Now they wanted to stay longer. The command in Brindisi was looking among the enemy’s islands for a point from which the movements of Austro-Hungarian warships leaving the Bay of Kotor and Sebenico could be watched, and which could serve as a forward base for submarines.

The expedition was commanded by Rear-Admiral Enrico Millo in the scout cruiser Marsala. The landing party was carried by the auxiliary cruiser Città di Palermo, and it was escorted by Italian and French destroyers and torpedo boats as well as submarines. The armoured cruisers Giuseppe Garibaldi and Varese provided distant cover. According to various sources 80 or 90 sailors went ashore under Sub-Lieutenant Alberto Da Zara, who became an admiral in the next war. The landing took place without a fight, at two points on the island. The ships returned to Brindisi, leaving behind a garrison and the submarine Velella, which was to patrol the surrounding waters.

The Austrians had no intention of giving up the island without a fight. As early as 13 July, according to Italian sources, their ships shelled Pelagosa. The Italians had to bring water, food and ammunition to the bare rock, and every convoy from Italy was exposed to submarine attack, as the sinking of the cruiser Amalfi a few days earlier had shown. At the end of July Austro-Hungarian cruisers and destroyers tried to retake the island, but the garrison’s fire forced the landing party to withdraw. In August the Italian submarine Nereide was torpedoed and sunk off Pelagosa, and in the second half of the month the Italians, after another bombardment, withdrew from the island, which they were unable to supply.