. -,

ADVENTURES WITH SPEEDBOATS

By COMMANDER G. PAGANO DI MELITO

Tiu baItk of 1M IIma1l agoi"'" 1M big ha.t alway. captured Imman imagitla.,ion. be it 1M "ruggle oj DaM tDilA GolWU4 or oj Y ~Ilu..,ne M inamoto tcilA tMgitJIlI &1aht-or oj the'iny 8pUdboaU ago"'" baUlullip6. 111 tJaw. lauer fWd. nooIMr tI/I"f ItM /U much ~"" /U 1M Italian. I' IDIJ. 'lie firM to adopt moIo,....,Iboal•• and i' «.ored~r 6UCCU8U both in 1M fir" and HCand JVorldWar.. OM member oj the nnall group oj fIIen who developed 'M ItpUdboat from atltao 10 on efJective inMrumenl oj wor. 'M avlllor oj Ille Jollowtng arlicle. w. a' p,._tltUlPiftg in Slttmgltai.

OOfMltOnd. Gennaro Pagono di M duo. fired by tM pen oj Gabriele d'Annumio• led by 008lamo OiallO (Ja'her oj 1M 1"ue,1l llal'or. l'orelgll Millilfkr). di8,einguWa«l "imllelJ duri'lf1 the fir'" lVorld War /U tM comma"dar oj 6tnal1 ..MAS"&oou agoiM lMga e_y naml uni,. and IraMporl veud6.

B__ oj 1li8 brillianl IDIJr canleT, Marqui8 Pagano di Melilo 1008 decorated"inc IinIu, He V'U6 aUo~ hDiu Jor didinguWted wor NrUiu. Af'er 'lie_r, O-..cmclar Pagculo di ,Melilo to/U afl101li1 1M fir.' 10 Join 1M Fcucw., moverne,,'and Mid very imporianl po8" ill Italy, He toM Ial6r appoinUd Italian 0_1.O...-ol in HOfIglrong and in 1m tro.t tratl6Jarrtd 10 Sltan,ltai in tile 4ICJtnlloapocity.-K.M.

SOCRATES, Strolling one day in the.... of Athens, stopped before the..., den of a famous Greek.... ud Mked him :

"IIcnr do you make the moat powerfulaf .,.. Iftrdal"

"I tI7 ............... the etrongeat01 my~ ..-n I '&ad QDe that pieroee1\"...ered the maD.

"ADd how do you mab ...~Ibieldt" 80aratea uked thea.

eel test many of them with my IItronpetnord until I find one whioh breab mynord."

'l'hiI subtle dialogue illustrates thedual uature of all W8I' implements whioh... uiIted ever since man wielded hislID weapoQ and which will persist for... OIl thia troublesome planet up to the... af manlrind.

OIl the -other hand, strategy and tacticsare peatIJ dependent on the develop-ment of war material and of armamentmVeDtioDe. Sometimes the oddest of Dewdevioee bring about unbelievable revolu-tioD8 in the art of W8I' and ov.erthrow alleetabliahed ideu and dogmaa laid downby the various lOhooJa of atrategy.

ThU8 the tactics of Austerlitz, Marengo,or Trafalgar would have resulted in disas-ter if employed in the battle8 of Tannen-berg or Jutland; just &8 twenty-five years-of intensified production and improve-ments in armored cars, bombers, andsubmarines have been quite enough to-render obsolete the strategies of these-latter victories. It is from this angle-that we shall discU88 the genesis anddevelopment of speedboats.

''IIAa''-Alf nUPPBOPBIATII HAMIlThe bela of the tint speedboats wW6'

laid down in 1915 in a small racing-eraftshipyard in Venice. The speedboat wasa natural oonsequence of the materializa-tion of submarine warfare with Otto-Weddigen's marvelous exploit of sinkingin thirty minutes the three British oruisenHogue, Cressy, and Aboukir off theFlemish coast. The speedboats were in-tended to counteract submarines. Hencethey were christened "MAS" (Moto8ca/o-Anti Sommergibile-Motorboats AgainstSubmarines), a name which still persists,though very inappropriate, as we shalldemonstrate later.

At the beginning they were designedfor attack, with even a torpedo tube-

THE XXth CENTURY

·being installed. But, as the stability ofthe boats was seriously endangered there-by, the idea was given up, and the boatswere only armed with a small gun andtwo machine guns of 6 10m caliber. They

.attained a maximum speed of 25 milesJler hour with a radius of 150 miles.

The first six boats were ready inFebruary 1916 and were sent to Brindisi.where the first MAS squadron was formed·under the command of two lieutenants.

The first acquaintance with the boats-was somewhat disheartening! Apart fromthe fact that everybody looked on themwith contempt, the two commanders of·the 1st Squadriglia MAS (I was one ofthem) were not proud of them. for, afterthe first week of trials. they had metwith only difficulties and failure.

The small gun was no Ulle. Onehundred rounds had been wasted on an·old oil drum left floating on the wavesoutside the mine barrage. without scoringa single hit. Aiming at any target waspractically impossible owing to the in-stability of the platform. Finally wehad to sink the damned thing by holingit with a boat hook! From the rampartsof a near-by coastal battery, a group oflazy gunners were enjoying the show.with bursts of mirth at every foul shot

-of oW'S I

BIDE AND SEEK

Another day, we were sent out topractise periscope scouting. A sub-marine. her commander a colleague ofours. had gone to a prearranged place.

.She was to lie in wait there, showing herperiscope from time to time, and wewere to rush at full speed to the spot inorder to show that we had detected her.Sho would thon submerge and move tosome other place and repeat the per-formance. After two hoW'S of strainingour eyes, we swore the man was foolingus. But-there was the submarine com-ing to the surface only thirty yardsaway. with an angry captain showing hisapoplectic face from the turret's coverand shouting at us to know if we weresleeping or what, or if we were makinga fool of him! He had been showing

his periscope twenty times only fiftyyards away; he could have counted thehairs on our siUy faces ... so ~e said!

Furthermore, it turned out that hehad detected our propellers with hishydrophone when we were five milesaway.

So we were able to establish from thevery first that our boats were at a greatdisadvantage against a submarine. Theexplanation was very simple. First, oureyes being hardly above sea level, ourvision was extremely limited and ourperspective practically nil. Secondly.the noise caused by our motors -andpropellers was such that no submarinecommander would ever be foolish enoughto expose his craft to our torpedoes ordepth charges. He would simply diveand remain submerged until he couldhear the enemy far away once more.

"After all. the name MAS is wellchoeen, .. said our colleague fro~. thesubmarine sarcastically when we methim at the officers' mess that night."Antisub~boats indeed! They willcertainly keep aU submarines away-fromthemselves'"

A DISCOVERY

But t-he faith of neophites was uponus, and at length, after interminablearguments and sleepless nights, a scheme.a mad scheme, materialized. We ·dis-covered that the speed boats were prac-ticaUy invi8ibk at night. In a mist t.heywere also almost invisible even in daytime. So we turned back to the idea oftorpedoes.

If the original scheme of a torpedotube for one torpedo had been discardedfor the sake of stability. we now solvedthe problem by planning to carry twotorpedoes on the sides of the boats in-stead of one on top. It turned out thatthe MAS could carry almost one ton ofweight on each side even in a moderatelyrough sea. Moreover, running the riakof capsizing the boat. we dropped theweight from one side only. going at fullspeed. . . and the boat did not capsize.We had at last discovered some positivequalities in our beloved boats.

ADVEN'l1JRE8 WITH SPEEDBOATS II.

Preeently we diacloeed the results ofour experiments to a commission ofscornful technicians. For every piece ofWithering opposition we bad a practicalanswer pat, and we won. After twomonthe, we eecured Admiral Cutinelli'spermi88ion for a test with real torpedoes.We wOl'ked like niggerB, day and night,together with ourJoyalsa.ilors and mechan-ics. We did not allow any outsider tomeddle with our work.

It W88 on April 20, 1916, that we firsttried launching a real torpedo. We triedit under every condition of speed andsea. The-trials were all successful!

ADMIRAL CAGNl'S BLESSING

Admiral Cutinelli had given up thecommand of Brindisi a fortnight beforefor the more important post of Com-mander of the Fleet. Admiral Cagni hadtaken his place.

It. is impossible to put into words thestrong fascination that Cagni's stem facebad for all of us. It was perhaps thenimbus of his glorious past that workedupon our imaginations. . . . I can onlyrelate that I felt as if my heart wouldjump into my throat when, half an hourbefore starting out upon our great ven-ture, he called Berardinelli and me intohis cabin aboard the flagship.

No, it was not the same face. It was·not the same voice. His eyes, fixed onus, had a strange softness that whollytraIIIformed the man. He said:

"The strength of your will power hasgiven you both the chance and the honorto aooomplish tonight a new ordeal inthe Dayal history of this war: the forcingof an enemy naval base with your smallboate. Believe me, my lads," he saidwith a melancholy smile, "I would gladly~ p1aces with you tonight. Fortune·wDl· certainly be at your side. She isDot the blindfolded woman some wouldhave lier; on the contrary she loves tofavor the brave. May God be with you!"

The following hours passed as in adream. We left Brindisi and were towedby two torpedo boats towards Durazzo,the Dyrrachium of ancient times which,

two thousand yean before, had 866n thegalleys of Julius Caesar and his legionsmarching to fight Pompey. Now theAustrians were there. They had eetab-lished at Durazzo a naval supply basefor their army operating against our posi-tions on the Vojussa and at Valona, thekey of the Adriatic.

TlIlll FIBST SUOOESS

It was pitch dark when the torpedoboats left us to our fate . . . .

We approached carefully at low speed.I knew the place very well. In fact, Iwas in command of our landing partywhen, six months before, we had had ourlast fight against the numerically superiorAustrian troop8 coming from Elbassan.I knew every detail of the coast, so wehad no difficulty in steering our coursefor Durazzo Roads and towards theharbor.

We were almost there when we detectedthe dark silhouettes of two enemy de-stroyers coming out from Durazzo. Weprepared to attack; but, alasI the twodestroyers disappeared at full speed inthe dark towards the open sea. So weresumed our former direction.

The boats glided noiselessly over thesmooth waters of the inner bay. Ashore,just ahead of us, a red light shone like 80ruby. Every minute seemed like anhour. We could already see the darkhulk of a Greek steamer sunk by Austriancruisers a year before, when lo! thereappeared, just in front of us, the blacksilhouette of a big steamer. Full speedahead! The boat jumped under ourfeet. FireI

My starboard torpedo flashed awaylike a strange wild sea devil taken by asudden fury. Its phosphorescent wakeran towards the middle of the doomedship. I could see a dark spout of sprayand sand bursting with a deep thudastern of the ship.

My torpedo·' No, impossible. It mustbe Berardinelli's. Long moments of sus-pen!l8 and then another terrible thud, a.gigantic column of water fanned out on

THE XX&b CENTURY

the side of our target jU8t under thefunnel ....

&reams, a dying whistle of agony,came from the sinking ship. The ipeedof my boat had brought me nearly along-side of her. I could hear the turmoil ofvoices, of escaping steam, of cries forhelp .... I still remember tJ:te ferocioussensation invading my breast-perhapsthe return of primeval instincts burstingthrough the vencer of my humanisticeducation....

DUELS ON JlOONLE88 NIOHTS

The attacks carried out by the 1stSquadriglia MAS were repeated everymont,h during the period of moonJe88nights up to the end of the year. Astrange duel took shape between theSquadriglia and the Durazzo defeIule.For every new device of the defenderswe thought up a new method of attack.The hills around Durazzo harbor werealive with searchlights and batteries,80 that the approach became more andmore difficult. We t.ried seven times,and only three times with poeiti"e result..

The last attack took place on thenight of November 3 of the same yearand was the most dramatic one. Playinghide-and-eeek with a powerful searchlightwhich scanned the sea. every ten minutes,and, by a miracle, escaping the observa-tion of six batteries, we managed toapproach the obstructions sheltering alarge transport.

Unfortunately my colleague, Berardinel-li, had left the MAS service for reasons ofhcalth. So I found m)'self alone andconfronted with a very critical situation.I could not launch my torpedoes becauseI knew, from an air observation of thesame day, that 8 barrage net protectedthe steamer. So I had to run the riskof entangling my propt"llers in the bar-rage net, over which I had to drive halfof my boat in order to launch my tor-pedoes inside.

But the enemy had heard the buzzingof our motors, and a very fast tugboat,heavily armed with quick-firing guns

and machine guns, had approached thebarrage on the other aide of the steamer.They saw the other MAS which, at thecrucial moment, had dropped behindsome fifty meters and opened fire on. itjust when I was on the barrage. Ilaunched my torpedoes while the alamlwas spreading aU around. Searchlightswere lighted and turned on us from thosurrounding hills. I disentangled theboat and turned tail at full speed, con-vinced that both my torpedoes had ex-ploded against the side of the steamer.AIa8, after the war it turned out that,on aocount of the shallow water, theyhad exploded again8t the bottom thirtymeters from the target! (Torpedoes inthe first phase of their course describe acurve about ten or twelve meters deep,to resume, as 800n 88 they are at fullspeed, the depth regulated in advance.)

BA'1'TLK 01' WlT8

All this time we ourselves as well asthe defenders of Durau.o were accumula-ting experience; yet I must acknowledgethat we were the loeers in that silentbattle of wits.

We had acquired a strange sense ofinvulnerability as far as onemy gunfirewas concerned. But we felt a greatrespect for their observation poets andtheir searchlights. We made experimentsand discovered that it was the foam ofour wake, even when moving at a verymoderate speed, that betrayed us to thesearchlights. But the chief drawbackwas the noise of our motors, which, instill air or in a carrying breeze, was audibleat a considerable distance.

Followed interminable arguments andspeculation. In the meantime, fifty newboats were under construction, and wehad to run here and there during full·moon periods to the difJenmt shipyards.From all these discussions great improve-ments resulted which were tested in adaring attack in the Fasana Channel, onthe out.skirts of Pola, the famous enemybase in the northern Adriatic.

Lieutenant Commander lldebrandoGoiran on the night of November 2 of

ALH.MXJlES \n'JB S}'IFDEOA'IS

the;.88IDe }'ear, 1916, entered the channelwith'. a MAS equipped for the first timewith,·e1ectric moton and, after cunningad. v.ery difficult 'and dangerous maneu-vering: !managed to launch two torpedoes., the old battle8hip Hau. But she hada. ~double protection of nets, and thetorpedoes were ltopped. The Durazzomonona had taught the enemy some~ )" indeed!8~..~

'eOft.dZO CIANO AND LUIGI RIZZO• 1- •

, .. January· 1917 the whole FlotillaJIA8 had been placed under the commandof a ·fir.eto:el&81 sailor and man of adion,Oom-aader Costanzo Ciano, the father of~ ~nt Italian Minister of Foreign_•.

It"';'81 under his personal commandthat, on the morning of November 17,191'1, It. detachment of three MAS at-tacked in full daylight a formation oftwo battleships and ten torpedo boatswbkh were bombarding our positions atCortelIazzo at the mouth of the riverPJ&'ge. . The MAS were sighted, and theymft with a hail of sheJls of all calibenfrom lhe twelve enemy units. Neverthe-leII, they managed to approach andlaunch their torpedoes, but no damageW88 done because the enemy had sufficienttime to turn tail and avoid them.

It W&l on account of this gallant actthat His Majesty the King later bestowedon Co8tanzo Ciano the title of Count ofCortellazzo.

SOme weeks later, on the night of~ber 9/10, one of our comrades,L~~ Ri7.zo, suddenly leaped into theJimeHght of courage and fame.

With his two MAS, equipped with a8p.Iaial donee for cutting submarine wirefOP!!' ed nets, he had the pluck and~ to force a passage between theoaW breakwaters of Muggia (Trieste)aDd toJpedo and link the Austrian battle-ship Wn: Furthermore, machine-gun-ning'wi group of eentries at the head ofthe breakwaters. he W8I able to regaintlte ,open sea and get safely back toVenice with hie t:wo boats unseathedl

A DETAIL 18 OVERLOOKED

The name of C08tanzo Ciano came tothe fore again when, on the night ofFebrua.ry 10111, 1918, he brought threemotorboats to the end of the small bayof Buccari, the remotest recess of theFiume Road~, with the object of tor-pedoing some ships and perhap!l themen-of-war lying at anchor there.

The great difficulty of this action layin the fact that the three MAS had tocover almost fifty miles of narrow chan-nels guarded by the Pola naval base attheir entrance. Even if they were luckyenough to succeed in entering, they would,as a result of the subsequent alarm, almostcertainly find the whole fleet of enemydestroyers on their way. But the will toemulate Rizzo's exploit was too strongin us: all prudent conaiderations were putaBide. I say "us" because I personally,together with my unforgettable com-mander Ciano, attended to the prepara-tion of every detail of the action.

We were to use new motorboats witha speed of 32 miles an hour. For thefirst time the three boats were takenfrom the Leghorn shipyard to Veniceby rail. It was a new experiment; per-haps it has inspired the method usednowadays of transporting motorboats byrail from Italy to Lake Ladoga and tothe Black Sea, with the telling resultsthe world has seen. The invariablypessimistic horoscopes of "experts" (MayGod preserve us in war time from ex-pertsl) were given the lie when the threeboats reached Venice in two days withoutsuffering any damage and were ready foraction during the approaching moonlessnights.

How and why I could not partieipatein the action is another story, as Kiplingueed to say. The fact is that everythingwent like clockwork, except for a detailthat was overlooked by all. The prac-tical result was nil because the torpedoesdid not explodel The bitter disappoint-ment of that memorable night taught usan invaluable Jesson, whit'h was: Neverundertake any war operat.ion unlclI the

THE XX~ OBNTURY.

man appointed for the preparation of itis there to participaw in person.

"MAS" AND POETRY

The poet Gabriele d'Annunzio hadjoined Commander Ciano's crew on thenight of Buccari. He wrote a wonderfullittle book on the action, 1A Be//aBuccari, and compoeed a poem whichrenders in a powerful and moving waythe soul of our unforgettable crews.The poet also composed the motto 80dear to the whole MAS brotherhood:Memento .41ukre Semper ("Remember todare all the time"). He also composedthe Latin distich of the new moon.(We of the MAS hated the full moonbecaU8C moonlight spoilt our trump card,that of being practically invi8ible atnight.) The distich runs :

" Tibi cornua nigrucunlNobill arma dum clart8Cunl,"

which means:

While thy horns blackenOur weapons sharpen.

The book enjoJooo great popularityamong the Italian public, whioh knewlittle or nothing about our boats. Sothe participants in the Buccari exploitattained the fame they 80 well deeerrednotwithstanding their bad luck.

After the sinking of the Wien and theaction at Buccari, there was a long spellbefore another occasion was offered theMAS to attack enemy units.

The new Commander in Chief of theAustrian Navy was a very shrewd andable man. The forcing of minor bases orharbors was now out of the qUe8tion.Defenses had been reinforced to suoh adegree that our Staff decided to changetactics; henceforth the MAS were employedfor nocturnal ambushes in the narrowchannels along the Dalmatian coast or onthe approaches to the Albanian ports.

WIlAT IS LUOK t

Is there such a thing as luck in war1I do not believe it. U Fortune is reallythat fickle and blindfolded deity of theold myth, you cannot expect her to favor

you unless you force a passage and placeyourself within her reach. So, in theend. Fortune is nothing but the will .tosucceed. (My friend d'Annunzio;UIed togive a more daring definition. He saidthat Fortune was a strong, voluptuous,and fickle woman, and that such womencould only be won by force.)

Because of this difference of opinion, Ishall explain why the chance of meetingone night an enemy forniation of twodestroyers escorting a big liner loadedwith troope and war materials had t.()come just to Ole.

I was called one day to BrindhJi t.()eecort two monitors to Valona. It was aboring business indeed, but orders areorders, even if they are ~iUJ' OI·d(,rs. SoI left my bride (I had got married shortlybefore) and went to Brindisi. There Ifound that the monitors needed someengine repairs. Be8idee, the commanderof the MAS squadron there had an attackof malaria. It was new moon. WouldI oblige the MAS commander and takehis place in an ambush outside Durazz01

Ambushes on Durazzo were a dailyroutine. Every dark, moonless night, twoMAS went there and came back nextmorning, having wasted four tons ofgood gasoline for nothing. The Austriansnow navigated only by day, with naval andair escorts. We considered ambushes overthere as a fixed idea of our Chief of Staff!

So we went to Durazzo with two first-class boats of my new model. On theother MAS was my second-in-command,Lieutenant Mario Azzi, a splendid man,who, together with me, had plaoped anattack on the na,ral base ot.Cattaro. tI'heorders were to stop two lIlilee oft •CapeDurazzo, and we stopped there. !Jutafter one hour I could not resist ·thetemptation to proceed into the bay.We arrived unseen at a point fiv~ hundredmeters from the barrages. We couldplainlJ' 800 the shipe sunk by us the yearbefore. No new target inside the bar-rages; 80, rather disappointed, we turnedback again.

At this instant, the unbelievable hap-pened. A signal station on the hill

ADVENTIJRES WITH SPEEDBOATS 27

1It.arted to fluh a message. It wuobvious that they were not conversingwith u.. I looked towards the open sea,and 101 there was another light blinkingin anawer.

And 80 it happened that the convoycame in and pa88ed right under ournoeee. We attacked- at full speed half 8mile from the base and sank a big liner,the IJre,eu. loaded with troops, guns, andaIIlIInIDition. and heavily damaged aIIIIAIl destroyer, the DuHa. Six hundred-..Jties, and an enormous moral etIectwhic;h told heavily on th(' whole ellE'myorpaiution in Albania.

'lwo nights after the sinking of thc~, we approached her huU, which..wed her decks above "'ater by ameter or two. The sea was very fmooth.We laW eomethiDg dark floating on onoof the holds. We caught it "'ith our boathoob. It was a bale of very good woollenblaDketll. Two of these blankets havekept me wum in winter ever sIDrc, and., are Itill on my bed here in Shanghai!

JUDO 800BES AOAm

..~ J.eIond comrade Luigi Rizzoal-. WDt ODe betterl ODe monthlater, on J1me 10, .. attaeked a formationof. two A1IItriaD "dnoughts and six~_ at dawn with hia two boat•.EveI'}'t.hiDg was agaiDlt him. But Rizzodelec1 the-impoeeible. Be coolly passedthe ICJ'een of protection of the two men-of-war and Bent his two torpt'does intothe hull of the Sunt 181u;Q'Il. Closely~~ed by a destroyer, he dropped adepth charge which exploded just beneathtile pursuing boat. And so he dis-appeared into the twili@ht of morning andJeMIaed Ancona l!8fely.

TINt whole naval world ,,'u upset bytJae rMult of Riuo's action, and themoral ••eet on the AUBtrian Fleet W88 ahuadnafoJd greater than on any otheroocuIbD. It may be a88erted that fromthat day revolt spread in the AustrianNavy and the AUBtrian Suprt'me Com-mand Joet control over its crews. Afterthat.- events mewed fatally towards theA1I8t,riaD debacle of November 1918.

SOCRATES ~D TilE OERMAN NAVY

After Versailles it 800n became ap-parent that this so-calIed peace W88nothing but the v ip

THE XXtb OENTURY

The idea of AlAS-carrier- hiJl8 resultedin endless SWlments for Costanzo Cianoafter the war when he, a highly efficientKinis~r of CommunicatioD8 in Italy.never forgot his beloved MAS. But hehad no influence on .naval decisions.The war WlUl a put ordl'al, and thefamaUl "theoretical expert"," kept a jeal-OUI watch that nobody might interferewith their lucuhrations.

worthiness of its speedboats. even in therough ",a~ of the North Sea and theEnglish Channel, the German Navy builtthem much larger than any other nationhas done 80 far. As a result, the speed-boats can fire their torpedoo:; accurat~lyin winds blowing up to n-Iocity o.

Geml8n speedboats wert.' first spokenof in connection with thl> Illst phase ofDunkiJok. A year agu it wa!' all'cadyannounced tbat the greater part of thethree million ton~ sunk by G("nnan surfacevessels was ac

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